Ferrari California and Ferrari's Future

What is exactly desirability? Let me cut it short by telling you, its the very notion of wanting something you can't have. The more difficult it is to grasp it within your very own hands, the more it is your urge of lusting after it.

Take this scenario of an old shoemaker in Italy, passed on by his father centuries of shoe making tradition from their great forefathers, a family business that outlasts the tests of time, their shoes are made with the most exquisite materials, the best craftsmanship. Each pair of shoes are made from leather from cows bred by the shoemaker himself, feeding them the best food to produce the best leather, each shoes takes 3 months from selecting the most suitable hide for the customers, sewn from the best silk threads, woven with the greatest passion and most of all, the love of it from the shoemaker. Dukes, Counts and Chancellors from England, Germany or France would risk their lives traveling hundreds of miles just to get a pair of shoes made from this exquisite, exclusive shoemaker. Kings and Queens would line up like peasants waiting for their turn.

From ordering, custom fitting to actually receiving the shoes after a long list of queues takes a waiting of 5 years, and each of them would cost no less than a million dollars. However, there's still no rush from the shoemaker, he still stays on, creating wonderful shoes, with his son watching closely, hoping to one day took it over from his father, a long legacy of shoe making craftsmanship. They're not exactly rich, with most of their incomes given away to the people in need, and during war, each country would first declare the vicinity of the shoe maker's home a neutral zone, for if they do, they'll each have to suffer domestic 'violence' from their shoe loving wives. This is how the word desirability spells.

Now 100 years later, the shoemaker's descendants decides that they don't have enough cash to buy the new AirBus 380 for their own use, or the huge mansion they've been eyeing along. Then they build huge factories, hired thousands of workers, with a huge billboard set atop the factory bearing the name of their forefathers, with a gleaming neon light shining across mountains and plains during night time.

With the new factory, they're now able to produce 2 million shoes a year, with variations of different models, some for yoga, some for running around, even one equipped with an mp3 player for joggers. All high quality, high functionality shoes. Yes, they've managed to built an empire from the very shabby old warehouse where the oldman used to sit quietly and making shoes slowly. They've grown business and earnings by 3000%. Now they're able to buy their long lusted Airbus 380, they could afford the best sportscars, living their life at large, divesting their hard earned money to properties, share markets, and built a fashion empire with multiple brands underneath their portfolio. Customers no longer need to queue up for their shoes, there's even customer feedback forms and customer service hotlines, where customers could call up and shout into the phone with a very friendly voice answering "I understand madam, it is our fault, shoemaker number 963 was sicked the other day...."

By all means, it is completely neccessary for any company under capitalism to grow to the strongest in order to survive, and to survive, it must be able to compete with competitors in amassing the largest amount of cash, market penetration and market share. Now, will Kings and Queens still queue up for its shoes? Does the very mentioning of the brand name of these shoes now carry the same weight of desirability? Larger bank accounts survive longer or an unreplaceable brand?

Yes, Ferrari is doing well, with the new California sold out, and 60% of buyers are people who've never owned a Ferrari. Ferrari had achieved their goals, they'll be earning record profits, the shareholders will be given more cash for them to splurge on their latest lusted afters. With Isofix child seats, a convertible hard top that offers luggage space even after the roof's folded down, and because of the roof, the California weighs 1800kg, something around the weight of a Toyota Estima MPV.

Is this what Fiat wants? Short term benefit for the shareholders at the expense of long term exclusivity? Do we want to see more Ferraris on the streets? Most importantly, do we still awe upon when we saw a Ferrari, or dream about one.

What Fiat really needs to do with Ferrari, is to let it remain as one of the most exclusive supercar makers that solidifies its superior position in brand, and let the technology filter down into closely related Alfa Romeos and Maseratis as their cash cows. Ferrari, should remain for the elites. This would ensure Ferrari to not open up the very top end of the market for manufacturers such as Pagani Zonda and Koeniggsegg to build upon a blank page of heritage and legacy of exclusivity left by Ferrari's with Isofix child seats, green engines and cheaper, smaller engine variants.

Moreover, what's the use of all the extra cash generated by the 'now-everyone-can-have-one-Ferraris'? For their shareholders to splurge their cash on highly exclusive Bugattis or Koeniggseggs?