The changing face of Maserati buyers

Maserati is a storied brand, backed by a motor racing heritage going back decades. That may explain why the company boasts a clientele almost exclusively male.

But that is steadily changing, according to Maserati Australia COO, Glen Sealey.

Still relatively new to the market, the Ghibli has nabbed a higher share of female buyers than its larger sibling, the Quattroporte, right from its introduction last year. However, says Sealey, the QP is gradually changing the balance with more female buyers settling on the large Italian sedan. And between the Ghibli and at least one sport model, Maserati is raising its own brand recognition – and consequently sales – with female buyers.

"If I looked at our average buyer in 2010, it was 98 per cent male... and 49 to 50 years of age. That's the average," said Sealey.

"Today we're seeing that age difference come right down – and we've also seen the propensity of female buyers come right up."

"We're well over four per cent now. In fact in some cases, for example GranCabrio we're 35 per cent female.

"Quattroporte is still a fairly male-focussed car. If we were able to get 10 per cent female audience in this, it would be quite a good number. Whereas, if I said that in GranCabrio, that would be a disaster. And Ghibli is also heavily skewed towards female audience as well.

Sealey says too that no longer is the typical Maserati buyer a self-made captain of industry. Particularly in the post-Ghibli era, buyers are just as likely to be PAYG employees, albeit on a pretty decent wage.

"What we've also seen, if I go back to 2010, nearly all our buyers were owners of their own business; they were entrepreneurs, literally owning their own business.

"What we're seeing more now is more CEOs, more CFOs, more paid individuals coming into the brand... but they've always got that entrepreneurial thinking; they've always got that 'want to enjoy life' [philosophy]. It's not about getting from A to B, it's about enjoying the ride as you go. It's that thought process that's important to this brand."