Ferrari - the death of 'brand credibility'

[g3org3y]

Prompted by my return from Japan yesterday. We had a connecting flight in Rome and as such a hour or so to waste loitering around duty free.

Among the typical booze/fags and pricey designer bags I stumbled across a Ferrari shop. At first, I was quite excited as they had rather nice V10 engine in the shop window which of course required further investigation/drooling over.

After the initial novelty of that wore off I became aware of my surroundings and was staggered to see the amount of Ferrari branded tat you can buy.

- A packet of 6 Ferrari pencils (and I genuinely mean normal HB type pencils but with a Ferrari logo) - 18 Euros
- Ferrari imitation carbon fibre iPhone case - 28 Euros
- Various clothes, teddies and toys etc.
- Baby clothes, baby bibs, baby plates

In a way, I can perhaps understand the market appeal for this (what else would PHers wear to Sunday Service!?) however my apathy changed to disbelief when I saw this:

advertising said:

Both Kaspersky Lab and Scuderia Ferrari cherish technical excellence, high performance and safety and are excited to bring you Kaspersky Internet Security Special Ferrari Edition. It has everything you need to enjoy the ride and stay safe at all times while surfing the web - whether you work, bank, shop or play online… and there’s more! We’ve included the Ferrari Virtual Academy video simulator for your PC, which puts you in the driver’s seat of an ultra-realistic virtual Ferrari F10 and lets you push the racing car to its limits around Scuderia Ferrari’s famous Fiorano test track as often as you like.

More info here.

My initial response was of course an internet meme:


Which on realising they were serious changed to: What the shuddering fk?

I understand that the Ferrari brand is more about the cars but surely this is one step too far.

Any other examples of car branded ubertat out there?

[Pints]

Presumably something to do with keeping up their side of sponsorship deals.
There have been Acer Ferrari laptops too. I assume Kaspersky are a sponsor.

[AlpineWhite]

Merchandise is a massive income source for Ferrari. Huge.

[Benbay001]

Am i doing it right?

[anonymous-user]

AlpineWhite said:

Merchandise is a massive income source for Ferrari. Huge.

I think I heard that it's more than 50% of their profit.

[toppstuff]

Totally agree.

I hate it. All this tat devalues the brand.

[Dave Hedgehog]

Ferrari have been whoring the brand for some time along with tactics that Monkey pointed they use for rigging car reviews means i lost interest in them

and I am sure they are gutted

anyway Pagani blows them out of the water

[g3org3y]

MSTRBKR said:

AlpineWhite said:

Merchandise is a massive income source for Ferrari. Huge.

I think I heard that it's more than 50% of their profit.

Given the amount of stuff they had in there, perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised!

[Vitorio]

Ah yes, the Ferrari store at Da Vinci international airport, that was odd indeed. Spent some time considering a nice polo-shirt or a nice model-car, but unfortunately Ferrari knows exactly how much they can squeeze idiots for, especially at the airport.

Ferrari's brand credibility pretty much snapped in half when they partnered with Acer for laptops though, if there is any brand known for cheap stty low end laptops...

[Fartgalen]

The MIL - since she knows I'm into cars - bought me Ferrari aftershave and Deo as a birthday present.
The aftershave was quite nice actually. Made the drains smell a lot better.

[v8will]

toppstuff said:

Totally agree.

I hate it. All this tat devalues the brand.

Ferrari don't seem to think so.

If any manufacturer can make a few quid from merchandise then so be it. I don't expect to see the Hyundai branded jacket/laptop/zippo lighter getting paraded too soon though.

Perhaps the fact that Ferrari can do this makes the brand more credible in some half arsed way?

[baz1985]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Abu Dhabi investment company Mubadala also owns a significant % of Ferrari (or at least it did).

[xRIEx]

Now if they had something of this sort of calibre, I'd be impressed

[SturdyHSV]

Fartgalen said:

The MIL - since she knows I'm into cars - bought me Ferrari aftershave and Deo as a birthday present.
The aftershave was quite nice actually. Made the drains smell a lot better.

[The Wookie]

toppstuff said:

Totally agree.

I hate it. All this tat devalues the brand.

The cars brought the tat, now sadly the tat brings the cars

[Ari]

Was at Malaga airport at the weekend, there's one there too. Had exactly this conversation with the girlfriend about how it devalues the brand, but I guess if people that actually buy the cars aren't bothered, why should Ferrari care? They're a business after all.

One thing is for sure, when you spot someone wearing Ferrari branded clothing anywhere other than a car event, its a sure sign you're looking at someone who doesn't own a Ferrari!

[bakerstreet]

I own a Ferrari polo shirt which I bought at the end of 2000. To date its the most expensive t-shirt I own and despite several years of wear and god knows how many washes, it still looks fantastic. I'd never buy another one though. It was £50 AT the time the equivalent Aston Martin one was about £65!

I

[Vilhelm]

Ferrari are a business, and this generates a lot of money.

I don't like Ferrari.

[mcbook]

All this talk of companies "devaluing the brand" is nonsense in my opinion.

Are customers turning away from car purchases because they saw an overpriced Ferrari watering can for sale at London Luton? I don't think so. Ferrari are selling more new cars than ever before.

The only people who are worried about this are the ones who were never going to buy a Ferrari yet still have some weird sense of ownership of the brand.

[lombardo8]

mcbook said:

All this talk of companies "devaluing the brand" is nonsense in my opinion.

Are customers turning away from car purchases because they saw an overpriced Ferrari watering can for sale at London Luton? I don't think so. Ferrari are selling more new cars than ever before.

The only people who are worried about this are the ones who were never going to buy a Ferrari yet still have some weird sense of ownership of the brand.

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