Chapter 10 Product Concepts

A Porsche 911 would be considered a Specialty Product. It is a sports car that serves a dual purpose; it can be used on a race track as well as a daily car without sacrificing too much utility in either segment. This dual utility is what makes the 911 a great car, and very hard to substitute. 

Porsche has a wide product mix that stretches from the small two seat convertible Boxster, all the way to the full size family SUV, the Cayenne. Porsche is keen to fill in each of their product items with a deep product line. Porsche does this in order to cater to the different types of customers that may be looking into purchasing one of their product items. For example Porsche offers the standard 911 Carrera, a 911 Carrera S, a 911 GTS, a 911 Cabriolet, a 911 Cabriolet S , a 911 Cabriolet GTS. They then proceed to offer a four wheel drive option for each of these cars. After that there is the 911 Targa and Targa S models, the 911 Turbo, Turbo S, Turbo Cabriolet and Turbo Cabriolet S. Finally the last two options for Porsche 911 buyers are the 50th Anniversary Edition and the GT3. Porsche is rumored to be adding two more cars to the 911 product line very soon. The GT3 RS and a 911 that uses Porsche's new E-Hybrid systems. Porsche also is known for having and even more convoluted options list that is notorious for adding an extra thirty thousand dollars to the car's sticker price.

When Porsche launched the Boxster in 1996 it used alot of the components from the 911. Things like the doors, headlights and wing mirrors were parts all borrowed from the 911. This continued up until recently when Porsche redesigned their Product mix, they decided it was time for the Boxster and the Cayman to have more bespoke components.

When Porsche launched the 991 911 GT3, They sold it with a 10,000 mile warranty. This was unheard of for a car of this type. A car that was made to be thrashed on a racetrack. One of the cars best features is its engine. A new engine that Porsche originally designed for their race cars, that revs to 9,000 rpm. Porsche had to make sure that every component was able to withstand the strains of running at 9,000 rpm. When the early engines did fail, Porsche honored their warranty, albeit much soon than they'd hope they would have too. But the fact that a warranty like that was offered by Porsche shows how much faith they have in their engineering teams and how confident they are in the cars that they produce.