FORD V. FERRARI

Generally, premium brands have widely angled funnels. Ferrari sold a record 13,221 cars in 2022, but hundreds of millions of people know about them, and, I’d argue, need to know about them. They’d sell even less if the brand wasn’t widely seen as a symbol of performance, premium Italian design, and wealth.

Meanwhile, Ford sold 4.2 million vehicles, or 32x Ferrari, in the same year. Still, Brand Finance consistently ranks the Ferrari brand as having more awareness, and more value, than Ford’s. Long story short: compared to Ferrari, Ford is very narrow-funnel brand.

FERRARI’S TOP-FUNNEL GROWTH

Its easy to assume legacy brands like Ferrari don’t need increased brand awareness, but their sales really took off after the 2019 film Ford v Ferrari. The 2023 film Ferrari further contributed to their rise, and today (June 2025) their market cap is more than double Ford’s ($90 billion vs $40 billion). Ferrari also invests heavily in top funnel marketing with actions like their $60mil F1 sponsorship.

There are many other factors at play but their upper-funnel growth materially contributes to their market cap and their bottom funnel expansion beyond cars: 50% of their revenue comes from licensing deals (source).

Last modified: August 7, 2025