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SP Let's start with something we agree on. There's not much to fault about Ferrari's current range of cars, is there?
PH No, they're fabulous. That's why we filled last month's magazine with them. They look and sound and go and handle better than ever. They're better-made and more usable. Heck, even the ones that have been criticised as off-brand - FF, Cali - are far and away the raciest cars of their kind.
SP But you must admit some of Ferrari's wider business activities have more than a whiff of Stilton about them. There are now some two dozen Ferrari stores around the world, flogging everything from Prancing Horse-branded leather jackets to bathing shorts to domino sets to cigar boxes to carbon-fibre photo frames and any other Maranello-infested nonsense you can imagine. There's even - and I'm not making this up - a rosso corsa Ferrari hatbox, yours for £238. Shipping not included. Anyone who buys a rosso corsa Ferrari hatbox is not someone I want to have a drink with.
Read our official verdict on the Ferrari La Ferrari
PH Unless it's their round.
SP Or how about the must-have ‘F1 Pad Line' charm? Yep, it's a pendant, to hang from a necklace or somesuch, in the shape of an F1 steering wheel. At a competitive £106, it's the perfect way to say to your other half: "I love you, but not as much as I love F1 steering wheels."
PH OK, you've sniffed out the crap. It does exist in the Ferrari Store. But, to be honest, there's less of it every year. Most of the stuff they sell is branded clothing and watches, just like Porsche and Aston and every other big brand. For myself, I wouldn't be seen dead wearing Ferrari-branded leisurewear, but then I don't care for anything conspicuously logo'd. But this is 2014 and most people don't think that way. People want their choices validated by having a large square footage of brand. This is ‘brand' not just in the modern definition of the symbol and spirit of a commercial entity, but in its more primitive sense of a stamp of ownership. Just as a rancher would buy and mark his herd of cattle, Ferrari has gained ownership of its followers. That is Ferrari's brilliance.
SP Thing is, I'm not against merchandise per se, but you have to concede that selling a Ferrari race-suit Babygro might undermine the exclusivity of Maranello's road cars.
PH The road cars have little to do with it. People aren't wearing Ferrari T-shirts to align themselves with an expensive road-car manufacturer, but with a sports outfit. It's like wearing Manchester United gear.
SP Ferrari has a football team?
PH No, it has an F1 team. See, if the race team has supporters, and they promote the team through their leisurewear, that doesn't just feed profits to Ferrari through selling the clothes. It also provides a long-term marketing lever, because the visibility of the Ferrari name is raised, and the promotion of the road cars is accomplished with a lower budget. That leaves more to spend on engineering. And by making its merchandise reassuringly expensive, Ferrari is making sure it's promoted only on the burnished bodies of a suitably wealthy and brand-aligned clientele. The lumpen poor are excluded from wearing the Prancing Horse.
SP Pretty zealously excluded. Don't I remember a story of Ferrari buying up truckloads of counterfeit Prancing Horse merch, spreading it all out on the road and running it over with a steamroller? Did that really happen?
Written By:- Sam Philip & Paul Horrell
More of this article on the Top gear website