You’ve got to hand it to the luxury auto brands. They teach us we can’t seize the spotlight by sitting on the sidelines waiting for our turn. You just have to stand up and showcase your brand’s innate style by strutting it on the catwalk. Whether they are able to afford your luxury car or not is not the end you have in mind. There’ll always be the upper stratum with their sufficiently deep pockets to keep you flourishing in addition to grabbing a souvenir of two for good measure. As for the rest of the mere mortals who can’t—their desire for anything with your brand on it will help to extol the legend your brand is. Make them want and be able to take home a small piece of you.

It’s fabulous news for those who can’t afford a Ferrari as long as they are content to doodle with a Ferrari pencil (A$35 for set of 6) from one of its many internationally franchised luxury retail merchandise boutiques. Perhaps the world’s most heavily licensed car brands, one can find Ferrari-branded clothing and jewellery, bags and even sporting accessories like bikes and skis. Other more widely affordable options include a Ferrari photo frame or to hold down stacks of endless bills to pay, a handsome LaFerrari paperweight (both A$45).

Luxury Car Finance For Financial Viability

If you’re still mad about the car itself, a low rate car loan could be a more manageable and financially viable solution. Alternatively, if you are just after a piece of the brand, a handcrafted Ferrari 599 GTO can be yours for the sweet price of A$7,215.00 as long as you’re fine not being able to get into its tiny 60cm long bodywork. Nice as a proud desktop display. Before you baulk, Ferrari, meanwhile had made almost 77 million profit last year from such items—nearly 20 per cent of its total income.

Red Luxury Car being revealed

Brand Fanatics

With such profit figures it’s hardly a surprise that a fortune awaits a host of other luxury auto brands who are vying for the same market. This phenomena of car makers extending the reach of their brand’s insignia has gone viral like the last trending social media post spamming one’s news feed. It’s an extension of the evolution first sparked by automakers collaborating with fashion designers to bring haute couture into car design—a pivotal attraction at charity auctions.

Automakers have now upped the ante on just how creative they can get. Gone are the charity auctions solely showcasing fashion designers’ concepts of car designs. Porsche, for example, no stranger to charity galas and events, rented the Sistine Chapel last year for the Pope’s innovative charity drive. Under the Vatican’s new fundraising tours, forty Porsche enthusiasts paid nearly US$6000 each for a four-day tour of Rome including a private concert under Michelangelo’s masterpiece ceiling painting, an after-access private tour of the Vatican Museums, a gala dinner in the midst of the art and artefacts exhibition, a trip to the Pope’s summer retreat of Castel Gandolfo culminating in a drive to Lago di Garda in the latest Porsche models.

In terms of drawing attention from the fashion world to itself, Porsche has been repositioning itself as a luxury brand for fashion and accessories with an entire menswear and womenswear ‘lifestyle’ collection designed and launched by creative director Thomas Steinbrueck, formerly the VP for Kenneth Cole. Prices are just the usual for what you’d expect to pay for designer garb such as a Porsche belt for about US$495 and womenswear basics like a jacket and pencil skirt for above US$1000.

And who can say these accessories aren’t crucial in fostering loyalty in diehard fans and customers? It’s all about brand advertising and powerful positioning in the customer’s mind. The first accessories probably to have been launched with this objective in mind may have been the long standing tradition of wrist watches produced under auto brand names.

Many car manufacturers produce their own line of watches dedicated to anniversaries and special occasions in the life of brands. Watch makers are often commissioned to produce watch designs with car brand labels. Some go the length such as Lamborghini (Tonino)and Porsche (Panerai) who opted to create their own watch factories in order to produce their own iconic time pieces entirely designed by specialists of their legendary names.

Many of these limited luxury watches are made available for purchase only to valued prestige customers who may order them with gold or platinum casing. Bugatti watches belong to one such class of exclusive time pieces presented to their own buyers of the Bugatti supercar.

It’s likely that the watch industry spearheaded the first trends in the luxury retail fashion world to exploit the growing potency of car brands to appeal to the same premium tier of customers. Breitling’s well-known association with Bentley was followed by famous swiss watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre’s partnership with Aston Martin—for which it helped celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Aston Martin DB5 with designing two special limited editions of the pioneering ‘AMVOX’ watches: one in platinum and the other in titanium.

Not to be left out, Audi had swiss watchmaker Valijoux create a sporty chronograph timepiece featuring a carbon fibre dial fashioned to resemble its Audi R8 speedometer. BMW (Tourneau), Morgan and Mercedes were not far behind in getting involved. Mercedes had since been known to have contracted with multiple famous watchmakers including IWC, TAG Heuer and Muhle.

From watches to clothing to handbags, footwear or stationery, the marketing of car brands continue to evolve significantly in the retail and fashion world. Those who aren’t primary buyers of its luxury line of cars are still an important market in helping to cultivate perceptions of these car brands as being unattainable to most, hence their highly desirable quality.

A spokesperson from Ferrari sums up this strategy. “These days, you now have to think of companies like Ferrari as being different brands for different audiences. Often, the main product has a very limited customer base – those who can actually buy a Ferrari – but there are also millions who still love the product, the history, the sport and want to buy into it.”

I know someone who owns a Ferrari pencil, and according to him, he swears there’s no pencil in the world quite like it.

Penciling notes and tearing your hair out as you research on which car finance broker would be best in helping you with luxury car finance? Trust the brand that stands the test of time for the best brokering expertise and experience, trustworthy reputation backed by Australia’s largest public-listed motoring group, personal service and the widest range of financing options for you today. Call 360 Finance today and speak to our friendly consultants at 1300 361 360!