Fiat Customer Experience in the United States
Fiat Customer Experience in the United States
Introduction
Fiat is an Italian car company headquartered in Turin, Italy. The parent company, Fiat SpA, owns many reputable car brands in the world including Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Ferrari, Jeep and Maserati (fiatspa.com). The company re-entered the US market in 2011 by purchasing a 20% stake in Chrysler. As of January, 2014, Fiat owns 100% of Chrysler (Sloan, 2014). It sells the Fiat 500 line in the US (fiatusa.com).
The purpose of this paper is to look at the Fiat customer experience in the US, identify any unmet needs observed and provide a new marketing plan to meet those needs.
Part I: Primary Research
The current car shopping experience at Fiat is boring and lacks the “trendy” and “the new thing” image that its commercials try to portray.
We visited the Sierra Fiat of Duarte in Duarte, CA on a Thursday at 3 PM. The first problem we noticed was the close proximity of the dealership to Carmax and a Ford dealership. The size of the building and the lot was also relatively smaller making it harder to find and confusing the place as being part of the nearby Carmax. Display of used cars (other brands such as Ford and Lincoln) mixed with Fiat cars at the beginning of the parking lot also seem to contribute to the confusion. Many people visiting the area seem to have this problem as proven by the salesman who greeted us with the question “Are you looking for Carmax?”
To fight the confusion, the dealership had put a large hot air balloon with the word “Sale” on top of the building. However, this was a very generic American flag themed balloon and did not really help identify the place as Fiat.
The total absence of customers during our 30 minute visit was the most surprising finding. This blocked us from observing other customers’ experience and interactions. However, the salesman helping us mentioned that weekends are usually busy but February was one of their slowest months. This also made us
Introduction
Fiat is an Italian car company headquartered in Turin, Italy. The parent company, Fiat SpA, owns many reputable car brands in the world including Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Ferrari, Jeep and Maserati (fiatspa.com). The company re-entered the US market in 2011 by purchasing a 20% stake in Chrysler. As of January, 2014, Fiat owns 100% of Chrysler (Sloan, 2014). It sells the Fiat 500 line in the US (fiatusa.com).
The purpose of this paper is to look at the Fiat customer experience in the US, identify any unmet needs observed and provide a new marketing plan to meet those needs.
Part I: Primary Research
The current car shopping experience at Fiat is boring and lacks the “trendy” and “the new thing” image that its commercials try to portray.
We visited the Sierra Fiat of Duarte in Duarte, CA on a Thursday at 3 PM. The first problem we noticed was the close proximity of the dealership to Carmax and a Ford dealership. The size of the building and the lot was also relatively smaller making it harder to find and confusing the place as being part of the nearby Carmax. Display of used cars (other brands such as Ford and Lincoln) mixed with Fiat cars at the beginning of the parking lot also seem to contribute to the confusion. Many people visiting the area seem to have this problem as proven by the salesman who greeted us with the question “Are you looking for Carmax?”
To fight the confusion, the dealership had put a large hot air balloon with the word “Sale” on top of the building. However, this was a very generic American flag themed balloon and did not really help identify the place as Fiat.
The total absence of customers during our 30 minute visit was the most surprising finding. This blocked us from observing other customers’ experience and interactions. However, the salesman helping us mentioned that weekends are usually busy but February was one of their slowest months. This also made us
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