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Lamborghini CMO Federico Foschini · That Car Show

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  Hey, it's that car show and welcome to a bonus episode.
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  And what a bonus it is, because it's not every day I get to sit
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  down or at least stand next to the chief marketing and sales
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  officer of Lamborghini. Federico Foschini is not only
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  the most Italian man I've ever met, but he heads Polo Storica
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  and Lamborghini as well, which is their highly.
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  Regarded Heritage division. Thank you Jordan Russell at
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  Extension PR for connecting us. A quick heads up that we
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  recorded this in the middle of 60 Lamborghini Muras and their
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  owners and admirers at Pebble Beach this past Sunday.
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  So there is a bit of background noise.
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  That said, I bet you didn't see this one coming.
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  Neither did I. So enjoy.
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  It's 12 minutes with Lamborghinis Federico Foschini
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  and it's that car show. Hey, it's Ryan Barky from that
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  car show and I'm thrilled to be sitting down today with Federico
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  Foschini, the Chief Marketing and Sales Officer and Head of
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  Polo Storico at Lamborghini live from the Pebble Beach Concorde.
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  Federico, you've been with Lamborghini for I think almost 3
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  decades, Yes? Through the cases a lot.
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  That's an achievement, especially in this.
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  Is an achievement. It's also a sign that I'm
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  getting gold, but it's fine. But we all are right.
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  One thing we can't do anything about.
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  We cannot stop. That's.
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  If we stop is not a good science.
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  That's right. That's the worst side, right?
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  The 30 years you've spent with Lamborghini in near 30 years.
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  What do you think Lamborghini understands about its customers
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  now that maybe you didn't 10 or 20 years ago?
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  Well. I think that we learn a lot in
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  that moment in time at the beginning because the customer
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  base was much smaller. So we have a direct contact and
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  what we learn at the time is that we need to keep the
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  customer contact direct contact and is what we are trying even
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  if it's more difficult now to make also with a complete
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  different size. So when I entered Lamborghini we
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  were 200 employee and 200 car produced every year.
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  Now we are between 11 thousand 10,000 and 11,000 car per year
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  and we are almost 3 thousand 3500 people with Lamborghini.
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  So for sure, the size change, the, the dimension change, but
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  what we, we keep as a, let's say, a basic way to behave and
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  this part of our DNA is to stay close to listen to the class and
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  to speak with them and to be involved with this gathering.
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  That is for sure something that is surprising me after 20 years
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  to see all this mural together. But it's also the way to get in
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  touch with the people that maybe we're buying this car in all
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  times. And now they're preserving the
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  car in a very good way. And today we have this
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  incredible, you say, sight that we can see and this kind of it
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  is impressive. It really is.
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  It's such a thing to see. Just to be here in the middle of
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  the mall, it's really incredible.
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  It's surreal. So you touched on this a little
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  bit, but Lamborghini has managed to grow substantially, well,
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  still feeling exclusive, right? And I think that's a key thing.
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  So what do you think the line is between growing the business and
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  diluting the brand? That that's that's the magic.
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  That is what you have to percept.
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  I think that depending on the segment that you are playing as
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  there is a number of car that you have to produce and that you
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  can produce without diluting the brand.
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  Another point is that to be always new in the offer and
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  renovate your offer constantly in order to keep interest and
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  excite the customer and drive them along with the Lamborghini
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  history. But it's clear this is something
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  that is very difficult. We try always to do this.
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  Our growth is very, it is smooth, it's continuous, but
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  smooth. We never exaggerate, we never
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  inflate the market. We have a distribution around
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  the world that is very much balanced and it's creating a
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  moment like this where everything is durable and market
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  are opening and closing due to geopolitical situation.
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  Russia all Middle East important market for us.
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  And after you have to be able to rebalance and this is something
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  that we can do because we are always very conservative in
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  distributing car. But this is the name of the game
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  and is reflected after on the value of the pre owned car on
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  the market. So this is one of the barometer
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  that you need always to consider and to keep an eye on in order
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  to understand if what you are doing is not diluting the brand.
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  And one of the 1st signal is in case the price of the pre owned
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  car on the market. This is interesting for
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  collector and for repeat buyer is very important because.
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  Yeah, it's interesting. And of course, you know it's now
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  2026 and electrification has really come to the picture.
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  If I'm correct, you have described electrification as a
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  way to increase driver emotion, right, rather than compromise
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  it. So what surprised you most?
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  Just about how the traditional Lamborghini customers have
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  embraced or responded to this transition to electrification.
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  I think that as you mentioned in a proper way and we create an
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  acronymous that is HPAV instead of PHV that is high performance
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  electrified vehicle. This is how we call our, let's
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  say, pass to the electrification having hybridization of the
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  three model. Because we think that first of
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  all, this kind of transition, technological transition is all
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  aimed or not only aimed to reduce the emission and to
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  comply with the legislation, but mainly to increase not only the
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  performance. Because we are increasing the
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  power, we are increasing the torque, but also the level of
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  control that you can give to your customer.
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  And to drive a car of over 1000 horsepower in the past was
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  almost impossible. Now with what we are having in
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  terms of technology with the with three electric engines, the
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  battery is the V12 is keeping on one side the motion of the V12,
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  but on the other side for example is giving you a lot of
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  opportunity to discharge and to be able to have an easy driver
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  even if you are not a professional driver, but to feel
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  like a pilot while you are driving car of a such power.
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  So, and this is something that has been understood by our
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  customer because it's not just something that is diluting the
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  DNA, but is even announcing the DNA.
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  And our DNA is based on social design, futuristic design, but
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  performance and driving emotions.
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  How is that affected the way you market the cars?
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  At the end of the day, so we are always try to explain in a
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  sincere and transparent way what the car is about.
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  The mission is clear. These are dream car that we are
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  creating in order to let's say feed the need of, as I told you,
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  emotional design and emotional driving.
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  It's all about emotion. And this is the way that we are
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  trying to communicate on also when we are explaining the
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  technology because we have an incredible high level of
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  innovation and technological innovation.
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  But what is important for the customer is not the pure number
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  of the pure information is how this is translated in customer
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  experience. And customer experience is all
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  about emotional. Your masters at that it's it's
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  fun to watch. So ad personum with ad personum,
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  the vast majority of your cars know leave the factory with some
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  level of personalization. Do you see personalization
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  primarily as a revenue opportunity?
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  A customer experience tool? Increasingly a part of your
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  Lamborghini brand identity? I think the first thing is that
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  every one of these customer, especially the highest you get
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  in term of the value of the car and the reduced volume that you
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  are you are delivering. They want to have their own
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  product. And the good thing is not they,
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  they're not only empty just about the personalization, the
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  personalization itself, but what should we speak with the
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  customer during a configuration session that can last 3-4 hours
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  at least The first one, something that they enjoy the
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  experience itself, the experience to be part of the
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  creation of their own card. It comes when they have to
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  select the color, but also when there's the interior, the
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  combination. Maybe they can suggest color
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  that are not existing and you have to create for them.
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  And this is something that is something that is part of the
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  process of being an owner of a dream car like Lamborghini dream
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  car. And this is something that we
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  are announcing not only in terms of offer increase, but also in
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  terms of touchpoint that we can offer for the customer to stay
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  close also to the Lamborghini team, not only to the dealer,
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  but also to the Lamborghini team to exploit the maximum
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  opportunity. For example, here in the villa
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  that we have in People Beach, we have two configuration room and
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  there are people that are sitting continuously with our
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  expert together with the dealer in order to set up their
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  configuration and to create also some configuration that even not
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  existence. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's
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  fantastic. So you think there's an aspect
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  of Lamborghini's heritage that the company could be doing more
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  with? I think that we can always do
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  better and this is one of the assets that is moving as always
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  to try to improve. But for sure we grow a lot in
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  the sense starting with the Polo Historical creation in the 2015
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  Polo Historical is the department that is owning the
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  archive of the historical car, is doing the certification and
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  is doing the restoration. It's clear that is a word that
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  require a lot of effort, but it's something that we believe a
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  lot because it's the way to on one side preserve the history of
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  Lamborghini that is the base and the fundament of the future of
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  Lamborghini. Because if you are here because
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  we are the newer in the past as they couldn't touch.
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  And if the brand is here, it's because this car became economy.
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  But also to stay in touch with this customer that deserve to
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  have someone that they can refer to and can be only Lamborghini
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  in order to get the car preserved and certified in a
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  proper way, right, Right. Right.
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  You've spent so much of your career with Lamborghini.
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  Is there something about the brand that still excites you
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  that maybe we don't know about? I have.
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  To say so is the capability to be always unexpected.
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  It is one of our value together with let's say brave and
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  authentic. But I'm honest today when I came
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  here and they see all this career with all this color
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  combination, one different from the other thinking it is almost
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  the 10% of the overall production of the newer in the
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  livestock after 60 year and only year in America because a lot of
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  car went out of America. So not so for me, something that
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  is creating me an incredible emotion and an incredible
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  proudness of the impact of this of this brand.
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  So today I'm really feeling a lot of emotion that is not
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  normal because after 26 years, I'm used to have things that are
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  out of the ordinary. Because every day that I'm going
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  from the office to another department, I'm looking
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  incredible car and incredible technology.
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  But when I see something like this, really I'm a little bit.
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  So I'm very surprised, let's say.
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  Yeah, just the passion that's here.
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  It's just evidence. I mean, people are really into
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  the brand. People that maybe because
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  they're keeping this car always in shape are carpet for sure,
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  are very delicate to be maintained.
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  So it's something that is incredible.
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  You need passion. You need passion, Yeah.
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  Absolutely. Also because a lot of these
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  people were going on investing in this car where maybe also the
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  value of this car was not so strong as this today.
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  And because they believe in the brand and they understood that
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  this was that this car were iconic and they understood the
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  value of this car also for themselves also for personal
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  reward, not only for eventually resides the car.
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  And these are all loyal customers.
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  And would you say this is the most iconic Lamborghini ever?
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  I have to say that in the mindset of everybody is the most
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  iconic Lamborghini ever after I have to say that I am a guy of
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  the 70s, or at least I was born in the. 72.
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  So I am a boomer so and I was growing with the Kunta and for
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  me the Kunta was something that was really the spaceship and the
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  dream car. But in the mindset of everybody,
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  this is the starting point of the Lamborghini story.
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  Even if it was not the first car, but it was the car that
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  brought the Lamborghini brand on another dimension.
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  To inspire new models today. Yeah.
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  And we decided also this year also this time for the 6th
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  anniversary to celebrate with the contemporary ritual that is
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  another spaceship that is the Rewalto.
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  And we created 99 car already sold out for specific customer
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  that will use the color combinations, the different
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  color combinations, the Euro to trim to the mural to trim their
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  own car with specific logo and and the specific logo dedicated
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  to the mural and the 16. US, that's pretty fantastic.
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  Well, I want to be respectful of your time.
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  Federico Foschini, Head of Marketing and Polestorco at UH,
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  Lamborghini, thank you so much, Sir.
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  Thank you for joining us on that car show.
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  Cheers.