Issue No. 2: Porsche 911

The Porsche 911 is a car I’ve always wanted to cover because it represents such a unique space in the automotive landscape.

Whether you’re a hard-core car enthusiast or someone who thinks a Lamborghini and a limousine are the same thing (like my 6-year-old), the principles behind the 911’s success will help you think differently about your own narrative. 

Before we get there though, I suppose I should make the case for why the Porsche 911 is so different – and the only obvious choice for a certain buyer.

You might be wondering, “Isn’t the 911 just another fast and expensive car for people with lots of money?” Or “What the heck is a 911 anyway.” Let’s start there. This is a 911:

But The 911 isn’t just a fast car.

The 911 is its own category of car. You can use it as a daily driver (rare for a supercar), it has a unique driving feel, it has a unique pricing strategy and a brand that’s elevated by a rich heritage.

All of these characteristics put the 911 in a class of its own. Let me unpack those for you so you can see what I’m getting at.

Reliability

Porsches do not break. At least not at the rate that other high-performance cars do. It’s why J.D. Power keeps giving the 911 reliability awards.

That’s not a new thing, though. When the 911 was first introduced in 1963, it was unlike Jaguars, MGs, and Alfa Romeos, which were either underpowered or unreliable. The 911 was the first car that could put your heart in your throat while still getting you to work every day.

Today, the even Ferrari and Lamborghini are known for being finicky and high maintenance. This is why few people use them as daily drivers. But the 911 makes a great daily driver. Like this fellow who now has 700,000 miles on his 2003 911 Turbo.

All other aspects aside, you could argue that Porsche is in its own category simply by being the standard for a well-engineered, dependable sports car. But that’s just part of the picture.

Driving Feel

The 911 uses a rear-engine layout. That space under the hood? Yeah, there’s nothing there. The engine hangs out way out back, behind the rear axle.

That’s important because the weight distribution gives the 911 a unique feel when driving. It’s planted, yet nimble. But it also creates some considerable engineering challenges, which is why few cars use such a layout.

What’s noteworthy is that Porsche could have abandoned this layout at any point in time. But instead of following the herd, Porsche committed to what made the 911 unique and fine-tuned the rear-engine layout with each model year.

Driving a Porsche doesn’t just mean having a fast car, it means having a machine that’s been continually iterated on for more than 60 years.

Price

A new 911 starts at $114,000 in the U.S. If you want, you can easily spend north of $200,000 on one though.

I find that price point interesting.

Because a Ferrari or Lamborghini will cost 2-3x that, if not much more. Same with other brands like Pagani, McLaren, and so on. That means by supercar standards, a 911 is relatively accessible. You don’t have to be ultra-wealthy to afford one, but you do have to be well off.

It’s also significantly more expensive than other sports cars. For comparison, a new Corvette or Dodge Hellcat is about $70,000, and a BMW M3 a bit more. All of them have comparable power or speed, at least on paper. But the 911 is just enough above that to where it can maintain an air of exclusivity.

Brand

Brand perception is subjective, but the 911 undeniably has a strong brand. I believe it comes down to its history and racing success.

As I’ve already mentioned, the 911 represents a continual bloodline between the 1965 version and today. It’s not that there was a car called the 911 in 1965, and also a car called the 911 in 2024. It’s the same car they’ve been iterating on, year after year. 

When you look at 911s across each generation, you can see how each version gets closer to the Germans’s platonic ideal of a sports car. There’s something special about driving something that’s been a work in progress for so long.

Secondly, Porsche has a successful history in motor racing, and they use this to further elevate the brand. When you know that you’re driving a very similar car to the one used to win races, that changes your perception of the brand in a big way.

All these ingredients are what give the 911 brand its swagger and confidence. Porsche knows it makes excellent cars, but if they don’t appeal to you, they’re perfectly OK with that.

The Only Obvious Choice… For the Right Buyer

When you look at the whole package, it becomes really difficult to make apples-to-apples comparisons between the 911 and other sports cars.

Suppose you’re a buyer who wants:

1. A high-performance driving experience

2. A timeless design that won’t go out of fashion

3. A car you can drive to work every day (if you wanted to)

4. A car that your spouse could operate without sweating bullets

5. Money left over to pay for the kids’ college

6. To avoid the stereotype of a middle-aged man in a mid-life crisis

7. To show that they’ve “made it”

What are your options?

• You won’t buy a Corvette because at the end of the day, it’s still a Chevy (meh) and puts you at risk of #6.

• Same with muscle cars, which fail on #1, too.

• A Miata is amazing to drive (I used to own one), but at the end of the day, it’s a cheap car. And not very fast. No beuno on #1 or #7.

• Maybe a Ferrari? Not if you want to send Sally off to college next year. Or worry about your significant other hitting a telephone pole. #3 is also a miss.

• And Teslas are fast, but they aren’t sports cars (sorry).

I could keep going, but the point is this – no other car comes close to delivering the combination of exhilaration, classic design, and drivability that is a 911. 

It’s the standard that other cars are measured against.

But a product alone doesn’t make a great brand.

The messages that Porsche has used in its advertising play an equal part. So now I’d like to take you through a bit of a tour of how this narrative has shown up in their communications and advertising.

One Point of View, 3 Facets

The 911 is a great case study because its strategic narrative (or point of view) stands out so clearly and consistently in its advertisements. It’s easy to find examples online, and since I can’t include them all here, I’d encourage you to do a search and see what you uncover.

But after looking through hundreds of 911 ads, I saw three themes emerge: speed, uniqueness, and heritage. Below I’ll give you some examples. As you read through them, think about how these themes work together to create a unique space in the minds of buyers.

Speed: 911s Are Fast (and That’s All That Matters)

The 911 is a sports car, so of course you’ll see “speed” show up in advertising. But what’s more telling is what you don’t see. A 911 isn’t fast and [insert more adjectives here]. It’s just fast. In other words, you won’t find advertisements telling you that a 911 is…

• Safe

• Practical

• Quiet

• Comfortable

• Affordable

• Loaded with features

• Easy to drive

Whether those attributes are true or not is beside the point. (Many of them are). Porsche wants you to have one idea in your brain who you think about a 911, and that’s speed. You can figure out the rest later.

Uniqueness: There is No Other Car Like a 911

It’s common to see auto manufacturers convince you that their cars are “best in class” or superior to the competition in one way or another. Not Porsche.

With very few exceptions, you will not see Porsche directly compare the 911 to another car. It’s always described for what it is, not how it compares to others.

Earlier I mentioned that the 911 brand has swagger, and this is why. Because when you’re different, you don’t worry about the competition. The copy in the ad below is a perfect example.

Heritage: 911s Have a Long Bloodline

Remember when we talked about 911’s long history? Porsche loves to play this up in its advertisements.

There’s something special about owning a car that was unique half a century ago and is still unique today. It’s the same kind of feeling you get with other classic brands like Coca-Cola, Hermès, Levi’s, Rolex, and Disney.

Even Jeep leans into this from time to time (the grandfather of the Wrangler dates back to WWII), but Porsche leans into this more than most.

And because the 911 has always been special, you can purchase a 911 of any model year and still be a proud owner. In fact, it’s not uncommon to find older 911s that sell for far more than a new, top-of-the-line model.

Wrapping Up

Few brands stay so true to their Point of View as the 911. It’s a car that has a specific take on what a car should be, and it delivers that in its product and its message with absolute conviction.

This is why having a strategic narrative is so important for any brand that wants to stand out and last.

When you know what you stand for, you’re less likely to fall into the comparison trap and follow competitors. (When that happens, you end up as just one similar choice among many.) Worse, you lose what makes you special.

The 911 is a great reminder of the power of consistency.

3 Questions You Can Discuss With Your Team

Do you know which attributes to NOT highlight?

By being intentional about what NOT to say, Porsche was able to carve out a unique space in the minds of its buyers. Porsche = fast. That’s all that was needed to you into a test drive. If details like its crash test rating or the quality of its sound system were important to you, you could find out later.

Is your brand so disciplined? Or have you been muddying the waters by playing up too many qualities of your product?

How clear is your target audience?

Given Porsche’s engineering culture, you might be tempted to think that it’s a company that downplays marketing or customer research. But the opposite is true.

Porsche’s deep understanding of its customers is what gives it the conviction to stick with its design choices in the first place. And it gives it the guts to pull off some pretty cheeky ad campaigns.

If you want to know what good customer insight looks like take a look at this excerpt from their 1992 sales training guide.

Does your brand have a Point of View (POV)?

When you have clarity on what you stand for and why you matter to buyers, it’s so much easier to make the right decisions for your product, your brand, your advertising, and your business.

Other than a momentary period of doubt in the 1980s, Porsche has stayed true to its Point of View. While other automotive brands hold a finger to the wind to see what’s popular each year, Porsche isn’t so fickle.

Consider if your brand has this level of clarity.

One Thought to Leave You With

Thanks for reading.

If there’s a brand you'd like me to cover in a future issue of The Narrative Field Guide, then just reply to this email with your suggestions.

Cheers,

John Rougeux

P.S. 2 Tidbits About the 911 You May Not Know

1. Porsche almost retired the 911 in the 1980s. It had introduced the 928, a “modern” car that was slated to replace the 911. But it had a totally different design that didn’t share the 911’s unique layout or feel. When the new CEO saw that the factory workers couldn’t get excited about the 928 because it wasn’t a “real” Porsche, he called off the 911’s retirement and decided to carry on the line indefinitely. Good thing. You can find the full story in this podcast. 

2. The 911’s sales figures reflect just the right amount of niche. About 11,000 units are sold in the U.S. each year. Compare that to 46,865 Corvettes, or just a few thousand Lamborghinis and Ferraris. It’s exclusive enough to feel special but common enough to be recognized by everyone.