• Los Angeles Times/Financial Times, Monday, February 19, 2007 1:15 PM

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. has a very exclusive target market: People with liquid assets of at least $30 million. While it does some limited print ads, it primarily reaches them through dinner parties, personally signed letters from the CEO and custom-car features.

The British super-luxury brand, owned by Germany's BMW, sells barely 800 cars a year. Retail prices for the company's Phantom cars start at $400,000. Models with many customized features can cost millions, making every sale made--or lost--an event for the carmaker.

The marque's main point of contact with existing and potential customers is through its 79 independently owned dealerships worldwide. It chooses dealers that "live in the same world, drive the same cars, have the same yachts and aircraft" as its customers, says Ian Robertson, Rolls-Royce's chairman and CEO.

A dealership in London's Mayfair organizes lunches and dinners for "like-minded people" who often transact millions of pounds' worth of business that has nothing to do with cars, but gives the events added cachet.

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