Beginning in 1948 with the introduction of its first sports car, the 356, Porsche has retained its automotive DNA, epitomized by the iconic 911, while also successfully extending their premium image through SUVs, SUV crossovers, and sedans with the Cayenne, Macan, and Panamera. With masterful control in all areas of branding including engineering, design, customer management, and storytelling, Porsche is still firmly pioneering the 21st century luxury car market.
Welcome to the 70th edition of B.
Sitting at the desk of a new company and scanning through the B editions lined up on the bookshelf, the monthly frenzy throughout the past seven years come alive ever so vividly. Through our past editions, subscribers who have shown an abiding interest and support for B remain our most pride-inducing accomplishment. Watching the magazine develop into a trusted brand and witnessing the birth of Still Books, the bookstore built on our collective ideas, I want to take this moment to thank my colleagues for making it this far, despite the difficulties along the way.
The brand featured this month is an automobile company which everyone is familiar with—Porsche. It’s a brand that has marked many well-known turning points in the history of automobiles. Being the expensive dream car of every man in the world, with its price as lofty as its stature, Porsche is a brand that not many people (considering its reputation) have had the pleasure of a hands-on experience. For most, it’s a brand that is more familiar as a poster that decorated their walls as youths. Needless to say, the name is synonymous with “success,” or the journey to it.
Fans describe the Porsche 911 Carrera as a practical sports car you can drive to work every day. In other words, along with the superior performance of a sports car, it also provides the comfort of a sedan. I believe that this sensibility—the exquisite balance between an ideal and reality—is the unique quality that makes Porsche the celebrated brand that it is today. In that sense, Porsche is not only a technology company manufacturing and selling high-performance vehicles, but is also a quintessential marketing agency that designs human desire.
Porsche is a symbol of the modern man’s materialistic dreams. Take Ben, for example, the protagonist of the Changdong Lee film Burning, who owns a Porsche 911: in almost every scenario portraying high-life living, a Porsche makes an appearance as a symbol of success. Nevertheless, as everyone knows, a car (as a means of transportation, which is its essential function) doesn’t necessarily need mind-blowing design or capacity. And for what it’s worth, not everyone who owns a Porsche looks cool. Rather, Porsche drivers have often been perceived as pompous blowhards. Regardless of the cars or clothes, coolness comes from knowing how to present yourself with an uncompromising style that suits your specific life.
But aside from however the image of Porsche is consumed, B wanted people to pay attention to the brand’s ability to deliberately beautify, commodify, and market human desire. Even in a price range far from that of automobiles, there are brands that cater to the vanities of everyday life—that come in the shape of cosmetics or even pens—and this is because it’s only natural that we surround ourselves with products that satisfy the different materialistic and intellectual appetites in our lives.
Beyond an understanding of Porsche as a luxurious, stylish brand, I hope that this edition of B offers a fresh perspective on the way the automobile company handles various human desires.
Publisher
Suyong Joh
Intro
Publisher’s Note
The Dream Car
Admirations of Porsche and 24 their praise-worthy features in the media
Meet the Drivers
The value of the Porsche brand as testified by the members of the Porsche Club of America
Opinion
Karl-Heinz Volz, Head of Customer Center Individualization
Personalization
Step-by-step process of custom Porsche manufacture at Porsche Exclusive
Origin
The high-performance components hidden inside the body
Engineering
Eight key elements that characterize Porsche engineering
Opinion
Jinpyo Kim, Coach of Kumho Tire’s Ecsta Racing Team
Attraction
The brand as experienced by Porsche owners
Lifestyle
Stylish elements found in the personal spaces and lifestyles of Porsche owners
Opinion
Alexander E. Klein, Classic Car Collection Manager, Porsche Museum
In California
The status of Porsche and the car culture in the automotive mecca of Southern California
In Tokyo
Porsche culture in Tokyo, the city of aficionados
Brand Story
Why Porsche has become the world’s most desired sports car
Porsche Design Studio
21st-century brand imaging and the future of dealerships seen through the Porsche Design Studio in Milan
Insiders
The Porsche philosophy, people, and design defined by the insiders at Porsche
Talks
The secret to Porsche’s success as told by automotive journalists
Interview
Detlev von Platen, Member of the Executive Board for Sales and Marketing at Porsche AG
Figures
The glory days of Porsche and the scale of its current success seen through numbers
References
Outro
PUBLICATION RIGHT
- Publisher Suyong Joh
- Executive Director Myungsoo Kim
- Content & Editorial Director Eunsung Park
- Senior Editor Heather Yoo
- Lead Editors Chanyong Park, Jean Kim
- Editors Jaewoo Seo, Narae Kim, Sol Lyu
- Photographer Miyeon Yoon
- English Translation Seoul Selection
- Managing & Editing Jean Kim
- Art Direction & Design Gyeongtak Kang
- Assistant Design Yoonjung Jang
- Marketing Hyunjoo Kim
- Sales & Distribution Sanghoon Kim, Suyeon Kim
- Correspondents Mihye Nam (Tokyo), Lena Shin (LA), Alex Seo (London), Sanghyeok Lee (Berlin), Hyeseon Jeong (Paris)
- Advisory Dongheon Shin
- Publishing JOH
REFERENCES
- Porsche 70 Years: There Is No Substitute
- Porsche Sounds
- One More Than 10: Singer and the Porsche 911
- 000 Magazine
- Christophorus
- Classic Porsche
- Motorhead Magazine
- Porsche: Decades of Disruption