This is an interesting point. I lived in the US for a couple of years. Whilst their view that the European brands (BMW/Merc/Audi) were considered premium compared to the US brands was no surprise, what did surprise me a little was that they thought more highly (and en vogue) of BMW than Mercedes. Without meaning to launch a heated debate, I would hazard a guess that most people in the UK would deem Mercedes to be a tad more prestigious than BMW (and that comes from someone who has always preferred a Bema over a Merc). For the record, the yanks love their Maserati's - always have. I think that the marque has more respect there than in the UK where it is only recently discovering a resurgence.
So attitudes to brands is different in every country you go. As Simon points out, Maserati is a relatively unknown brand in the Asian market. In India (a pretty big place with lots of people I'm sure you'd agree!), for example, Maserati is pretty much non-existent! I would imagine in China it's pretty similar. So these are untapped markets for Maserati (and all the Italian marques for that matter) and a lot will depend on how the public's views are influenced by the little bit of marketing/PR they do. Heritage always help of course but I think form and function probably trumps that in the early days. The public need to see these cars on their roads in their environment - that must surely be paramount in winning their hearts and minds.
And what might work here in the UK might not necessarily work in China/India. If Maserati are serious about these markets, which it looks like they are, I think we may see a lot more cars that may not sit well with us UK Maseratisti!