We should start answering this question by a wider one: what
is a car for a human being?
Cars are considered as one of the major technological
inventions. They are part of our occidental way of life: in France, 81.7% of
families possess car and 34.5% possess 2 or more cars (Insee 2011); in the USA,
there is around 300 million cars (US Bureau of Transit Statistics for 2004 :
250 million registered cars with approximately 16 million new car sold each
year). Of course, a car is a mean to go from one point to another. But is not
it more than that? Could we really compare –apart from the technological aspect–
a car to a bike or a city bus? What is really our car to us?
Psychologists agree on the fact that a car is often a
projection of ourselves. Indeed, people really have a special relationship to
their car compared to other objects: they drive it mostly every day, control
it, take care of it… Buying a first car is also an important step in someone’s
life, not only for its cost, but because it represent his independence, his
ability to move faster by himself.
Buying a car is a very involving process because it is an
exceptional purchase (the average lifetime of a car is 13 years1) and it
requires investments due to its cost. Customers make careful choices comparing
brands, performance, equipment, and prices and thus create a special relation
to their car once it is bought: they chose it carefully; it represents them in
a way.
Regarding the luxury car industry, the purchase process
is quite the same: it is highly involving because the price of this kind of
goods (as expensive as houses) and it is still an unusual purchase. We will
develop in another article the importance of brand identity in this particular
purchase process, yet we can definitely say that customers recognize themselves
in the luxury car that they are buying.
Moreover, this industry sells performance, exceptional
design and material, high technical abilities but above all, it sells dream.
Through advertising and communication, history and traditions, luxury cars have
become the product you want to buy “when you are rich”. Few cannot say that
they did not imagine what would be their car in this situation. Realizing this
dream is satisfying your ego; it is also showing the world your premium taste
in cars and expresses the social category you belong to.
Considering the former
elements, customers have a strong and long lasting emotional relationship to their luxury
car.
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