Automotive News Europe

2010 EUROSTAR – SUPERLUXURY

Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Ferrari Chairman

Montezemolo kept Ferrari in the fast lane
Ferrari was almost immune to the ills of the global financial downturn. While rival supercar makers watched unit sales decline by up to 50 percent and saw profits turn into losses last year, Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo helped keep the company on course. Unit sales at the Fiat S.p.A. subsidiary slipped just 4.5 percent to 6,235 units. And while Ferrari’s operating profit fell almost 30 percent to 245 million euros, that result still accounted for a hefty operating margin of 13.8 percent of revenues, by far the best result in a year when the industrywide global margin for automakers was in the low single digits. After nearly 20 years at Ferrari, Montezemolo, 2010 EUROSTAR – ENTREPRENEUR 63, had seen – and survived – many crises. He has always pulled Ferrari through the tough times. A secret to Montezemolo’s success has been his oft-stated belief that: “To maintain Ferrari’s exclusivity, you must always build one car less than the market demands.” Since stepping down as chairman of Fiat S.p.A. in April (he remains on the Fiat board), Montezemolo has spent most of his time at Ferrari’s headquarters in Maranello, near Modena, central Italy. “I want to shape the next product cycle at Ferrari,” Montezemolo said, “to assure a bright future at a company that has been inextricably intertwined with my life.” Victor Muller, Saab Chairman/Spyker CEO

Muller breathes new life into struggling Saab
Victor Muller didn’t only save a dying brand when he acquired Saab; he claims he picked up the world’s biggest bargain. When Spyker bought Saab in February for $74 million, the tiny Dutch company known for building low-volume, high-performance sports cars, got a company worth $1.1 billion – and got several vehicle programs to boot. The new Saab Chairman said the move was “a no-brainer.” With the help of the European Investment Bank, the company has a loan of 400 million euros ($547 million) to draw upon. Saab also has a state-of-the-art assembly plant and engineering center in Trollhattan, Sweden, including a 2010 EUROSTAR – ADVERTISING crash laboratory, wind tunnel and climate chamber. “I like to say that we paid for a wind tunnel and got a car company included,” Muller said, who is also CEO of Spyker. Muller, 51, inherited a legendary Swedish brand that got lost in General Motors Co.’s product portfolio. With Saab freed from GM, Muller promises to return the automaker to the good old days of devoted owners driving unique products. Saab needs to sell more than 100,000 cars to break even. By 2012, Muller wants to get the breakeven point down to 80,000 but wants sales of 120,000 cars a year, which would leave Saab in the black. Ian Robertson, BMW Board Member for Sales & Marketing

BMW’s Robertson spreads ‘Joy’ around the world
“Joy” was already a catch phrase in most of BMW’s world. In Germany, “The Joy of Driving” has been a slogan that is well known throughout the country. BMW sales and marketing boss Ian Robertson, 52, instructed his team to take that message around the world late last year, spreading “Joy” to other markets, including Asia and North America, where it teamed with a new ad agency and shifted the campaign to appeal to a wider audience. The ad work, won by the U.S. firm GSD&M, represented the first time BMW had one agency globally. The ads were the most expensive North American brand campaign in BMW history and set the automaker on a new and more aggressive marketing course. The “Story of Joy” campaign launched during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, and marked the largest luxury automotive spending of the Games. It showed BMW owners and their cars and served as the umbrella for the automaker’s global communications. It introduced a new creative aesthetic characterized by strong, colorful images often conveying people and their experiences with the subtlest of references to BMW products punctuated by various three-word headlines leading off with “Joy Is …” BMW eventually integrated “Joy” into TV and print ads, the Internet and billboards.

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Automotive News Europe - September 22, 2010

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Automotive News Europe - September 22, 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Europe - September 22, 2010