Porsche Opts for Regional Marketing

Porsche Cars North America Inc. plans to restructure its operations and boost spending by 15% in the new year, as it shifts to a more regional approach to marketing.

The auto maker also plans to revise its field-support organization to better address dealer and customer needs, with plans to add 50 employees. PCNA expects to double sales within the next few years.

“We will make a major change in our field organization. We will divide the continent into three areas, and we will implement three managers with full responsibility (for their respective territories),” Peter Schwarzenbauer, president and CEO of PCNA, tells journalists. “We will try to bring our brand and our products closer to the customer, which means we will do much more local events.”

The strategic shift will boost employment at PCNA from the current 250 to 300 during the next three years.

PCNA plans to develop more local marketing programs similar to the Porsche Driving Experience, which launched last year in Birmingham, AL. Schwarzenbauer says the company is scouting locations across the U.S. and Canada for smaller-scale versions of the program, which has been a huge success.

More than 1,000 Porsche owners already have gone through the driving school, and reservations are booked for the next nine months.