Much like choosing a baby name or perfecting a sauce, in the automotive world, focus group testing is a necessary tedium of product development. Social science methods are designed to please as many potential customers as possible, treating customers like numbers more than human beings with names.
But for an automaker like Rolls-Royce, which peddled only 4063 automobiles last year—a sales record, no less—the process is far less scientific. As its product planners are ideating over The Next Bespoke Thing, all they really need to do is pick up the phone.
When they do, bedding industry mogul Michael Fux is expecting their call. Fux, a voracious collector of Rolls-Royces, among other high-end cars, is one of few customer viziers called upon to influence future product offerings—because he might actually shell out a six-figure sum to purchase one.
"I've been buying Rolls-Royce cars for a long, long time," Fux said. "They're a small car company and I'm like a family member. We have a great relationship."
For a devoted patron of the brand, he's been known to throw a challenge to the craftsmen already hard at work assembling each Rolls-Royce model by hand. At a recent concours event, when a purple flower caught Fux's eye, he plucked one and handed it to top management. "Build it this color," he told them.
"I kept the petal," he said.
Similarly, when Rolls-Royce was in the exploratory stages of bringing a sport-utility vehicle to market, Fux was the first on chief executive officer Torsten Muller-Otvos' shortlist. Was it a good idea?
Of the still unreleased SUV, Fux said, "I haven't seen it, but I've placed an order."
Chances are, his next order, a convertible of undisclosed spec, will not faze Goodwood's finest. They've already built him a Ferrari-yellow Phantom Drophead and a lime-green Wraith.
"I love to be the guy that gets the first car, and I love to be the guy who gets the first bespoke car," Fux said.
And he enjoys sharing the family love. To wit, Fux recently convinced the company to lend an extended-wheelbase Phantom for a year, to reward donors' philanthropic endeavors to build a family center at Monmouth Medical Center in New Jersey.
Like devoted family members, he said, "they never say no."
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