Branding 101

The Saleen Store grand opening. Now here's a guy with a vision.


We attended the Grand Opening of the Saleen Store in Irvine, a fantastic showroom and salon-like environment for the common man to take hold of the dream. Saleen Mustangs, the new Saleen truck, the Saleen assembled Ford GT and, of course, the ever sleek Saleen S7... three of them to be exact. Steve Saleen has seen his brand destiny and is charging toward it.

In addition to the 200,000 sq. ft. assembly complex in Michigan, known as Saleen, Troy, the Saleen company is moving toward the assumed goal of branding - making the company a household name. While the displays in the store covered the range of clothing to performance accessories, the overall identity fell a bit short. We get that it's all about the Saleen brand, however we never understood our place in the food chain. While we would love to plunk down the $500K+ for a new S7, we're a bit short this month. Something a good branding exercise should always tell you is where you fit in... at what level you are 'allowed' to buy in.

While the store was beautiful, the displays were average. The one exception was the Mustang, carefully sliced in half to reveal all of the inner workings of everything from supercharger to the hvac system. That was cool.

With the driving simulators, (with additional cost to test drive anything other than an S7) to the N2O bar, boutique water and O2 shots for those who couldn't catch their breaths over the sight of the cars to the casual but sparse displays of performance parts; overall the brand impact felt just a bit light. We didn't see many people buying into the accessories, clothing or memorabilia, just a large number wandering about in search of their place in the food chain.

Never leave them wandering Steve, tell them where to buy in.

photos from the visit