Re: marketing (assorted semi-coherent thoughts--LONG)

["Joe Garcia" <corsanostra@domain.elided>]

> Consumers of luxury brands associate themselves by image, both >perceived 
> and real. The majority of this phenomenon is influenced by
> peer aspiration, while a smaller niche market segment boldly exercises 
> >their individual tastes without considering image perception. For 
> >example, most doctors and lawyers desire Mercedes, BMWs, and Porsches
> because their peers and colleagues all drive one. But within that
> group, there will probably be a few who could care less about what
> others drive, and instead select a vehicle that serves them best,
> whether that be a Mercedes or Alfa or Acura or Lincoln.
This is an "up to a point" sort of thing. A lot of, say, doctors & lawyers 
desire, MBs, BMWs, etc. as a function of peer aspiration, while there are a 
few who do not BUT...within that renegade group, a big chunk of those 
choices will still be within the first "concentric  circle" that is to say, 
they may not drive a MB or BMW, but they will drive something that will not 
raise eyebrows within their peer group. They may roll around in, say, an 
Audi or an Infiniti. This gives thenm the added fillip of being able to say 
"Yes, I am successful enough in my career that I could afford Car X, but I 
choose to drive Car Y because I know something others don't or have slightly 
different priorities that the rest of my peers."


> U.S. consumers are definitely more conscious of image than performance 
> >when compared with European consumers. Why else would Acura, Infiniti
> and Lexus only exist here in the U.S. and as Honda, Nissan and Toyota 
> >elsewhere?
That is spectacularly true. A client of mine was a Big Deal cigar 
manufacturer, and during the cigar boom, he took his best cigars (which 
retailed for an average of ~$4/per), relabeled them with a vintage-date 
cigar band and put them in fancy-schmancy cedar boxes. The cost increased 
~3%-5% per box, but the cigars retailed for 2.5x more than the "base" brand. 
And they sold spectacularly well, with just a couple of "90s" in Cigar 
Aficionado and some seriously mushmouthed ads in teh usual publications.


> Many analysts are eager to see the outcome of Volkswagen's ventures
> into the premium segments ($40,000+) because the image of VW is still
> defined by yesterday's Beetle and MicroBus and today's Golf/Jetta
> models, not luxury models competing with Mercedes & BMW flagships. The
> prediction is that VW will fail, selling fewer than expected units of
> these luxury models, but the wildcard is a successful marketing
> campaign that would transform the hip-family-car image into a 
> hip->luxury-car image. VW has turned itself once around already recently, 
> >so I give them a 50-50 chance they can pull another surprise out of 
> >their bag of tricks.
I, personally, will be quite surprised if they pull it off. I give them 
30-70. The marketing push will have to be nothing short of brilliant.


> Also, pricing Alfas in the Saab tier will maintain the "poor man's 
> >Ferrari" image to some who live by the "you get what you pay for"
> motto. Even some car magazines have described the new $90,000
> Maseratis as a poor man's Ferrari! As long as there is something more
> expensive, you'll always be a target, I guess.
If it were my call (and sources indicate I will not be, dammit) Alfa would 
be positioned as the "THINKING man's Ferrari." :-)


> From a marketing standpoint, Alfa is ripe with potential: Italian >origin 
> and history, legendary motorsports achievements including Enzo
> Ferrari as a factory employee/driver and 155/156 racing heritage, pop
> culture references (Dustin Hoffman/The Graduate), beautiful bodywork
> past & present, intoxicating engine sounds, etc.
I agree. Even with the slightly more crowded Italian segment, I'd position 
Alfa as a "Caraceni" letting Maserati & Ferrari be the "Brioni" and 
"Armani."


> Think about how Ralph Lauren markets his brand (associations with the "good 
> life" such as yachting, polo matches, golfing, classic
> European cars) and Alfa Romeo fits right in. All it would
> take is the right ad agency or internal marketing department to pull
> these ideas together into a smart campaign to re-launch the brand
> in '05.
This concept NAILS it. It's all about branding. What would you like your car 
to say about your lifestyle? I agree that Alfa would be the ideal brand to 
showcase the Italophile (as opposed to Ralph Lauren's Anglophile) version of 
the classic gentry's good life.



> Right now, poor Alfa in the USA is more like (please forgive me, Joe 
> Elliot)some forlorn piece of junk that is rusting away on a used car
> lot of junk yard, that you can buy very cheap if you are willing to
> put up with holding it together in the face of its being orphaned,
> like a CRX for the young and poor student maschochist set.
I semi-agree. I'd say that Alfa in the US *was* some forlorn piece of junk 
that rusted away on a used car lot of junk yard, a long, long, long time ago 
and is so little remembered it would shock us cognoscenti. I, myself, am 
incredulous at how few people know what an Alfa is, and of the few that do 
how few know anything outside of the Spider. In fact, people have assumed 
that my Maratona cost anywhere between 4x and 8x what it actually did.


> I mean, how many people (a number greater than one?) go through years
> of dental school and open a practice with the dream of going out and
> buying a new Alfa?  V BMW?  V Lexus?  V, even, Mercedes?
The better question is "why?" is the answer the way it is?

> You have to make it something worth WANTING as well as something worth
> buying.
Amen, Bre'r Charlie! Testify!

> In the past, they did a bang-up job of neither.  Why is an open
> question, but past history in any event.
But is past prologue? That's what *I* am sweating out.

> Are Euro buyers more knowledgeable than US buyers?
I dunno that would be the case, but IME European buyers have different 
priorities. A not insignificant priority, IME (YMMV), is hiding the 
appearance of wealth, as opposed to Americans.


> Are US consumers more conscious of image than performance?
Yes.

> Does exclusivity have to do, well, exclusively, with cost in the USA?
Not exclusively, but primarily. PERCEIVED rarity is also an important 
factor.


> Who sets the wheels in motion: the older people who can afford >something 
> like an Alfa, or the younger people who can't but who set
> the style?
Neither. The wheels are set in motion, IME, by those who BOTH have the means 
to afford something and the youth to be relevant to those who are forming 
their "aspiration criteria" as we speak.


> Why would a rap star buy a purple Diablo or a black Range Rover?
Because in that subculture those two cars speak of the driver's implicit 
masculinity, albeit in different ways.


> Would the same kind of character buy an Alfa?
Maybe a Brera.

> A Ferrari?
If SoFla is anything to go by, yeah.

> What does the car say about the consumer [?]
That the consumer is a wealthy daredevil of greater means and courage than 
you.


> [...] and what does the consumer say about the car?
That the consumer is a vapid poseur or a sportsman, depending on whether the 
consumer drives it at 15mph down South Beach or at 150mph at Homestead.

At any rate, I firmly believe that Alfa Romeo must do two (well, MORE than 
two, but at least these two) things: 1- Have a serious performance flagship 
(i.e. Brera) to build up the lust factor and 2- Determine which car 
company's lunch do they wish to eat. Are they going after the Audi driver? 
The Lexus driver? The BMW driver?

Whew.

-Joe in reasonably sunny SoFla
1984 GTV-6 Maratona, ~13K mi.

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