[alfa] Re: alfa-digest V9 #1157

[Pottree@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 3/2/2004 8:44:44 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:
For crying out loud, how many $90,000 Maserati's are flying off the shelves
now?  How many Ferrari's are sold here every year?

If somebody can't market an Alfa Romeo as an affordable Ferrari, they need
their head examined.
Bryan, there is a certain cost involved in selling a car, and it almost 
doesn't matter (in the grand scheme of things) if the product is very cheap or very 
expensive.  Ad media, for example, are sold by bulk contract against air time 
or page space, regardless of the consumer price of the item being sold; a 
newspaper ad for a car costs the same (basically, depending on size of bulk 
contract) as the same size ad for a tube of toothpaste.  Don't know how much it 
costs to manufacture the Maser, but the ad cost is not substantially different 
from selling a Kia (assuming both book the same amount of advertising).  There 
is likely to be a lot more profit in a Maser or Ferrari than in a cheaper car, 
so the number of units sold isn't the defining figure.

Also, Maser and Ferrari sell, in part, BECAUSE they are very expensive, and 
their use is almost always different in kind from a "regular" car: showoff toy 
for the rich v transportation device.  The high price, in a rarefied market 
segment, is a selling point, just as a rock-bottom selling price is a selling 
point at the other end of the spectrum.

Positioning ALFA as a bargain-priced Ferrari would be a nonstarter, I'd 
guess.  For one thing, if it worked, it would cannibalize sales from another 
division.  And, you would not likely find masses of Ferrari buyers who would go for 
a cheaper car just to save money.  It would be prospecting for customers in 
the wrong segment.

ALFA's USA target needs to be much bigger than the limited market for very 
expensive exotics, which themselves do only limited advertising and marketing 
because the prestige of the brand, the exclusivity, and the showoff factor can 
move (they hope) sufficient if limited volume.  It needs to be a segment that 
could produce unit volume many orders of magnitude larger than those of the 
exotic marques in order to just break even (they hope!) on the overhead.  Then, 
the money could theoretically be made on the sales and service (ha ha) end.

It seems to me the Scandinavians have been fairly good at this, or at least 
good enough to get bought by US marketers Ford and GM.  The found a special 
market niche and mined it.  The Germans have been excellent at it, also finding 
and exploiting a niche (NB: it doesn't have to be true that a Swedish car is 
safer or a German car offers unparalleled engineering excellence and the build 
quality of a fine watch, only that customers believe it to be true).  OTOH, the 
English, the Italians, and the French have been lousy at it, coming up with 
no unique selling proposition that can move products in a competitive mass 
market.  Until recently, the Japanese wrote the book and the American copied the 
plays.

There is SO MUCH AFLA could exploit, but to date they seemingly have not 
noticed the success of other Italian industries in selling to the USA market.  I 
wonder why?  Maybe they would be best of raiding the marketing minds of the 
fashion, shoe and leathergoods, textile, wine, tabletop, cosmetics, food, travel, 
furniture, and even appliance categories where they know an opportunity when 
it bites them on the nose!

Anyhow, that's my take.

Charlie
LA, CA, USA
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