The 'Lifestyle' tat thing is sound business sense. Extends the brand, makes a profit and highlights the products. Harley has been mentioned, who support fully the HOG thing. The Harley Owners Group is a factory sponsored enthusiast club that is the biggest in the world, and it costs almost £70 a year.
Triumph motorcycles do the same with clothing and products, plus the Riders Association of Triumph (RAT) and it works!
I love the fact that tours to the factory contain 99% of people that may never own a Morgan, but they want the brand and appreciate the ethos behind a British company. Allowing them to take home 'something' that acts as a memory and brand extension is a great way of being positive as a manufacturer.
And yes, it would be great to see tuning products sold from the same place or attached for those of us who own the cars but they may be thinking exactly the same. Who knows?
I think the new shop is a cracking idea, and creating the opportunity to sell other select artisan products can only be a good thing.
Stringer ( is this you or your mate?) you just have to be in marketing / advertising
because thats a load of marketing bull poo IMO of course. And in a friendly way too.
The people on this forum dont buy a brand - they buy a piece of engineering. They dont buy into an image - they buy a car. And the problem with the lifestyle bit, apart from it appealing to the vacuous of this world, is that doing it diverts management focus away from the product itself. Thats one reason why Harleys are such crap motorcycles - they have long ago sacrificed engineering in favour of image. Buy a Harley, customise from our 1000 pages of extras, get your cut off and scowl like a patch club rider as you look at your self passing shop windows. Be a tough dood even if you are a lady's hairdresser and your teeth have vibrated loose.
!
Heaven forbid that Morgan go that way and end up producing cars so that their customers can buy all the tat that makes up the "brand". Particularly when , as many point out on here, the quality of the car need a lot of management attention.
