Design Forum Creates New Facilities Image for Porsche Dealerships

    DAYTON, Ohio--March 20, 2001--Design Forum worked with Porsche Cars of North America, Inc. (PCNA) to create a retail experience that strengthens the Porsche brand as synonymous with their heritage of excellence in performance, superb engineering and timelessness. The new 18,000 square foot facility operated by Automobiles E. Lauzon, Inc., one of PCNA's 205 North American dealers, is located in Quebec, Canada.
    The new facility is designed with a curving, engineered metal facade that rivets your focus on the "keyhole" of glass making the vehicle command attention and draws you into the "vehicle gallery" where the car is displayed in front of a backdrop of Porsche graphic excitement. Once inside, the reception area, sales consultation and design center all work to enhance the selection and purchase phases of the relationship between the dealer and the customer. Semi-private sales consultation areas provide a comfortable space for customers to discuss new car purchases, and interactive technology allows the customer to visualize different colors and materials on the vehicle. A retail parts and Porsche selection boutique selling aftermarket accessories provides brand reinforcement and helps promote add-on sales.
    Scott Jeffrey, senior vice president of design and planning said, "The design was developed as a prototype of the future, launching the worldwide vision of The Porsche Facilities Image Program, that is adaptable to a three tiered-level -- new dealerships, retrofit existing dealership and multi-line dealership."
    Lauzon is the first dealership to develop The Porsche Facilities Image Program, a cooperative worldwide interior and exterior design effort, to communicate the Porsche image to potential customers and reinforce the brand to their existing customers. Dealers are investing approximately $300 million of their own money in the project and at the present time forty-four percent of Porsche dealers have committed to The Porsche Facilities Image Program and thirty-five percent have launched their redesigns.