Monday, February 15, 2010

Fiat training dealers to capture and captivate the elusive consumer!

fiat_logo-evo There was an interesting article in today’s edition of the Financial Times (Mon 15 Feb) concerning an initiative by Fiat to provide training for its network of 5,000 European dealers.  Like many car manufacturers Fiat depends on independent, frequently family-operated dealerships and only owns 1.5% of the total.

Marketing accounts for 30% of the cost of a car and the training and many of its dealers while good at selling are not so good an managing their businesses, developing new ideas and in service offerings around new and used cars.  The training, the cost of which is shared, teaches managers to be more like entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs to be more like managers.   All car manufacturers face the issues associated with not directly controlling dealerships and distributors.  But the impact of this on Fiat has been especially pronounced in Ireland

Sales of Fiat cars in Ireland have collapsed in the past decade.

 

Year

New Private Cars

Used Private Cars

Total Fiat Car sales in IE

1998

10,563

617

11,180

1999

12,311

566

12,877

2000

16,821

396

17,217

2001

10,558

279

10,837

2002

8,899

223

9,122

2003

5,632

211

5,843

2004

3,793

248

4,041

2005

2,623

339

2,962

2006

2,995

364

3,359

2007

2,451

383

2,834

2008

1,800

314

2,114

2009

841

233

1,074

 

Fiat’s overall sales of cars and light commercial vehicles increased from 1,857,000 units in 2004 to 2,229,000 in 2008 with increases recorded in France, Germany, Italy and Brazil but declines recorded in the UK, Spain, and Poland.

fiat_logo_26_10_06

A new logo was launched on 26 October 2006.  Group Revenue increased from €51.8 billion that year to €59.3 billion in 2008.  Fiat automobiles account for €26.9 billion of total revenue Trading profit recovered from €1.9 billion in 2006 to €3.3 billion in 2008. Fiat automobiles account for just €601 million of trading profit, a decline of €112 million since 2007.  This decline was mainly attributable to Western Europe, where group automobile (Fiat, Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Fiat Professional) deliveries fell to 1,237,900 units, but weak performance in Latin America also had an impact.  The passenger vehicle market in Western Europe declined by 8.4% in 2008 over 2007.  The most severe contraction in 2008 was in the Spanish market (-28.1%) but the British market dropped by 13.4% and the German market by 11.3%.

ferrari Ferrari won its 16th constructors world championship in 2008 and this success was rewarded with a 2% increase in unit sales to 6,587 vehicles.  North America accounted for 1,700 (26% of total) of these sales and new Ferrari stores were opened in Miami, Honolulu and San Francisco.

Sales in Europe, at 714 units reflected an 8.9% increase with pronounced growth in Eastern Europe.  Customers in The Middle East bought 366 Ferraris’ while customers in Japan bought 433 and in China 212.

Various versions of the F430 models, including the 430 Scuderia and the 599 GTB Fiorana were the most sought after Ferrrari’s in 2008.

No comments:

Post a Comment