idle idol

[Pottree@domain.elided]

In a message dated 01/08/2002 10:47:20 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:


> Idle speculation:
> What if Alfa were to reach an agreement with GM whereby certain models 
> would 
> be imported with styling changes and rebadged as an uprated Pontiac?
> Would you be willing to own one?
> 
More to the point, what would be the reaction of the good ole boy Pontiac 
buyers if they were to discover their home made gingomobille was hoodwinking 
them into buying some stuff from the Eye-talians!  They would be fit to be 
tied and would probably choke on their barbecue.

I guess this goes to the issue of our NA market (OK, our USA market).  Only a 
teeny tiny % will be receptive to the idea of a Euro performance car with 
great style.  Most want a big pickemup truck or an SUV or, for the practical, 
a minivan.  Cars?  Look at what they buy (vote with their feet): Camry, 
Accord, just barely up to middlebrow stuff. are the big volume champs, 
Saturns have been strong (do not say the word Opel) but are soft now.  A lot 
of the rest is based on appeal to price buyers, and most especially the 
good-quality-but-bland Japanese premium makes.

Even here, we almost always place Alfas in the context of very refined, very 
sophisticated, European machines that appeal to the affluent, the educated, 
the sophisticated, or the wannabes.  Strip away the waxy outer surface 
(showoff quotient) and you have a very small and highly contentious market 
segment, where each and every sale will be hard won (and expensive) and where 
each and every customer needs to be not only satisfied, but coddled and 
surprised.

The immediate problems on reintroduction will be brand awareness and image 
issues (not to mention the dealership and training issues), because Alfa will 
be competing with brands like BMW, like Jag, like Mercedes that have already 
spent decades and billions refining and polishing their image in the USA.  
One tall order!

I really think it will be impossible to succeed basing Alfa's marketing on a 
price strategy: it will send the exact opposite message that's needed, it 
won't work with the penny-pinchers, and it will never yield enough cash flow 
to lead to eventual profitability.

It's a big country.  Somebody has to have a sexy and willing car that is 
different and fun to blast across it in.  And I don't mean some acne-ridden 
lout's idea of style and performance (sorry Pontiac lovers), something truly 
world class that will be parked out in front of the best restaurants and 
favored by major market style leaders and the tenured.

Charlie
LA, CA, USA

Charlie
LA, CA, USA

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