Selling dreams.

Ferrari. Italy’s market of sport and racing cars, is among the three most recognizable brands in the world. The company got its high profile among the world’s corporate giants without the help, for most of its existence, of an advertising department. Only as recently as 1993 did Ferrari create a marketing department. ‘Just parking our exciting automobiles is enough to draw the crowds,’ writes Gian Luigi Longinotti-Buitoni, the author of a book called Selling Dreams.

Customers are now spending more money on products they desire rather than on products they simply need. All companies must therefore produce goods of very high quality.

More importantly, they must establish a brand for years to come by giving it emotional qualities that match customers’ strongest desires. Like Ferrari, all companies must create and sell ‘dreams’.

Longinotti-Buitoni gives some interesting statistics about markets for luxury goods worldwide: Switzerland, with 220 Ferraris sold in 1997, is the largest market per capita for the car marker’s products; the company, on the other hand, sells only 2.7 percent of its cars to women; Rolex and the highest number of luxury watches are sold in Italy, while Japan has been consistently the leading market in the world for leather goods from Gucci, Ferragamo, Hermes and Louis Vuitton. China, amazingly, appears to be drinking a lot of Hennessy cognac.

1. Which are the biggest markets / countries for these products?

a) Ferraris c) Leather goods

b) Rolex watches d) Hennessy cognac

1. What do these numbers in the article refer to?

1993 220 1997 2.7

3.What was unusual about Ferrari ‘s marketing until 1993?

4.What two things does the author recommend that companies should do?