Weekend ride---raises a question---ADVERTISING

[Gavin]

Ok, so took my Fiat to a Scooter-Motorcycle rally to show off to my scooter friends...many of them have Vespas and love Italian styling...So they all loved it and had many questions...

I brought the car by to show everybody, then went back home and got my less than 4 wheel ride :)  First stop was lunch at the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel...mmmm, good bunch, and cheap.



But what surprised me is how NOBODY knew Fiat was coming to the states...I was asked many times if I had it imported...one comment "I was in France last year and saw them all over the place. Love them. How did you get one imported to the states?" Etc Etc. When I would explain about the car and all that, everyone told me they had zero idea Fiat was coming back. I had a Lexus, an Infinity and a BMW driver all say they wanted to go smaller and better mileage and would instantly consider the 500 as a replacement ride.

Which raises the question...when are we going to get an advertising push? I know the vehicles aren't at many places yet, and production is just getting ramped up...but you want to get people interested ahead of time...get visits to dealerships and such (I have at least 3 people heading to Melloy Suzuki this week to drive the demo unit they have).

Sure the car should sell well in LA and San Fran and NYC and other cities (it is an AWESOME city car...small and nimble, but hella peppy....I am still fighting revving the heck out of the engine...only 100 miles on her and trying, TRYING not to push her as hard and she really wants to be pushed). But she will sell many places if Fiat lets people know the 500 is here in the states NOW.

Locally the tag line could be "An Amazing City car that is a Blast in the Mountain Twisties." Everybody here who is a "fun" car or motorcycle/scooter rider knows what the mountain twisities are.

In the SouthEast..."An Amazing City Car that is a Blast to drive on the Dragon's Tail"...have a commercial of the 500 doing some cool city driving and then boom, crazy Dragon's Tail driving...heck, works for print ads too...half the ad is the 500 in the city, half is the 500 blasting a curving mountain road.

Anyways...people love the car...they just need to know the car is here. The car seems to be a mystery here in New Mexico...I am doing my best to change that :)...I imagine Jim is doing the same down in Clovis.

Gavin

[CapNCrunch]

They're probably just waiting for Oprah to make it one of her "favorite things."

[Giallo Edizione]

CapNCrunch wrote

They're probably just waiting for Oprah to make it one of her "favorite things."

Not gonna happen. She can't get in the car.

[CapNCrunch]

@Giallo
You are not nice.

[Giallo Edizione]

CapNCrunch wrote

@Giallo
You are not nice.

Will it make you feel better if I delete it?

[sjmst]

Giallo Edizione wrote

CapNCrunch wrote

They're probably just waiting for Oprah to make it one of her "favorite things."

Not gonna happen. She can't get in the car.

LOL. No adverstising push. Fiat, in their infinite wisdom, has decided that facebook, social media, etc will do the job.
You know, those sites where any moron with a keyboard can post "Fiat what a POS, Fix Again Tony, NO THANKS!"

Yeah, that ought to work out fine.

You get what you pay for.

[Fiat500USA]

Sam, the real marketing push was to happen March/April (this was from the official plan published in Dec), so I'm suspending judgment until that milestone. After that, I'm expecting something "real" and not just Facebook.

The dealer delay is killing them, but more are coming online next month.  April should be a busy month.... maybe....

[Joe Dolgetta]

With all that has happened across the middle east directly related to Facebook and Social media, I am amazed that we still doubt the power behind this form of communication. I think Fiat surely knows what they are doing with that. Do you really think that people who post a youtube video that goes viral would have had the same success if they bought a $100,000 spot on ESPN? I too would love to see a Fiat 500 TV commercial soon, but when my daughter's friend excitedly tells me how she saw the Fiat 500 commercial banner on her email homepage, it tells me that Marcchione is on to something. Eventually, I think Fiat will use any and all media to advertise, but you simply can't ignore the power of the internet...(I think someone famous may have said that).

[CapNCrunch]

"...my daughter's friend excitedly tells me how she saw the Fiat 500 commercial banner on her email homepage..."

Those are there because she either recently visited the Fiat site, or did a search for "Fiat" or some other similar method--these sites left "cookies" in her browser and that's how the Fiat ad is showing up. In other words, "big deal." Anybody can advertise this way (and millions do). I would not consider this by any means a "marketing campaign."

"...you simply can't ignore the power of the internet..." goes both ways. Let's hope Fiat's image is positive, or they're screwed. I've seen where people Tweet negative things during a movie on Friday, and the rest of the weekend nobody goes to see it. The best thing they can do is deliver a quality product when they promised it without any ordeal. Oops! Guess that didn't work out exactly as planned. Let's hope phase two goes better.

And with all due respect to Gavin, New Mexico surely isn't a big priority for Fiat. Where are New Mexicans going to buy this car? You should only advertise where the car is available.

[Joe Dolgetta]

I guess it's all relative. I couldn't be more pleased with my experience, and my PE 447. I was apprehensive after reading some of the posts that expressed delivery problems and various issues with their cars, and began posting my concerns. But rather than become a posting critic, I decided to take another good hard look at demos, and take extended test drives to make sure I was still truly interested. Glad I did this for myself as it reinforced in me that this is one hell of a car, and a great value. So glad to know that PE 447 is parked in my garage. Life is Good!

[Fiat500USA]

Joe Dolgetta wrote

I guess it's all relative. I couldn't be more pleased with my experience, and my PE 447. I was apprehensive after reading some of the posts that expressed delivery problems and various issues with their cars, and began posting my concerns. But rather than become a posting critic, I decided to take another good hard look at demos, and take extended test drives to make sure I was still truly interested. Glad I did this for myself as it reinforced in me that this is one hell of a car, and a great value. So glad to know that PE 447 is parked in my garage. Life is Good!

[ciddyguy]

Gavin wrote

Ok, so took my Fiat to a Scooter-Motorcycle rally to show off to my scooter friends...many of them have Vespas and love Italian styling...So they all loved it and had many questions...

I brought the car by to show everybody, then went back home and got my less than 4 wheel ride :)  First stop was lunch at the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel...mmmm, good bunch, and cheap.



But what surprised me is how NOBODY knew Fiat was coming to the states...I was asked many times if I had it imported...one comment "I was in France last year and saw them all over the place. Love them. How did you get one imported to the states?" Etc Etc. When I would explain about the car and all that, everyone told me they had zero idea Fiat was coming back. I had a Lexus, an Infinity and a BMW driver all say they wanted to go smaller and better mileage and would instantly consider the 500 as a replacement ride.

Which raises the question...when are we going to get an advertising push? I know the vehicles aren't at many places yet, and production is just getting ramped up...but you want to get people interested ahead of time...get visits to dealerships and such (I have at least 3 people heading to Melloy Suzuki this week to drive the demo unit they have).

Sure the car should sell well in LA and San Fran and NYC and other cities (it is an AWESOME city car...small and nimble, but hella peppy....I am still fighting revving the heck out of the engine...only 100 miles on her and trying, TRYING not to push her as hard and she really wants to be pushed). But she will sell many places if Fiat lets people know the 500 is here in the states NOW.

Locally the tag line could be "An Amazing City car that is a Blast in the Mountain Twisties." Everybody here who is a "fun" car or motorcycle/scooter rider knows what the mountain twisities are.

In the SouthEast..."An Amazing City Car that is a Blast to drive on the Dragon's Tail"...have a commercial of the 500 doing some cool city driving and then boom, crazy Dragon's Tail driving...heck, works for print ads too...half the ad is the 500 in the city, half is the 500 blasting a curving mountain road.

Anyways...people love the car...they just need to know the car is here. The car seems to be a mystery here in New Mexico...I am doing my best to change that :)...I imagine Jim is doing the same down in Clovis.

Gavin

Some very good concerns there Gavin and I'll expand on that thought and echo Chris in that with the cars officially going on sale either now or April, the ads will commence, in areas where the car is being sold as of now (IE, dealers open or will be shortly), the rest of the areas slated for dealers that are opening later on will get ads as they come open is my bet there.

As for people being clueless, too many people simply don't clue into what's going on outside of their own worlds and even though there HAVE been articles written about this car even in the buff mags, a lot of people simply aren't reading the periodicals where these articles are being printed or posted (if online) and many people simply don't research much, if at all when they go to buy but simply go with what they know and too many I've found when they DO find say the Fiat Facebook page, they simply don't know how to find the info ABOUT the car (often based on their asking how to fine such and such), which leads me to suspect they are simply too lazy to do a Google search for it or simply don't want to take the time, or simply don't know how to research or all of the above.

I only found out about the car when I was checking on what Fiat is up to these days over 2 years ago (before the bankruptcy proceedings of both GM and Chrysler) and liked what I was seeing of their current offerings and then found Google search results mentioning the little 500, both the original version and the current one in Europe and that lead to stumbling onto articles about Chrysler's pending bankruptcy and search for an investor and Fiat as a possibility, then they became a benefactor at 20% and so on and so forth and then heard that they were thinking of bringing over a car with the Fiat brand on it and well, here we are...

But it took me time multiple Google searches, following leads etc (including YouTube) and once I saw the photos of the car, I realized I was loving what I was seeing and had hoped the car would come this way.

Now that I've driven one I want one.

But in the end, it takes time to research and it takes taking one's head out of the sand and willing to look beyond the obvious and simply being aware of what's going on around you to know what's blowing in the wind and then act accordingly.