Consumer Poll : Mythical and Dream-Inspiring Brands : Aston Martin Shows What It's All About !

With now over 200 votes, I guess that's enough and we can close the poll. Thank you all for your responses and congratulation to Aston Martin which has been elected the most mythical car brand (see global results below). In fact, the trend emerged very rapidly : yesterday morning, with around 100 votes only, Aston Martin was already far ahead with exactly the same percentage as it is now.

Very frankly, I had no preconceived idea, but for sure I wouldn't have put Aston Martin leading the pack with such a wide margin : indeed, 31% of respondents voted for the brand vs only 17% for the n°2, Ferrari and 11% for the n°3, Bugatti. It's a clear-cut victory for the British marque.

My fundamental question behind the poll was “what makes a consumer brand become a mythical and dream-inspiring one” ? Almost everyone can have an idea when it comes to cars, so that's why I picked-up this industry as a good showcase.

Analyzing the poll, my take on the essence of a "mythical and dream-inspiring" brand is the following :

1) It has to embody exceptional intrinsic qualities. As for cars, it's about engineering and mechanical performance, awe-inspiring design, or sheer luxury in some cases. As for Jaguar, their very affordable lower high-end cars don't really make people dream. As for Rolls Royce, I'm afraid their mild mechanical performance disqualifies them ! Sure, it's luxury, but that's all about it.

2) It has to be exclusive and rare. Although Porsche cars have exceptional intrinsic engineering qualities, arguably a 911 is one of the best sportscar to drive, there are too many of them around. Porsche has manufactured a total of 700,000 911s since 1949 and I see dozens every day !

In France, over the last 10 years, there has been around 4 times more Ferraris sold than Aston Martins, so for us the latter brand is significantly more rare and exclusive. On a worldwide level however, Aston Martin's production is now more or less equivalent to Ferrari with around 7.000 cars (in fact, Aston's production was even larger in 2006).

But a mythical status is not only about performance, rarity and exclusivity ! Otherwise Lamborghini or Bugatti would have won hands down !

3) Indeed, above all, the brand has to tell a great enthusiastic inspiring story.

For Ferrari, it’s all about racing, Formula 1 where it has competed for the last 60 years or so (Ferrari started in 1929 as a racing team, not a brand which appeared only 20 years later) and won many Grand Prix and world titles over the years.

For Aston, it’s part racing (Le Mans in the 50s and early 60s, now back on track) and part its strong connections and identification with James Bond 007 over a 40 year period. This association with James Bond is quite schwred in fact : not many people might know Aston Martin, but everyone knows James Bond and what it stands for, so that the car has been tied to the masculine sex appeal of Bond.

Though extremely powerful and even awe-inspiring (1001CV, the most powerful car on earth), extremely rare and exlusive (1.2M€ each and I've never seen any !), Bugatti doesn't really have such a compelling story to tell : sure, Bugattis were fantastic cars in the 30s, but then there's a big black out and the revival in the 90s looks slightly artificial.

Lack of a strong distinctive story despite making quite exclusive cars with great intrinsic qualities and impressive performance also applies to Bentley, Maserati and Lamborghini, at different degrees.

Overall, Aston Martin carries the 3 components of a mythical brand with the best overall sharpness and balance : its cars are all very powerful, have a great design, with a touch of British luxury and class (which as a matter of fact is not the case with Ferrari), they are rare and exclusive (a total of 30,000 Astons only have been produced over the last 90 years !), and Aston Martin really has a thrilling story to tell people.

Inspirational Stores will also be about great brands...

Comments

[Mathieu Nouzareth]

I was lucky enough to own an Aston Martin a few years ago (a DB7 Volante Vantage) and it sure is a mythical car. The succesful child of a Rolls Royce and a Ferrari :-)

However it was also everything you can expect from a British car: very fragile, super expensive to maintain, raining inside the car, etc. You'd better have a good insurance f you own one of those cars !

Let's hope that the new owners will be able to keep the momentum (I mean the sales not the fragility) but it is a difficult challenge for a non-industrial company to build cars.

[Michel de Guilhermier]

Hi Mathieu !

Ouaouh, what a car, lucky guy !

As far as I know, Aston Martin's new CEO since 2000, Ulrich Bez, an ex Porsche and BMW guy, has done a lot to improve quality and recent Astons are much better than previous ones.

[Mathieu Nouzareth]

I was told they still do have some issues (I bought mine in 2001, thank you internet bubble !).

This is a problem all cars with so low volume of production encounter anyway. Exclusivity and total class has its toll ;-)

I can't think of any car more classy than Aston Martin. I would choose it anytime over any other car, including Ferrari, Bentley, Bugatti (how horrible the last model is !), etc.

I whish LVMH had bought it a few weeks ago. I am sure Bernard Arnaud could have done something great with it (apparently the price was too high). We could have had at last a luxury car company in France.

[Fabien]

Production moved in 2003 to a brand new factory at Gaydon, near Birmingham, and thinhs have dramatically improved since then !

[Michel de Guilhermier]

I haven't read any critical issues with new Astons, but I'm not an expert.

It's not like Harley Davidson for which one needed to buy 2 just to have the spare parts !

[Bmf2000]

This poll looks a bit skewed!! If you go on the French google site and search for "Aston Martin" and "blog", this blog ranks in the 6th position. Nothings like that with "Ferrari"...

This suggests the pool of voters is not representative enough. The outcome would surely be different on an Ferrari fan blog.. I am sure such a great marketer knows that.

By the way, in the UK the answer would be Bentley and its great Continental GTC. Too many Aston here.

Thanks for the great blog anyway. Are you considering buying one?

[Michel de Guilhermier]

@Bmf2000,

Thks for your comment.

I'm not that surprised that seeking "Blog+Aston Martin" on Google France I am well positioned : I have posted several times on Aston Marton and my blog has a very decent audience ;-)

However, it's not because I have posted on Aston Martins that poll is not representative and that people had to vote for this brand, all the more with such a wide margin. So I think the results are very valid !

I agree, results should vary from a country to another. I'm not however totally sure that Bentley would win in the UK. True there are many more AM in the UK than in France (50% of the 30,000 cars produced by AM in its 94 years history went to the UK I guess), but still, it's a myth in the UK as well.

[Fabien M]

Michel,

Je suis tombé l'autre jour sur un livre qui devait s'appeler "100 voitures à prix d'or" ou qq chose dans le genre, répertoriant les voitures les plus chères vendues aux enchères de par le monde.

Il y avait 24 Ferrari, 7 Buggati, 7 Maserati, 7 Mercedes, 7 Alfa Romeo et...4 Aston seulement.

Je suis moi aussi surpris du résultat de ton sondage. Si j'aurais mis Aston en 1er ou en 2ième, ce n'est certainement pas avec autant d'avance que je la voyais.

Si tes lecteurs classent Aston n°1 des marques de voiture les plus mythiques, ce n'est pas uniquement une question de prix des voitures.

Bref, pour te la faire courte, je pense qu'il y a un mélange bien spécial d'ingrédients qui aboutit au statut de "mythique" : rareté, prix, histoire, âme, etc...

[Fabien M]

Et ta question valait donc d'être posée...

[Michel de Guilhermier]

Intéressant tes chiffres Fabien. Je ne suis cependant pas trop étonné du peu d'Aston atteignant des sommets. La firme a produit au cours de son histoire beaucoup moins de voitures que Ferrari, en nombre comme en types.

Je pense que le côté mythique des Aston vient surtout, au dela de leur beauté, rareté et puissance, ce qui est en fait la caractéristique générale de la plupart des "supercars" de l'association et de l'héritage James Bond

[John]

Little wonder, have a look at that :

http://www.onrec.com/content2/news.asp?ID=12169

[Pierrot]

belle video et belle musique pour présenter ces voitures de rêve

[Michel de Guilhermier]

Indeed !