The internet is in violent agreement again.
Ferrari launches the Luce, its first electric car, and the verdict arrives immediately: “The problem is not the car. The problem is the brand.” or maybe both.
We heard the same thing when Jaguar launched its new direction. But I think this reaction misses the point.
A brand is not a museum of its past.
Most people confuse a brand with the visible signs they already know. Red. Sound. Speed. Scarcity. The scream of the engine. The mythology of Maranello. These are powerful brand assets. But they are not the brand. A brand is not a museum of its past. A brand is a system for creating value under changing conditions.
Ferrari has never been only about combustion. It has been about desire, performance, beauty, danger, mastery, status, and theater. The real question is not whether the Luce looks like the Ferrari people expected.
The real question is whether Ferrari can translate its meaning into a new world. Can it make silence feel powerful? Can it make electric mobility feel sensual? Can it make a new form of luxury feel inevitable? Can it make ultra-wealthy customers want something they did not yet know they wanted? That is brand strategy.
A great brand is the power to make the future feel desirable before the market is ready to understand it.
Not consistency for its own sake. Not novelty for its own sake. But the disciplined reinvention of desire. The backlash may prove Ferrari made a mistake. Or it may prove something else:
That many people still think a brand is the memory of what made a company famous. It is not. A great brand is the power to make the future feel desirable before the market is ready to understand it.