Porsche: The Cayenne Launch

Case: Porsche: The Cayenne Launch

Assigned Question: In what ways has the launch of Cayenne changed the meaning of the Porsche brand?

Porsche has always been known for being the premium car brand that is notorious for sporty, luxury and expensive car lineup. In the past decade, Porsche has changed its brand image and routed a new course of automobile lineup. This change in company positioning has many of them loyal customer upset. The sporty, loyal, and long term Porsche owners were not receptive to the launch of the Porsche. Many saw the luxury sports brand being tarnished by carrying a SUV in the lineup. The Porsche consumer base is narrowly segmented and mainly addresses older, white males, and wealthy customers who feel the need for speed and sportiness. The overall consumer has voiced their displeasure online, offline and some have decided to abandon the brand.

Porsche has strategically altered and expanded their consumer base by offering a SUV. The allows the company to market to a larger audience during a time of SUV mass expansion. At the time, gas prices were lower and customer saw buying a SUV as a family transit problem solution. The number of sales in the past few years has doubled and doesn’t show any sign of decreasing. The company only seeks long term growth by marketing to a wider audience.

Many of the loyal owners that were on the verge of leaving the brand have decided to accept the new SUV concept and welcome the SUV owners to the club. To me, this demonstrates that people do not initially like change, but are able to rationalize and set aside the differences as time goes on. These consumers seem self-absorbed and acted unjustifiably out of self-pity. Porsche may have consciously or not turned over a progressive leaf and opted to take on a risky endeavor. The company wanted to capitalize on the growing share of SUVs on the road. The company decided