Lamborghini the lifestyle brand

Lamborghini recently released this video of the new Gallardo LP-560-4, their redesign of the baby (and sometimes questioned to be a genuine) Lambo. It seems from this video that the boys in Italy (and Germany as they are owned by VW/Audi Group), that they are shifting their perspective and trying to create what seems to be a more lifestyle geared branding experience. 

What do I mean by this? Watch the video and notice that the concepts they associate with this vehicle are A) attracting women B) general hoonage C) social climbing/status. Its interesting because none of these have to do with the increased performance or obvious function of the vehicle itself.

This is nothing new – plenty of brands focus their vehicles this way – but I suppose I didn't perceive it to be quite so overt from the Italian camps. Now in contrast – Ferrari is a lifestyle, but a lifestyle of pure, hardcore performance – not about getting phone-numbers. I'm actually really curious about what lifestyle Lamborghini is trying to promote because the substantive value this video suggests is fairly pathetic. 

Lets be honest – the type of individual who puts forth the money for a supercar is generally of a limited scope of marketing profiles. We can assume there is the type of individual who seeks to better his or her life with the purchase of the top type of vehicle – whose very performance and ownership experience and brand history will all factor in to the purchasing decision. In contrast to this we can probably assume that there is the newly rich either rapper, footballer (soccer) or socialite whose barometer of self and brand awareness is a bit off and probably understands that Lamborghinis are cool cars, expensive, look crazy and drive really fast. They buy it because of the reasons mentioned in the paragraph above and they love the attention it brings them. Drive down to Holllywood on any Thurs, Fri, Sat and you will see this guy with his buddy cruising around the strip in his Gallardo trying to pull girls on their way to the club and since the car only has to seats, the girls can casually 'sit on the guys lap.'

Does this move to play directly to the target market instead of the aspirational market serve as a positive choice? In my opinion, it probably devalues the brand because instead of elevating it and how it provides betterment (in real ways) of your life, it just maintains the status quo of what seems to be a garish and shallow group of nouveau-riche, whose primary concerns in life are doing donuts, purchased social status, attracting women on the street and territoriality; all of which are quite simply basest principles. They do nothing to elevate the consumer, nothing to suggest a higher set of values – in fact it I would suggest it probably takes your avg. consumer and brings him down to this unprincipled way of life as it does the brand. 

I suppose in my naivete its easy for me to cast aspersions upon the marketing of such a historic brand. Yet unlike a generally uninformed opinion – my rule is that one should always seek to target the aspirational buyer for any product because you want to promise AND deliver items which serve to inspire, elevate and motivate.