Simon Sproule, director of marketing and communications at Aston Martin Lagonda, shares his vision for global expansion, and why the brand’s partnership with James Bond is so important.

Aston Martin is a small company, in the scheme of things in the global auto industry, but it also occupies a very unique place. It recently turned 102 years old and, unlike other luxury car brands which are owned by larger corporate parents, it is an independent company. When the unexpected prospect to join came up to join new CEO Andy Palmer – we first worked together at Nissan – it was a completely unique opportunity in life. Like most people growing up in the UK, Aston Martin is the ultimate car brand, and the chance to be part of the next chapter in its story was very appealing.

Aston Martin is a brand that brings people together, so it made sense for us to have the communication activities in one place. When I joined the company back in November, the first point of change between my role and what happened in the past is that we combined the PR and marketing functions into one group. I wouldn’t say it’s a trend, but it’s something that many companies are doing now as they look at their communication mix and reach the conclusion that you are better off having all your points of contact with the outside world in one place.

If you are British, Aston Martin is very much understood, with the James Bond connection, and the whole heritage of the company. But if you’re sitting in Shenzhen in China, those cultural reference points are less obvious, and so we need to enable those consumers to fall in love with the brands. The challenges we face are not uncommon for brands expanding into new markets: it’s explaining who you are, making the brand relevant, making the products relevant and bringing them into the family.

Aston Martin is already a global brand – we’re already in China and many emerging markets – but the growth off that base is key. There isn’t one size fits all in terms of what works. In some markets, more traditional above-the-line communications are convincing; in other markets experiential works better. We need a strategy that is adaptable, but the consistency of our storytelling is most important. We can’t be 10 things to 10 people in 10 different places. We’re Aston Martin, we have a set of values, and we need to make those values relevant and then pick the communication channels that best fit the market conditions we operate in.

When you buy an Aston Martin, you are buying with your heart. One of the unifiers for communicating a brand like Aston Martin is experience. We’re not a commodity purchase, and even differ within the luxury category. With watches or fashion, you may well buy several items from a favoured brand within a year. In the luxury automotive market, unless you’re a collector, at this price point this is a very well-considered purchase, and you are buying into a set of values and traditions as much as you are the product. It’s a very emotional purchase and that needs to be celebrated in our communications.

We’re incredibly fortunate as a company to have the connection and relationship with the James Bond franchise. It’s pretty rare in our business to have a partnership which is so enduring, going back into the 1960s. In many ways it’s been part of the definition of the brand, since the DB5 first appeared in ‘Goldfinger’.

Bond is incredibly important to us; it enables us to reach a very large audience around the world. The movies themselves have become iconic in of themselves. With the evolution of the franchise, they are gaining even more traction as standalone movies, not just Bond movies. The new Bond movie, ‘Spectre’, is out on 6 November, so any promotion will have a particular weight in Q4 for us. We need to be sensitive to preserve the magic of that relationship.