Re: perception v ?

[Carscribe@domain.elided]

In a message dated 9/1/01 7:36:51 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
Jarmanhome@domain.elided writes:


> At the risk of 
> restarting a dead thread, I'll express the hope that the General can show 
> FIAT a few things about seriously marketing a car line in North America. 

That was a risk, because here it goes--

GM would be the last company to show Fiat how to market a car. Looking at 
Fiat's success everywhere but in North America (which they've consciously 
decided to ignore), GM could clearly learn from Fiat about marketing (and 
design, as well). 

Any time spent reviewing the marketing of many of GM's current offerings here 
such as the quickly squelched and being redesigned Pontiac Aztec and the 
ridiculous Avalanche shows a clear lack of coherent vision and direction, 
unlike Fiat. GM has a very long history of missed marks, and is only able to 
maintain it's position by the large volume sales of it's rather plain and 
generic bread-and-butter cars like the Cavalier/Sunfire and misguided and 
hopefully soon to be seen for what they are beasts like the Suburban; all 
targeted at plain janes, soccer moms and Joe Toolbox. Hardly the buyers of 
Alfas I'd say, and the knowledge gained by marketing to this group is 
unlikely to be transferable to the successful bringing to market a product as 
unique as an Alfa, even one with GM content.

The american company from which Fiat could genuinely learn useful marketing 
information is Daimler/Chrysler, but that is unlikely to happen, and there is 
a short abortive history there already. 

Unfortunately, I would not be surprised to see GM abandon any Alfa marketing 
efforts here in short order once confounded by a discerning and fickle 
customer base and a product that requires unique knowledge to sell and 
service along with a demanding warranty regimen. 

I have to feel a sad twinge when I think of the average salesperson on the 
floor of my local GM dealership, accustomed to selling and hyping anonymous 
GM boxes, and on an occasional fine day a Corvette, now faced with selling a 
relatively esoteric and expensive machine like an Alfa sitting there next to 
the 'Vette:

"Oh that, that's an Alfa Romeo. Yes, it's made in Italy by Fiat. I know, 
Fiat's weren't very good back then, but GM's shown them how to make cars the 
right way, now. I'm not sure why there's a snake eating a man on the 
badge..."  
And so forth, followed up by-- 
"let me show you this blue Corvette we have a rebate on..."  

I can't even imagine how'd they begin to explain the rich history of the Alfa 
marque, much less dispel any lingering negative perceptions. 

Regarding GM bailing out-- the history is there, ask any US buyer who in the 
60's or 70's purchased an Opel from their Buick dealer, or a Geo more 
recently. Or even someone who bought an Alfa off the showroom floor of a 
Chrysler dealer in the late 80's.
 
In the interest of fairness, if anyone is to blame for Alfa's history of poor 
North American marketing and sales, it was ourselves and ARDONA. Us for not 
stepping up and putting our money where our hearts were when we had a chance. 
I know a lot of us did, but not enough, and many were and are content to just 
stay in their Guilias and not buy a new Milano or 164. And ARDONA's fault for 
not conducting effective market research and allotting a sufficient budget 
for properly implementing the required steps resulting from that research,  
while enforcing a stifling trade arrangement with Alfa Romeo Spa., and 
loosely policing its' own dealer network for shoddy customer service and 
warranty settlement. 

When buying an Alfa in North America in the 70's, 80's and 90's, you 
purchased it from  your local dealer, who in turn got it from ARDONA. And 
then you were on our own...  Alfa (later Fiat/Lancia/Alfa Romeo) just built 
them, and should share little blame.

Cheers,
Paul Mitchell

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