Last November, we reported on Porsche’s first ‘alternative ownership’ initiative, Porsche Passport [1]. In summary, we believed the subscription service didn’t make sense for the Porsche brand.
Seven months later, Porsche announced Porsche Drive, essentially a valet-enabled short-term rental service, in several European countries and the province of Quebec. Also available, by some reports, in Atlanta, GA, which hosts the head office of Porsche’s American subsidiary.
A few days ago, Porsche announced Porsche Host, launching October 8 in Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA. This is a peer-to-peer carsharing service run with partner Turo, using privately-owned Porsche models delivered by their owners, who have some (undefined) degree of special training.
In our opinion, Porsche Drive belongs in the makes Porsche brand sense column. Porsche Host joins Porsche Passport somewhere else—how many Porsche owners do you think want to lend their treasure to complete strangers, even if they’re vetted? And if owners are doing it for the money, what kind of brand ambassadors will they be for Porsche?
It’s starting to look like Porsche is willing to throw every form of alternative ownership it can think of against the wall to see what sticks.
That’s exactly what Porsche Digital, Inc is doing. It’s a new Silicon Valley-based Porsche subsidiary launched six months before Porsche Passport. It employs 100 people eager to justify their long term existence. Old-school pasta cookers are in charge of Porsche’s digitization strategy. Messing up small, select parts of the global kitchen wall.
- Marketing Wilderness: PORSCHE AS A SERVICE?.
