Most major auto manufacturers have at least two different marques under which they sell their vehicles (Ford and Lincold, Nissan and Infiniti, Toyota Hino and Lexus, etc.), and this is usually done to preserve the prestige of a certain brand, or to aid with marketing efforts.
My idea is that, when naming your car, you would also get to choose the marque under which it is sold. If all of the vehicles in that marque reach a certain threshold for a certain stat, and can hold onto that threshold (which should be above whatever the industry average is) for an extended period, then that marque gets a small bonus to desireability for consumers. For example, truck buyers might flock to Hillbilly Industrial because that marque has a really good reputation for reliability, while a family looking for a station wagon would go to TotallyNotAVolvo because of a really good reputation for safety. Obviously, you would lose this bonus very quickly if your quality in that stat ever fell.
However, in order to prevent abuse, I would also suggest that different marques require entirely different advertising campaigns, which would be expensive, and also that setting up each marque incurs some administrative costs initially as well as to keep it running.
Obviously, I don’t know how the Tycoon portion will turn out to work so this idea may be completely irrelevant. But if not, I think it would be fun.
Sub-brands are planned for the game exactly for the reasons you state. Reliability and reputation with certain market demographics don’t go well with others.
Reliability and reputation with certain market demographics don’t go well with others. Does that mean that a certain sub-brand (like a marque known for great gas mileage or what have you) may stigmatize that sub-brand against buyers of vehicles outside of that sub-brand’s specialty?
Let’s say: Ferrari releases a compact city car… it will definitely be REALLY popular with the premium city car buyers, but not so much with the people already owning their supercars. We’ll make sure that happens, all intricacies of that aren’t worked out yet though.
I don’t know if this has been asked before, but what about, in addition to sub-brands, changing a model name for different markets?
No differences in the model (except maybe a different transmission option, or motor due to emissions laws differing by country) but except the name.
Example - The Subaru Legacy, as it’s known in the US, is sold as the Subaru Liberty in Australia, and in some other markets as the Subaru B4.
Would that be something we could do without having to literally construct another trim of the same car?
Also, a follow-up question I didn’t realize I had until now: Will there be different emissions/fuel types depending on the market/country the vehicle is sold in (Like how the US doesn’t get any good small diesel cars)?
Or different saftey standards (Like how the US can’t get LR Defenders anymore)?
Sorry, I didn’t search, I just thought of these in this thread.
If there is no difference, then why would you want to rename it? This only complicates things unnecessarily.
What you are thinking of (different transmission options, etc.) is a completely different trim that has different stats. Of course that can and should have a different name to not cause confusion.
If it’s different in any way, it needs a new trim.
Yes! That is important and will already be part of the very first rough implementations of the first tycoon elements in the next big update.
So does this mean different regions will have different cars like how the e36 m3 in America got a 240hp engine compared to europes 300 odd horsepower engine or how most US spec cars have less horsepower then the same European equivalent.
I think you’d only change the name of a car if there was something different about it, like the new Miata, Japan’s version is about 100 pounds lighter and uses a smaller engine, you could rename it then, or if you sell it under a different sub brand with the exact same parts, like the Fiat Freemont?
It’s a bit of a rough idea, and I just sort of thought of it then and there, but it can have a lot to do with the different markets, and the company reputation you mentioned earlier.
Say I am doing very well selling lots of more family cars, hatchs in the US market, but I have another marque of higher end sports cars over in the UK. Stateside rep of brand-1 is very high, but over in the UK it’s a virtual unknown, whereas brand-2 is a household name, albeit a very expensive one. Now I decide that one of my better equipped brand-1 cars would do well in the UK market, and I want to sell it there, but it could be dangerous to sell a new car from a brand no one drives there, so i decide to sell it through my brand-2 dealerships, as a brand-2 car.
No changes to the model whatsoever, no trim or even cosmetic differences, I just want to capitalize on the rep of brand-2 to sell a brand-1 car, so maybe I’d really like the car to have a different marque/name in the other market - basically a captive import, but I am the owner and CEO of both companies.
I think that spells it out very well, but I can go on if I have to…?
This was my original point, if we could just change the name for no real reason other than it being a different market, and that we wanted to do it. I think it’s very cool, but I could see it not being truly necessary (still want it though).
I am glad that I at least got the “yes” from the boss that we could release a model through different marques, but I feel like this foreign naming scheme would complete the idea.
I doubt they would be that specific, especially as we don’t see the inside of the cars. Its probably going to be emissions and safety standards, fuel types, and maybe engine size laws, that differ region to region and you’ll have to decide whether to invest the extra money and time to build a “world car” that’s good for all markets or to just sell specific cars to specific markets.
LHD/RHD is pretty important for market segregation, we just discussed this issue in the team and came to the conclusion that this definitely is needed. It won’t be “visible”, but something you can choose when you come to the engineering section (after the final testing tab).
Does that mean that a certain sub-brand (like a marque known for great gas mileage or what have you) may stigmatize that sub-brand against buyers of vehicles outside of that sub-brand’s specialty?
We’ll make sure that happens, all intricacies of that aren’t worked out yet though.