How much and in what ways has the launch of the Cayenne changed the meaning of the Porsche brand?

Ever since Porsche launched its first car Porsche 356 in 1948 that brand is known for its high performance and expensive sports cars. In March 2003, it launched SUV and Cayenne and this expansion of business from sports car to utility cars came up with challenges. It was the vision of the company to protect the original standard of Porsche while keeping up and supporting the new addition. In 1992 the company thought of taking a turn around therefore it announced to make SUV. At the time company was at stable ground and the SUV was going to be third different car brand than sports car after the launch of 911 and Boxster car.

The Porsche Cayenne was made under the keen watch of Wiedeking who made sure the car has interior and features same as that of Porsche sports car and have utility for a family. A person could feel proud by parking it next to a Mercedes Benz. The main aim was to enter the market and let it grow and bring diversification in the business as the company observed that the diversifying the car categories will expand their business worldwide just like other car brands Mercedes Benz an BMW were doing. In this way Porsche creatively changed the meaning of brand and boosted sales to 50% by just selling 20,000 Cayenne SUV.

Porsche is known to be business of making cars. The Cayenne SUV goes faster and is highly utilizable for family rides. The launch of Cayenne SUV generated a thrilling response from the community. And it was claimed no car in past, present or future can come close the design, efficiency or even close to the response that this vehicle have received. This new type of vehicle was known to be innately American as it is used for both personal and practical use.

1.    What is the value of Rennlist online brand community to Porsche? How does it help and/or hurt the brand?

In 1996 the Porsche SUV was doing great in the market. It had high end materials such as leather, wood etc. and it cost between $43,000- $49,000. Several Asian players intensified the competition of luxury SUV. Launching the SUV was a risky and expensive bet for the Porches with having so many competitions in the market. The vehicle was criticized by Bradsher, he claimed that people it buying it and not using it and only 1 out 100 cars have come to road and the moms are replacing their minivans with the SUV.

The web communities allow having an insight of the customers demand and know their views before a product is sold or launched. Such we communities gave opportunities to know the views of Porsche owners and their reaction over the diversification of the brand and launch of new vehicles. This launching flamed the diverse online communities to be devoted to Porsche and get enthusiastic. The topic and brand was brought under discussion and made the highlight of their blogs, chat rooms and different forum for discussion on web. One of such online community was Rennlist.

www.Rennlist.com was an online community which was launched in 1998 and it had all the Porsche enthusiasts. At the period of launch of Cayenne this community has 36,000 active posters and 200,000 silent audiences. The community contained enthusiasts of the brand from all over the world. This site was not linked by Porsche but independently run by Porsche lovers. Some of the local figures of Porsche used the platform to enjoy sponsorship commercially. The product met the appreciation, criticism on manufacturing design; some Porsche owners threatened the buyers of SUV because they did not like the design and found it too feminine. The site harmed the brand in online as well as in offline world at the online comments were copied and customized clothing and stuff was sold everywhere with slogans such as, my other car is the REAL Porsche.

2.      Should Wiedeking listen to the Rennlist brand community? Why or why not? Should he get engage with them? If so, how?

The Cayenne was greatly criticized in the brand community and several enthusiasts talked about it and called it feminine and passed derogatory comments for the Cayenne. Some Porsche owners bought the car anyway. The owners of vehicle spoke in defense of their vehicle and told consumers how it has similarity with Porsche engines and how it does not have similarity with SUV present in the market. Some people even compared it with Boxster and called it even better than that. After sometime some posts at Rennlist showed that how people are embracing the Cayenne. The posts suggested that the vehicle is built for roads and trips and explained how it is like a sports car and should be handled like it. It has acceleration and nimbleness along with excellent yet impressive capacity.

The negative comments of consumers, shareholders and press were shrugged off by Porsche management. The Wiedeking claimed that his decision of creating a vehicle such as Cayenne was not evident and the vehicle is scolded richly for going away from its original core of sports car. So he said he knew it is a different vehicle and therefore it needed to be a success. He argued the launching of cayenne was just as similar as the launch of Porsche’s first car in 1931. The courage required was similar as the first time.

In my opinion Wiedeking should not listen to Rennlist community as it is just an online platform that harmed and criticized the expansion and diversification of Porsche. There was appreciation too but more criticism and acceptance and as Wiedeking claimed that he has gone through same depression and required same courage just as the first time so he should not care about feedback of an online community as Porsche is not associated to it and does not depend upon their opinions for success and failure. He should not be engaged with them as Porsche does not require any promotion of such platforms and if it requires any online or social platform it should launch one of its own.

3.      Imagine that you are a new Cayenne owner. How does the Rennlist brand community affect your Porsche ownership experience?

Cayenne is a power vehicle with sports car engine and utility. It is the first diversified car introduced by Porsche under strict eye of Wiedeking. It is of course a good car as it comes under the famous and big name of Porsche. The Rennlist brand community is an online platform which has no association or link with Porsche management directly; it is an independent group consisting upon Porsche enthusiasts who are in the community because they are Porsche lovers and truly adore the vehicles and sports car it launches in the market.

My ownership of cayenne cannot be affected by couple of people on an online platform and it should not be forgotten that initially the vehicle was immensely criticized but then embraced by several other people. It is the diversification and innovation of Porsche and if I am buying the Cayenne or have bought it, I have done my research.

Everything unique and new is strictly criticized in the market and it was a big step for the Porsche to introduce a utility car in its sports car bloodline. The online community will have an effect on my ownership experience but I would not let such negative comments tak over my research and faith in Porsche.

4.      What learning from the Cayenne launch should Wiedeking bring to the Panamera launch? How does the Cayenne launch make the Panamera launch easier? How does the Cayenne launch make the Panamera launch more difficult?

The Cayenne launch was epic as it was criticized online as well as offline platform. It was first different car in the history of Porsche. It was not a sports car but a utility car with features of a sports car, something Porsche is best known for. The management of Porsche was greatly criticized by everyone but Wiedeking suggested that he is not concerned and he was not obvious to launch a vehicle such as Cayenne and it did happen anyway. And it caused him depression and he needed sense of courage same as that he required for introducing his first Porsche vehicle decades ago. The North American president of Porsche claimed that the response for cayenne was naïve.

The next step is the launch of Panamera by Porsche. It is the first vehicle of Porsche that has four doors in it. It is considered as a rival of competitive market vehicles such as BMW, Audi, Maserati, Jaguar sedans. It is envisioned to further diversify the Porsche spectrum of vehicles and it is thought to be customer base and Wiedeking claims that it is the finest addition to the Porsche. It possesses all the necessities of a sports car such as of Porsche and it meets all the standards of performance and driving dynamics of a sports car.

 The Wiedeking should not allow association with any online community platform and does no let any such platform to harm the status of the company. The launch of Cayenne makes the launch of Panamera easier because it too is different from a sports vehicle and has similar looks as that of Cayenne but has similar properties of sports vehicle such as that of Porsche sports cars. It can get difficult because some of people or Porsche enthusiasts will still criticize it. (Fear, 2012)

 Reference Launch of the Cayenne

 Fear, J. (2012). Porsche The Cayenne Launch . 1-25.