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The “whitebook”, a quarterly publication, introduces luxury brands and exquisite product concepts, together with original stories in the spirit and philosophy of the featured brands. Distributed to a segmented customer base, the publication serves to increase brand loyalty from existing customers and increase product demand from new customers.
Porsche Japan
Porsche achieves steadily increasing car sales in an import car market where sales have stagnated.
Porsche is known as a sports car brand. And it is proud to be the sports car maker with the longest history in the global automotive market.
Porsche sales in Japan started with an import trader but were later expanded into a full-scale operation carried out by “Porsche Jidousha Japan”, a wholly owned subsidiary of Porsche AG established in 1995. In June 1997, the company name was changed to its current, “Porsche Japan KK” and business as the Porsche general importer was initiated in January1998.
Initially, the numbers of car sales per year hovered around 1,000. However the company used the launch of the new sports-utility vehicle, “Cayenne”, to rapidly expand its customer base and sales have now increased to over 3,400 vehicles per year. Considering the generally sluggish sales in Japan’s import car market, Porsche’s achievement is striking. Today, Porsche has 42 official dealerships. And rather than focus on increasing the number of dealerships to drive sales, the company emphasizes “quality” rather than “quantity” and pursues sales by providing highly personalized service to Porsche owners.
The company also operates a “Porsche club” as a means of maintaining contact with Porsche owners. In terms of driving clubs, it is the largest of its kind in the world. With over 100,000 members worldwide, the club sponsors driving tours, test runs, and social gatherings. Any Porsche owner is eligible to participate. Porsche AG recognizes two clubs in Japan, “Porsche Club Japan” and “Porsche 356 Club of Japan”.
Approaching segmented customers through the “whitebook”
Until recently, Porsche Japan had focused on mass marketing to acquire new customers. Campaigns designed to collect data such as participant occupation and current car were advertised in magazines or online and that information was then shared with dealers who were asked to follow-up. However, Porsche Japan grappled with the problem of not enough sales people at the company’s limited number of dealerships so that even when given a huge quantity of customer-data, follow-up couldn’t be completed. To summarize, even with customer data, it wasn’t utilized and campaign customers started to complain, “we never get any information from Porsche, even though we ask”, with the result that several investments were in vain.
With this and the company’s branding and scale in mind, Porsche Japan realized that direct marketing would be more effective than mass marketing. If potential customers were further segmented, the company could provide better service and ultimately acquire more customers.
Enter ad-comm Group, an advertising company specializing in clients with luxury goods such as cars, alcoholic beverage, and jewelry, with the plan to publish the “whitebook” for the powerful potential customers of brand goods. The book was developed in response to the common complaint of ad-comm Group’s luxury brand client companies that, “there is no media that effectively shares our brand’s value with our target customers”. Ad-comm Group carefully selects one representative from each industry based on the company’s depth of brand history, philosophy, and its customer profile. The “whitebook” strategy is based on sharing a mutual customer base as each participating brand gives the book to its loyal customers. By sharing each product’s history, depth of quality, and product lineup, ad-comm Group succeeds in defining the brand’s glamour and ultimately enhancing its value.
Every quarter 20,000 copies of the whitebook are published that communicate the concept behind product development, brand history, and other information of 9 brands in distinct industries that all target upper-class clientele. Each brand receives 2-3,000 copies of the book each quarter. The following brands are participating in the Spring 2006 publication: Porsche Japan KK, Montblanc Japan Ltd., Steinway & Sons Japan, Ltd., ALESSI, MHD Diageo Moet Hennessy K.K., Fendi Japan, De Beers LV Japan K.K., Bang & Olufsen Japan K.K., and TORAYA.
The first edition of the “whitebook” was issued in Spring 2003. And the timing coincided with the launch of Porsche’s new car model, “Cayenne”. Porsche Japan decided to participate in the “whitebook” because it provided a segmented customer approach and suited its sales goal to acquire new customers as well as invite current Porsche owners to buy a second sports car. In addition, the “whitebook”, as a single publication focusing on multiple luxury brands, reduces the risk Porsche might face if it chose to tie-up with a single brand that for some reason didn’t meet customers’ expectations and then lost those customers’ loyalty.
Drawing the customers of participating brands into the world of luxury brands through jointly-hosted events
Collaborative efforts arranged by ad-comm Group, in addition to the “whitebook”, include a Christmas party that is a charity auction and the “whitebook salon” started this year. 350 readers who are “whitebook” brand customers are invited to the annual Christmas party. Each participating brand donates one product to the auction, adding a truly elegant touch to the party. The “whitebook salon” is an event hosted jointly by several “whitebook” brands and 50 - 100 readers are selected to join. The concept behind both events is to allow customers to truly experience the world of luxury brands.
In addition, the “whitebook” launched a membership website in 2003 for readers. Each customer receives an ID that is also related to the brand that introduced them to the book and a tracking system has been incorporated into the website. An example of this tracking is that it can be seen that perhaps many Steinways’ customers are also checking the contents of the Porsche section. The website also provides exclusive offers such as special brand information and invitations to secret events to readers who register their names and e-mail addresses.
There have already been cases where contracts were finalized after dealers followed up on the data collected from “whitebook” readers. Also, there has been an increase in requests for information directly to Porsche Japan from “whitebook” readers.
In the future, Porsche intends to provide opportunities for customers to truly experience the Porsche brand not only through magazines and virtual media such as the Internet but also through utilizing the opportunities represented by the “whitebook”. Currently, Porsche is planning a collaboration with another “whitebook” member brand.
