A hundred Rolls-Royce cars paraded through London early this month, from vintage Ghost to the latest Phantom, to celebrate 100 years of the brand's flying lady emblem - the ‘Spirit of Ecstasy'. The parade proceeded past landmarks that are significant in Rolls-Royce's 107-year old history, including Westminster Abbey, where a glass window is dedicated to Sir Henry Royce.

Among the hundred cars was a 1911 Ghost, with Richard Carter, Director of Global Communications, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd, behind the wheel. The brand will also unveil 100 specially bespoke centenary edition cars in Geneva during an auto expo in March. The company expects to announce the sale of all 100 to collectors across the world at the expo.

Communicating an iconic and legendary luxury statement like Rolls-Royce in today's marketing environment is bound to throw up its own set of challenges. BrandLine caught up with Carter during his recent trip to India. Surprisingly, the pinnacle of luxury is even on Facebook - with good reason. Rolls-Royce's youngest customer in the world is from India - a 24-year-old self-made entrepreneur. In the Indian market, the luxury car maker expects to sell over 100 cars in 2011, up from 80 in 2010. The price tag is in the range of Rs 2 to 2.5 crore (Ghost) and Rs 3.5 to 4 crore (Phantom). Globally, Rolls-Royce sold 2,700 cars in 2010.

Excerpts from Carter's conversation with BrandLine:

Spirit of Ecstasy

The Spirit of Ecstasy has an interesting history and an enduring legacy. It's an emblem so well known that people want to celebrate its centenary. For the first seven or eight years of Rolls-Royce, there was no ornament on the hood of the car. The Spirit of Ecstasy was created because the management was upset about the kind of ornaments people were putting on their cars. Some of them were not very tasteful: fat policemen, statues of their mothers, tigers, the works!

We tried to think of an appropriate way to celebrate the centenary of this iconic statuette, identified the world over with Rolls-Royce. What better way than to take a 100 Rolls-Royces, all displaying their Spirit of Ecstasy proudly, around key cities? We started with London, and there is a lot of room to replicate that sort of event in Capitals around the world where we have a large historical following. It follows, therefore, that a place such as Mumbai or Delhi is key for such a parade. Wouldn't it be lovely to see a 100 magnificent Rolls-Royce cars, modern and old, parading through the streets of Mumbai? We're working on a calendar for these events.

For the royalty - and the ‘arrived'

In some Capitals around the world, Rolls-Royce is a fairly new phenomenon. In Beijing or Shanghai, 15 or 20 years ago, Rolls-Royce, like many other Western brands, was unknown. When we went into China, we had to build the knowledge of the brand from zero. And we've been very successful doing that. We've done that not so much on the back of the historicity of the brand, but on the Chinese love of handicraft, of bespoke, of craftsmanship. In India too, there is a great love for handiwork and craftsmanship, and there's also a huge amount and depth of history here on our side.

Legacy, where appropriate, is a great power to the brand. In a market where the legacy is not entirely understood or appreciated, the brand stands on its own feet because of its authenticity and perfection. In countries where there is a long history, our legacy is a very powerful tool.

India is among the best examples of the changing demographic of Rolls-Royce customers. Yes, one would think of Maharajas and the British colonial times when they think Rolls-Royce, but the changing demographic of our customers is such that our youngest customer in the world is here, in India - a 24-year-old self-made entrepreneur.

Younger people, self-made entrepreneurs, people who have made money in property and construction, bankers, IT professionals, metals - you name it, and they are coming to us at a much younger age.

Rolls-Royce can Tweet?

We wonder how important and appropriate it is to be on Facebook, or on Twitter, or to have online press conferences. We could be placing our Goodwood plant in publications which are non-traditional (in terms of where we think our customers are). But should we? That's a really challenging aspect of our brand building. And it's challenging because of our customer base.

The question is, are we reaching our customer with the media visibility we generate? Are we creating demand?

Our customers are unquestionably the most unique people in the world. They are obviously wealthy, obviously demanding, and they are not used to taking no for an answer. They are used to tonnes of assistance - PAs, pilots, and maybe captains of their yachts. And when they come to us, they want exactly the same thing.

Their car is their fingerprint - it's highly individual. They want customer service of enormous levels. Their expectations of Rolls-Royce are exceptionally high.

We find that our customers consume an enormous amount of electronic media, because it's immediate. They like to absorb news, business news, market news. We find that our customers absorb printed matter that relates to their leisure activities.

Are they on Facebook? Unlikely. Are they Tweeting? Many of them are. But they are Tweeting to be followed, not to follow.

Does this mean we should not be on Facebook and Twitter? Not at all. We should be, because the people who are out there on Facebook right now, are the savvy sorts who will be our customers tomorrow. The people who are using social media with savvy, to tell others where they are, what parties are on, and so on, are the ones who will make money and be our customers tomorrow. It's an investment in the future market.

Rolls-Royce is everywhere - Facebook, Twitter, blogs; we've now launched electricluxury.com for our experimental electric car. We've got iPad and iPhone applications, which we've received a lot of laurels for. The iPhone application is a configurator, where you can actually configure a Rolls-Royce Ghost.

The Indian and Chinese markets

There are some commonalities in the profile of our customers the world over, and some unique traits. Gifting, for instance, is a not insignificant part of our business. In parts of the world, including here in India, wedding gifts are huge tokens of love and esteem. It's a similar thing in West Asia, where a lot of gifting takes place at the end of Ramadan. In China too, gifting is big.

There are many similarities between China and India. India is perhaps a few years behind in the trajectory, but we have no doubt that India is a fabulous market on the grow. It's terribly important that the India growth story really succeeds, because this democracy must grow massively, to balance the enormous growth out of China. We're relying on you guys.

Communication to both these audiences is very different because the media markets are different. India allows for quite sophisticated communication techniques including Web-based, viral and mailed communication. In China on the other hand, we attend about 40 motor shows a year.

Like India, the customer demographic in China is also a lot younger. It's also a market full of the recently wealthy, and many of the Rolls-Royce buyers are first-time buyers.

Make the best cars. The rest will follow.

Rolls-Royce is as much about the journey as it is about arrival and departure. To arrive at the Oscars, you might want a Phantom. So how do we build on the awe Rolls-Royce evokes?

By simply making the best cars. By manufacturing the pinnacle in automobiles. People who are looking for it, and have the means to acquire it, will know where to find it.

(As told to Gokul Krishnamurthy)

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