In the luxury performance car market McLaren, despite being young, has already distinguished itself for producing some of the cars with the most alien and imposing presence, which often translates to performance as well. This is thanks to the state-of-the-art engineering work done in Woking where, every line, vent, and winglet has a specific aerodynamic purpose and, at McLaren, they rightfully never forget to remind us. Their marketing strategy expresses perfectly the value of ‘Form Follows Function’ that the company embodies.

Looking at the vehicles’ characteristics some might say it really seems like ‘Rocket Science’. Well, McLaren took it literally. So, who better than an actual Rocket Scientist could convey the value and the achievements of the work done on one of these cars?

The model is 720S. Since its presentation at the International Auto Show in Geneva it gained praises by the automotive world thanks to its innovative technical solutions and performance capabilities considered the top of its segment and even comparable to much more expensive limited series. Even though there are no official numbers from McLaren, the company, in fact, claims the 720S to be one of the major contributors to its huge jump in sales in 2018 along with the 570S Spider (both unveiled in 2017). From two fairly stable years, 2016 with 3,286 units sold, and 2017 with 3,340, 2018 instead saw a 45.6 per cent increase up to 4,863 units.

THE MARKETING STRATEGY

The video published a while back on McLaren’s Channel is a noteworthy example of how to market a model in a different and innovative way.

The trend across the majority of manufacturers’ channels is to publish videos that vary from 50 seconds to 2 minutes with no comments and where the car is shown in very cinematographic shots either standing still or driving along some beautiful road.

Here instead, Ph.D. Ryan W. Conversano starts the video referencing a rearranged version of Newton’s Second Law of Motion: Acceleration = Force/Mass. The decision to use each element of the equation to describe the car’s characteristics while relating them to real rocket science is a smart one. It allows McLaren to showcase its engineering and aerodynamics innovation as it would happen in a review video, but with some additional values.

Of course, a normal review on a car manufacturer’s channel, even if truthful, would be perceived as biased. This way instead, McLaren showcase the 720S only indirectly, and by doing so it adds also some interesting and quite surprising notions (always explained in common people’s language luckily), and most importantly it once again ties its brand and message to an idea of extreme technological development. One that sets the company apart from all its competitors.

WHERE AND HOW THE STRATEGY IS SUCCESSFUL?

This marketing message is in fact consistent over time, well-targeted to McLaren’s client base, and overall successful so far.

Consistent because the same kind of communication has been chosen already in the past throughout social media. The video below, though quite different from the previous one because shorter and without any talking in it, uses the same way of indirectly (in this case there is not even the actual car in the video) showcasing a vehicle’s characteristic, here aerodynamics.

As mentioned, this type of communication going beyond the ‘simple’ aesthetics or a mere didactic list of performance numbers seems to cater well to McLaren enthusiasts as much as the concept of function and performance above form.

In terms of views on McLaren’s channel, the two videos are respectively 62nd and 35th out of 282. Longer videos though get on average fewer views, and as standard for several manufacturers’ online automotive marketing, the majority of content is fairly short, between 1 and 4 minutes. The ‘Science of Speed’video despite being 7 minutes long ranks 6th out of 32 videos above 5 minutes in length. The threshold has been selected because of a noticeable drop in the number of views for videos over 5 minutes which are also much fewer overall as shown in the graph below.

MCLAREN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL - NUMBER OF VIEWS VS. VIDEOS LENGTH

Three videos are not included as the high number of views would squeeze the rest of the data on the lower side of the graph. Two fit the trend while the third is the only exception, respectively at 1:04, 0:41, and 5:28 of length and with 4.1, 1.9, and 1.6 million views. It must be said though that despite the trend the statistical correlation is not as strong as it might look considering the quantity difference between ‘short’ and ‘long’ videos. The remaining 250 are all between 10 seconds and just less than 5 minutes. The result indicates a good level of interest overall by McLaren’s audience, even more, if it is considered that both the videos have been published a while back, especially the ‘McLaren Vs Aerodynamic – The Next Chapter’ one which is much shorter but was published back in 2012, to introduce the Hypercar P1 to an arguably way smaller audience.

Finally, McLaren’s focus on performance over style looks also well-targeted for its customer base as proved by a survey I conducted among 244 luxury car owners. Respondents had to indicate on a scale from 1 to 10 the importance of different factors in their purchase decision, namely price, brand, performance, design, company’s robustness, model’s rarity, and personalisation options. McLaren’s buyers on average scored the Performance factor higher than what all the other brands’ owners gave as a reason for choosing a specific car.

IMPORTANCE OF PERFORMANCE FACTOR IN THE CAR PURCHASE DECISION BY BRAND (SCALE 1-10)

TO CONCLUDE…

Overall, the videos, are just two examples (among several) of luxury performance automotive marketing online with an interesting and innovative approach. While every car company has its own specific focus on online marketing, the contents often overlap consistently. McLaren instead does it in a different way showing in various instances originality that not only helps set it apart from the competition but also aligns well with what clients and prospects are expecting from the brand.

In 2019, Ferrari and McLaren both launched two new models that expanded their respective lineup and market coverage. The Roma and the GT, which especially for McLaren Automotive represents a totally new segment, aim at competing with models such as 911, Vantage, or DB11 looking at the pricing, and generally more luxurious grand tourers. It is no coincidence then that as of now (I doubt it will last long), when searching for ‘Ferrari Roma’ on Google it is actually the Bentley Continental GT that comes up at the top of the ranking (image below). The house of Maranello, in fact, quotes Bentley along with BMW, Mercedes, Aston Martin, and Rolls-Royce among its competitors for the new model.

Also, GT and Roma preserve a strong component of sportiness, confirmed not only by the early reviews but well-highlighted by the manufacturers themselves in their marketing strategies. While the other brands’ models despite having a similar power output market their models more as pure luxury cars. Such a difference is also evident in the interiors where Bentley, Mercedes, and Rolls-Royce focus much more on the super-luxury in every small detail. This does not mean that Ferrari or McLaren display an inferior quality level, but once again the sporty heritage is still present and visible in both these new models. Their competition with these will arguably be mainly against Aston Martin (as well as with each other of course), but it is still a new niche for both the brands.

SIMILAR STRATEGIES, DIFFERENT OBJECTIVES

If the target looks similar though, the objective might not be the same. Both the brands have registered a continued growth for quite a few years in a market that differently from the mass automotive market experienced consistent growth as well for the majority of the low-volume luxury performance car manufacturers.

In 2018, Ferrari and McLaren reached record deliveries in their history with 9,251 and 4,829. Ferrari exceeded that record in 2019, surpassing the 10,000 vehicles mark at 10,131 units. Data for McLaren’s full-year are not available yet, and despite the further financial growth with 19 per cent more revenues, up to Q3 sales figures, momentum seemed to falter with a decrease of 4.5 per cent, from 3,463 to 3,306. The house of Woking is aiming with its Track25 plan at reaching 6,000 units sales by 2025, and despite the quarterly slowdown, they expect sales to be in line with 2018. So, without a huge jump in sales or even with a slight decrease, they are not far from their mark. Considering that low-volume manufacturers often deliberately limit their sales number (something that Ferrari did in the past) to maintain their status within the industry and their exclusivity, the Roma looks like a diversification aimed at offering a more understated and luxury-oriented option to surprise and retain customers more than increasing the sales figures massively. McLaren on the other hand so far has been only focused on high-performance sports and supercars. The expansion toward a more daily-drivable car could prove the trump card to reach their strategic goals like happened for other manufacturers in this space such as Ferrari itself, Aston, and Lamborghini.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER SIMILARITIES?

Ferrari and McLaren both have a unique marketing channel which is the first that comes to mind when someone mention their names, and no one else in this market has (so far). A Formula 1 team. But there are indeed a few more, strictly related to the automotive business. The first is the release of two limited edition highly exclusive speedsters. On Ferrari’s side, the Monza SP1 and SP2 (one and two-seater) on McLaren’s the Elva. Both cars are extremely limited, 499 units the Ferrari, 399 the McLaren, with similar power output around 800 bhp and similar price, £1.4 and £1.6 million respectively (before options). Both flagships also pay tribute to the classics of the two manufacturers. The Monza part of the Icona series celebrates Ferrari’s most iconic classics like 250 Testa Rossa and 750 Monza. The Elva recalls classic open-top race cars conceived by Bruce McLaren in the 60s and outsourced at the time to the British manufacturer Elva.

Ferrari Monza SP2 (left) - McLaren Elva (right)

 

The second, at least for the time being, is that both the companies do not have an SUV in their lineup. The vehicle that has completely changed the game for almost all the other players in the segment, and on which Aston Martin that just released its own is relying to save the day.

It is known by now though that Ferrari is just ‘late’ but developing a vehicle called ‘Purosangue’ that will come in 2021 and will supposedly be an SUV. While Ferrari does not explicitly call it like that, it implies a new ‘body shape’ mentioning its future technical challenges with a new architecture. McLaren instead, up until now explicitly claimed they are not going to build one. The reasons are several, from an already crowded segment to the difficulties for a ‘small’ low-volume manufacturer to develop an entirely new platform both in terms of time, due also to lack of expertise, and financial resources, up to the difficulties of remaining true to the brand values.

 

These are probably also the reasons why it took Ferrari longer than other brands to enter the segment. Company values, resources, and time. First of all, the brand is one of the most important assets that these companies have. As it demonstrates a survey conducted among luxury performance car owners about the factors affecting their purchasing decision (Table below).

Survey involving 243 Luxury Performance car owners from the US, Europe, and Asia.

In each age group, on a scale from 1 to 10, the Brand is firmly marked as the third (and second for 25-35 age group) most important factor for the purchase decision. This analysis reflects also a changing luxury market trend by highlighting how for younger generations the Brand is gaining even more importance.

Secondly, for the firms under the VW umbrella, an SUV was a much different challenge as for instance both Lamborghini and Bentley’s models were based on Audi’s platforms. Aston Martin in its marketing, instead, highlighted numerous times how long it took for them to develop a completely new platform just for the DBX, which according to them will also be one of the keys to their success. A development process that could relate to that of Ferrari’s Purosangue.

IN CONCLUSION

The two companies in this market segment that have the most in common, starting from their important Formula1 heritage, have been developing product strategies with different similarities, and both successful even though with different rates (McLaren Automotive is effectively just a 10-year-old company after all).

For the future, considering a likely high sales figure for Maranello’s SUV, if the trend continues, it will be interesting to see if Ferrari will again voluntarily limit its sales that, at the current market condition, could easily reach the 2,000 units, or adopt any strategy to preserve the brand exclusivity. As for McLaren, is not certain yet if they plan to hit their Track25 plan marks with the current lineup or further diversify, and if so, in which direction.

Finally, it must be noted that regardless of any strategy, the consistent risk for disruption caused by the Coronavirus, especially with regards to the Chinese market, is affecting and will likely keep affecting both the manufacturers’ supply chain and sales performance for 2020.