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Stupid. I think its a shame to see Range Rover chasing such frivolous vehicles.
Its kind of like Tumi luggage. For years they built very high quality, well made, go anywhere luggage that was attractive, classy, warrantied forever. Now they've done away with the lifetime warranty and they have all this ridiculous looking "style" luggage. I asked a salesperson in a Tumi store a few months ago what their deal was and he said "Tumi is now a lifestyle brand, not a luggage brand". No thanks...if I wanted a "stylish" piece of luggage I'd buy something else.
Kind of whats happening to Land Rover here IMHO...
I'm a grown *** man, I'm not going to walk through the airport pulling this:
Nor am I going to drive there in that.
Some people want to be understated and not stand out and some people want to stand out. Whats wrong with that?
Don't tell me Tumi doesn't have an option for someone of your tastes.
Some people want to be understated and not stand out and some people want to stand out. Whats wrong with that?
Anybody who buys a Range Rover wants to stand out. They command attention. The issue is when a brand already has an established reputation, style and demographic and they all of a sudden start abandoning that to chase something else. Having something like this on the road changes the statement having any Land Rover or Range Rover makes...thats the issue.
Land Rover has always been about those Discoverys out in the African jungle. Range Rover has always been about tough, go anywhere serious British luxury. This is...basically a car that appeals to as someone else put it, a MINI buyer that wants to sit up higher. I think overall they risk diluting their brand and turning away their established customers by chasing frivolous niche vehicles like this.
Was always a brand that put form and function over style, and that became their style and their brand. This vehicle is all about style over function and thats at odds with their mission IMHO.
Don't tell me Tumi doesn't have an option for someone of your tastes.
Sure they do, but since they did away with the main thing that appealed to me as a traveler which was the lifetime warranty I'll pay half as much for a similar Briggs and Riley bag and have that warranty. This is off topic, but many serious travelers feel the same way.
It is not like they stopped making those manly command vehicles. This Evoque (both versions) were made to woo the SO, not the man.
Thats the problem with going against your brand. These vehicles running around change the perception of the "manly command vehicles". If somebody is say the sort of person who would buy a Range Rover or Range Rover Sport and when they think of "Range Rover" they think of this vehicle, instead of those vehicles...they may perhaps not decide to purchase that vehicle.
Its the same argument against any luxury brand going downmarket. Having a bunch of $30,000 CLAs out running around or A Classes or B Classes hurts the prestige of the brand overall, which makes it harder to sell $120,000 S550s.
Especially in the luxury space, you can't chase every corner of the market and become too mainstream, or get out doing things outside your niche without risking the value of your brand. You see brands throughout the luxury space in different industries that have had this happen. Coach. Michael Kors. Tumi. Louis Vuitton. Louis Vuitton has actually been raising prices because they're trying to get the volume of their products down. Pretty interesting.
Good example is Rolex. They could make a killing selling $1,000 watches. Why don't they do that? Why don't they start selling bright, colorful workout watches? I'm sure there would be lots of people that would pay $1,000 for a Rolex workout watch. Even $5,000. Why don't they do that? Because they do what they do and they do it very well.
I obviously meant DOT/NHTSA.
