The launch of the new Ferrari Luce EV was a rocky one.
If you've been online today you'll have likely seen some of the memes and commentary. How will Ferrari navigate the challenges of their recent launch of the Ferrari Luce?
Go watch their launch video and judge their new design for yourself, then come back for my thoughts:
Missing It At A Glance
I woke up today and saw something on X I just couldn’t believe. Something that was going to cost me a lot of money with my beautiful daughter’s upcoming 10th birthday. I saw a new blue Rainbow High Roadster.
Now I know what you’re saying right now:
“Mark, haven’t you already bought your daughter the Rainbow High roadster already?”
Rainbow High Roadster
And I would reply:
“Why buy your daughter one toy car when you can buy her two for twice the price?!?”
But, after a closer look at the posts on X, I was relieved to find that this blue car in my feed was not a toy Rainbow High car, but instead the new Ferrari Luce.
For a split second, I honestly rejoiced at my misunderstanding, but then I quickly realized that Ferrari had really messed up.
Importance of Brand Recognition
What happened to me today has never happened before with this brand. I have never, not one time, misidentified a Ferrari.
Not the Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder from the Ferris Bueller movie. And not the time I received an image-only text from my big brother showing the side view of the Ferrari F80, at a glance I knew it was a Ferrari.
So why now?
Why Did At-A-Glance Recognition Failed?
I think the Ferrari leadership allowed a team to design a vehicle using their brand and legacy, that has very little in common with their brand and legacy.
I don’t have data to back it up yet, but I would bet that a large number of people today, at a glance, made a similar mistake like I did and misidentified this car. And that's troubling for the car maker.
A very big part of brand awareness is recognition "at a glance". This is a marketing outcome brands yearn for and spend decades trying to achieve, but it's costly. In fact, companies across the planet are on track to spend over $1 Trillion dollars in Global Advertising spend this year, to try and make that happen.
And some of the most important keys to success in Brand Marketing are repetition + consistency. That’s why so many brands spend so much time and money on:
- Logos - think McDonalds
- Color Schemes - think Tiffany & Co.
- Mascots - think Coke
- Fonts - think Star Trek
How Did Ferrari Miss?
With the Ferrari Luce, the designers stopped being consistent and introduced something wildly off-brand, having little in common with their decades of established look & feel, failing to generate that at-a-glance brand recognition we're all so accustomed to.
Also, after research and chats with Gemini – it’s quite clear that Ferrari’s leadership missed their target Ideal Customer Profile by a kilometer.
According to Gemini, Ferrari’s target audience is a masterclass in extreme luxury segmentation.
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Elite Collectors: This is the most critical segment for Ferrari's bottom line. Representing a small inner circle of multi-car owners, collectors generate roughly 40% of Ferrari's total revenue.
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Pure Performance Purists: Driven by motorsport heritage and cutting-edge engineering, these buyers are fiercely focused on driving dynamics, engine acoustics, and track capability.
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Lifestyle & Prestige Buyers: This segment skews toward high-profile entrepreneurs, C-suite executives, and entertainment figures. For them, a Ferrari is the ultimate status symbol of accomplishment.
It seems to me that none of these segments are a clear fit for this new EV or it's design, with Lifestyle & Prestige Buyers perhaps the “best fit”.
However, after the endless memes and negative press today, I suspect this car will fail to qualify as an “ultimate status symbol”.
The Short Term Impact - Social/PR/Stock
After the launch of the Ferrari Luce, unfortunately Ferrari stock ($RACE ) was down -5.26% and could experience more volatility, depending on the company's response and future promotions for the Luce.
There is a window for the company to address the feedback on this design and respond to fans and consumers - and I hope they act fast.
The Long Term Impact - Investors/Confidence
Ferrari can weather the storm of bad PR and memes, but I actually believe the bigger, long term risk depends on how Ferrari investors look back at this launch.
If I were a major investor in Ferrari, I would be asking some serious questions right now of myself and of my executives:
Investor Questions I'd Ask
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Design: Would I buy a Luce over an F80?
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Public Reaction: Given the instant public negative feedback, how do I feel about the executive decision makers' judgement skills, those who greenlit this design?
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Research: What customer research and psychographic data were used to justify the creation of this design for Ferrari?
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Projections: What were the projections of new model sales, based upon this very same research?
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Repeat Buyers: Ferrari revenue is highly based upon repeat purchases from existing customers. According to SEC filings, it’s upwards of 60-70% repeat buyers. How many elite, repeat buyers were consulted or shown this car design for feedback and demand measurement?
To Wrap Up
I personally think this car design was a huge mistake for the brand, but how Ferrari responds will be key at this point.
So, I want to leave things here until we see more from the company directly. However, I do have personal story that I think has topical relevance I wanted to share as well.
Years ago, I bought a domain name to test out a quirky idea I had. This domain name had an unintentional mash-up of two words – the letters “F-E-D and 2 other letters”. Now, I write it that way because I bet you can still figure out who it is, but also because this particular Fortune 500 company is highly litigious in protecting their trademarks. So much so, that mere days after I registered this domain, I received a call from their LA lawyers.
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They did not ask me about the domain and if its spelling was intentional
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They did not ask me to sell the domain to them
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They called me to tell me to hand it over
So what did I do? I handed it over, I was a broke college dropout at the time.
But the question is why were they so aggressive? Why would a Fortune 500 company bother to sick a pricy LA lawyer on me?
The answer is of course simple: To defend and protect their brand, from all threats, at all costs. Because, their brand was worth fighting for.
Do the major investors in Ferrari feel the same? Will they step up and protect the Legacy of Enzo Ferrari?
I think they will, because I believe the Ferrari brand IS worth fighting for, and I'm confident we're going to see that very soon from the company.
