- What’s next? – a conversation with Sebastian Goller and Franz Rauch, managing directors of the legendary P1 nightclub in Munich.
- With each generation of customers, their ideals, desires and goals change, perhaps much quicker today than ever before.
- You not only have to really know your target group, but you also must anticipate it, ideally setting the trends yourself.
- As a brand, you have to keep reinventing yourself to be successful.
Shanghai/Munich, February 16, 2022 – Under the title “What’s next?”, Aiways is launching a series of interviews with people from industry, business, and politics. The fifth participants are Sebastian Goller and Franz Rauch, the father and son duo who run the legendary P1 nightclub in Munich’s Haus der Kunst museum building. Along with Aiways’ Vice President of Overseas Operations Dr. Alexander Klose, they discussed the changing values between different generations and how today we focus on completely different things compared with just a few years ago. Franz Rauch likes to quote the first P1 owner Alecco: “To be the best is an art.” “Because for that you have to really understand your target audience,” adds his son and now managing director, Sebastian Goller.
From Left: Rauch Sebastian Goller, Alexander Klose and Franz Rauch
What has made your brand so successful for decades?
Franz Rauch: “To be “in” is a momentary phenomenon, to be the best is an art” – that’s how Alecco summed it up aptly back in 1968. And we still stand behind this saying today. Because we have reinvented ourselves again and again, with new concepts and complex changes, but we have always remained true to our core.”
Why did you have to keep reinventing yourself?
Franz Rauch: “It’s not just fashion and music that’s changing, people’s expectations and dreams are changing too. And it’s not just about the habits of going out, the car is a much better and much more everyday example. At 18, I not only already had my driving license, I also had to have a car straight away. You put all your money into this motor vehicle, the main thing was that it looked the part. It’s completely different today, sometimes I have the feeling that the car is almost a burden for my children.”
Sebastian Goller: “Actually, I have to think about where my car is currently parked. I really rarely drive it, not at all in the city anyway, and if I do, then only to go somewhere with friends or to buy something large!”
Dr Alexander Klose (Aiways’ Vice President of Overseas Operations): “So you would be the perfect customer for a mobility service provider. Owning a car is no longer a desirable goal for many people, especially in the city. Mobility, on the other hand, will continue to be needed. Of course, as a manufacturer, we take a very close look at this in order to be able to offer the best product. In our industry, of course, you also have to react to trends, but the development cycles of a car alone – something that used to take five years or longer – requires us to have great foresight.”
What is the best way to respond to trends and new needs?
Sebastian Goller: “You have to understand the different generations. And by that I don’t just mean personal taste, but what defines a whole generation. We all know the terms today: Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z, Millennials, Boomers. But behind these buzzwords are above all concrete ideals and needs. So there’s no point in sticking to a concept just because it was good, you have to keep your finger on the pulse in order to stay ahead in the future.”
Dr Alexander Klose: “The example with your own car is a very good comparison. Where things like performance, displacement and acceleration used to play a major role in the development and marketing of a car, the interests are completely different today. That’s why we made a conscious decision in favor of a practical family car with the Aiways U5 SUV. It offers plenty of space, comes with comprehensive equipment and state-of-the-art driver assistance systems, making it the perfect entry-level package for electromobility, at an unrivaled price. Because that’s what our customers want: a car without gimmicks.”
What sets you apart from the competition?
Dr Alexander Klose: “Definitely dispensing with the unnecessary and concentrating on the essentials. I’ve already mentioned the space and price, but there are also details, such as not having your own navigation system. On the one hand, this not only saves millions in development costs, but it also makes operation easier for the customer. He uses the car just like his smartphone and is always up to date with the latest technology.”
Franz Rauch: “An exciting approach. You also have to be honest with yourself: Google wasn’t the first search engine and Apple didn’t invent the mobile phone. But they took an idea one step further and made it successful. This is how we have guided P1 through the decades. It all started with the idea of opening a club in the style of bars in New York, with theme parties, stars and just this unique ambience. We weren’t the first to do this internationally, but we were the first in Germany.”
Sebastian Goller: “And on this basis we have repeatedly rethought our idea of the perfect club. We are still the club for everyone today, and it is exactly this mix that makes it so appealing. Everyone is welcome at P1 and this diversity is part of our sustainable success, because regular guests can celebrate here just as well as tourists who are only in Munich for one night.”
How do you derive your ideas for the future from this?
Franz Rauch: “The last two years have certainly been very special for us in the gastronomy and events sector. You wouldn’t have got very far with classic business plans. Our advantage is that we know our target audience very well and have therefore been able to break new ground. One example is the afternoon terrace. It was a new idea and a complete success. It’s things like these fresh concepts that solidify and advance you as a brand.”
Sebastian Goller: “Things like our lifestyle collection and planned cooperations are topics for the future that will strengthen and expand our P1 brand. Even supposedly small changes, such as the contactless payment option in the club with WeChat Pay and Alipay, are ideas that take our customers’ user behavior into account. We also want to be more advanced here in the future and are therefore also monitoring digital developments very closely.”
Dr Alexander Klose: “That applies to us as well, even more so, our customer of tomorrow is perhaps only 13 or 14 years old today. If we can offer them a positive first contact with the Aiways brand today, then there is a good chance that they will choose one of our products in the future. This is precisely why it was important to us to put a great family car on the road with the U5 SUV.”
