Chapter 16 Advertising Public Relations, and Sales Promotion

Porsche's advertising objective for the 911 has been the same since its introduction 50 years ago. They market the 911 as the practical sports car. While the practicality and the performance are reasons for buying the car, another reason is its exclusivity. The fact that not everyone can afford it puts the car in a category reserved for the most desirable sports cars in the world. Porsche is in a unique position with the 911. They have already developed a name for the car, a successful racing career and a trust with the general public in regards to the performance, safety and reliability. Porsche now spends most of its advertising budget on keeping customers aware of the car.

Porsche has a few mediums both direct and indirectly of advertising to their customers. They regularly sponsor and compete in racing events all over the world. From the 24 Hours of La Mans and the 12 Hours of Sebring to smaller touring car events like the Grand-Am and American Le Mans. Porsche holds special press day meetings when releasing new cars, so that automotive journalists can get a chance to drive the car early and give a review of it. They sometimes even send the magazines one of their cars to use over a period of time and give an impression of what the car is like to live with. These review scores given by the journalist can greatly impact how well the car sells in the region. Porsche also does paid advertising in magazines and on the internet.

Recently Porsche has had an issue with public relations. When they started selling the 991 GT3, they began receiving reports of the engine catching fire and destroying the car. Porsche recalled all of the 785 units they had sold to that point. They were forced to stop production, fix the problem which was caused by a faulty screw in a connecting rod and replace every engine. They were then accused of not being fair by UK GT3 owners since customers in the UK received less compensation than their counter parts in other regions. Even though these problems are not uncommon with new car launches, for example Ferrari had an issue with the 458 Italia were the glue in the wheel arches would catch on fire and destroy the car, Porsche is expected by the public to be better than every other sports car maker. It is an unrealistic expectation but nevertheless it is one that the engineers in Stuttgart will undoubtedly try to live up to.