Commentary: Does Anybody "Get" Chrysler?
September 22, 2009
Monday's report from Business Week that Chrysler LLC is tasking account-seeking advertising agencies with positioning Chrysler-brand vehicles as "premium" choices indicates new manager Fiat S.p.A. has no more clue about what Chrysler represents in the U.S. than did the company's most-recent other inept foreign owners -- Daimler AG.
Chrysler has heritage as an upscale brand, but that image died by at least the 1970s, the same time most all memories of Detroit's long hoods and tailfins well and truly were overwhelmed by the leaner, meaner imports from Europe and Japan. Ask rival General Motors Co. what its Detroit lead-sled heritage has done for the company lately.
Yet comments attributed to Chrysler CEO and brand guardian Peter Fong indicate the plan is to position above Ford's Lincoln and GM's Cadillac. Now, besting currently irrelevant Lincoln isn't necessarily dreaming the impossible dream. But suggesting Chrysler could rather directly surpass what the reconstituted Cadillac has labored for the better part of a decade to achieve in this market -- fragile and often semi-credible though it is -- effectively is the same superficial and naive strategy concocted for the Chrysler brand when Daimler "merged" with the company in 1998.
Like the Germans, Chrysler's latest partners approach with a vision seemingly forged by nostalgia. But like quickly learning a second language, Fiat's knowledge of Chrysler comes without much comprehension. Chrysler is a brand that should aspire to nothing more pretentious than Honda or Ford or even Hyundai.
It is a brand of commodity minivans with stain-fighting seats, a couple recent generations of interesting and mildly engaging large cars -- and little else. Unless you want to count flash styling usually backed by scant substance and a riotously ingrained reputation for poor quality the new Italian managers don't savvy just doesn't jibe with most Americans' expectations for upscale products. Italian auto buyers have been trained to accept stuff falling off high-priced cars, but here in the Colonies that gets you a quick ticket to Jaguar sales volumes.
BusinessWeek duly notes Fiat's latest plan for Chrysler upscaleness is every bit the folly Daimler's was. But there's more: Are Fiat and Chrysler already dealing out the doubletalk? How is this premium brand imagery for Chrysler supposed to jibe with all those tiny, efficient cars and sipping small-displacement engines with which Fiat is supposed to seed Chrysler's meager model range?
Most other volume automakers also are struggling to crack the code that convinces Americans small vehicles can be "premium." But few have the extra baggage Chrysler and Fiat are toting to the game. -- Bill Visnic, Senior Contributing Editor
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:04 AM under Chrysler , Commentary , Featured | Comments (16) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
Without higher aspirations a company and/or its brands will move nowhere. What should Fiat do, continue to roll out the same models with Dodge and Chrysler emblems on them? That's worked out so well for the domestics thus far right? Both in the marketplace and on the pages of sites like these. There will have to be differentiation and this is exactly what I had hoped to see personally. One car can't make a brand, but one car can break the mold the brand has been cast in to that point. The 300C did that once. That car conquested upscale import buyers, and certainly put GM and Ford in a panic to develop competive RWD platforms (until the ecomomy took its toal of course.) Where as its a shame they didn't capitalize on that more (i.e. the Sebring disaster) it doesn't mean it can't be done right next time.
Cadillac and Lincoln have lived on heritage alone for most of my life (I'm 31) Are you going to tell me that Chrysler can't break out of its current place and compete with those brands 5 or so years from now if handled right?
In terms of reliability....I think "riotously ingrained reputation for poor quality" is a little bit much. With each passing Consumer Reports and JD Powers review its reported how well the industry has done over the last several years and how there really aren't any blatantly unreliable cars sold today by any means. Now admittedly, when looking at relativity Chrysler products pull up the rear statistically and that needs to be corrected but for every Chrysler basher in the marketplace I'll find you one for nearly every other make. There's no heavily weighted bias against Chrysler reliability here in the everyday real world. Two of the more Luxury aimed Chrysler products, the 300 and Aspen, have a 9.0 and 9.3 consumer rating respectively at Edmunds.com to evidence that.
I'm not feeling your "Doubletalk" comment that much either frankly. Small vehicles from Fiat are coming to Chrysler the company, not just Chrysler the brand. The 500 is the only one I can recall being earmarked for Chrysler specifically, which seems to be one of those vehicles expected to prove "small vehicles can be 'premium.'" All indicators are that it will be the first real shot across MINI's bow in the segment.
This can be done, and I am hoping Fiat pulls it off.
Posted by: stlouiscarguy | September 22, 2009 at 7:28 AM
I agree with AutoObserver. Fiat has no idea what Chrysler represents in America if they think Americans equate Chrysler with Cadillac.
Posted by: maitlandking | September 22, 2009 at 8:06 AM
Whether its BusinessWeek or Bill Visnic, you people need to get out in the real world for a change. Its very easy to envision Chrysler as an upscale brand; It would simply be returning to what it once was and what most of us have been waiting for to happen. Many of us ordinary folk DO NOT aspire to the imports, but want a luxury American brand of car. Chrysler (brand) has the product in place for a renaissance with its rwd platform and the 200C coming. Lose the unnecessary product, Sebring and T&C. Give us a LWB sedan and return the wagon (magnum) to a Chrysler badge. Get the execution and details right and they are on their way! Make mine a Bright Silver 300 Estate (wagon) with AWD and a hemi, thanks!
Posted by: jimboy45 | September 22, 2009 at 8:26 AM
Most don't equate Cadillac (CTS, or otherwise) with BMW either. That doesn't stop them from targetting them.
Posted by: stlouiscarguy | September 22, 2009 at 8:28 AM
One word to Fiat... IMPERIAL If they are planning to bring the Chrysler luxury division out of the tomb they need to think ahead. What they have in hands won't cut it. Good luck.
Posted by: iskch | September 22, 2009 at 9:30 AM
I'm confused as to why this would be a bad strategy if implemented correctly. So Chrysler should continue to be in the same price point and carry the same rehashed products as Dodge forever and ever? Then what is the point of having two brands when you can consolidate the products into one?
Chrysler exists right now in that nether realm where Mercury lives, and it needs to be moved up to at least Buick's level, but more ideally to Cadillac's. Chrysler had the potential to go there with Damiler as their parent (I own a Crossfire, and I can tell you it's one solid car with just about everything a premium sports car for it's time should have. It drives exceptionally well, has needed very little from me besides normal maintenance items, and gets heads turning no matter where I go. That's saying a lot in car frenzied Los Angeles). The product was right, the execution was wrong. Mediocre marketing, and a misstep with interior materials is to blame. It will take a ton of money to make Chrysler into the brand it can be, and if Fiat is smart, like Renault was with Nissan/Infiniti, it will make the investment now, and expect big returns in the future. I think this is the only way to make Chrysler a viable, relevant brand in the US again.
Posted by: coolb944 | September 22, 2009 at 10:01 AM
I tend to agree that Chrysler will have a very very difficult time doing this. Not that it is impossible, but it is close to impossible, and will take more time than Chrysler has. So, leave aside all the to and fro about whether the cars or good enough or the brand strong enough or the heritage good or bad... just look at others who have tried this, and how few have succeeded. Toyota felt it needed a new brand to go upscale (Lexus), as did Nissan and Honda... and arguably only Lexus has REALLY broken through into the luxury market, and it took decades. Audi has steadily clawed its way up, but it also took a long time. Cadillac had to essentially burn the whole product line to re-invent itself. Jaguar is STILL, after so many years, not back to where it once was in the 60s. So I won't judge whether Americans will accept a luxury Chrysler or not, but I will assert that I do not think Chrysler has the luxury to pour the money and the years into this... and with the added burden of not being a new brand, de novo luxury, but of having to persuade people Chrysler is luxury. This is twice as hard. That is, Lexus just had to persuade people it stood for luxury; Chrysler will first have to persuade people it no longer means what it used to, and then persuade people it now means something else. This is going to be really, really hard. Even if it is the right long-term thing to do with Chrysler, advising Chrysler to go upscale is like seeing the victim of a hit-and-run accident bleeding in the street, and prescribing a diet and exercise regimen for him: sure, it's good advice, but right now he needs a tourniquet. And remember that in August Hyundi/Kia passed Chrysler (all brands combined) in market share (admittedly aided by Cash4Clunk), but I think this drives home the point that the Chrysler brand needs to do things that work now, not start a decade-long journey that may or may not ever work.
Posted by: zanardi10 | September 22, 2009 at 3:06 PM
So Bill Visnic basically tells us that Italians and American do not understand the meaning of luxury and high style. I am sure there is the article somewhere written by Bill Visnic where he announces that Huyday Genesis is a luxury brand and is superior to Lincoln and Cadillac. So it is no so difficult Bill after all is it? And BTW I read that during heat of crisis older Americans were trading in their MBs for Genesis. BTW why I paid several hundred $$ for my unreliable and low quality Italian shoes and suits? How stupid I am.
Posted by: savetheland | September 22, 2009 at 3:25 PM
This may be just the right time to reposition the Chrysler brand. There is a lot of flux out there right now. Hyundai going up-market with the Genesis. VW reintroducing the Phaeton. Porsche going back to their core business (yea!). Buick pulling up on their own bootstraps. Mercury moving down-at least physically.
Almost two generations have entered the American car market since K-car based Chrysler LeBarons sputtered down the road with their 2.2L 4 cylinders and wire wheel covers. We've all moved on, haven't we.
But I think the only way the Chrysler brand can start moving up from where it is now is to cut every model except the 300C. Put everything else under Dodge, including the upcoming 200, and maybe even bring back Plymouth, or badge all the B- and C segment low priced product under Fiat.
Curiously, the only modern American V8 rwd sedan now and for the foreseeable future \is\ the 300C/Charger. as for the Fiat 500, it already has "street credit" in the USA. Forget the badges. Build the Fiat-derived stuff as Fiats and the Detroit stuff as Chryslers, Dodges and Jeeps.
Posted by: fulcrumb | September 22, 2009 at 6:03 PM
Sure it can be done, but it'll take longer than it did for Cadillac. That brand didn't have good cars 10 years ago, but at least they were all in the right price range!
The 300 and Crossfire may be upscale, but the PT Cruiser and Sebring aren't. Is Chrysler willing to abandon those segments? It has to - and then it has to wait two or three generations of selling only more expensive cars before people will start to think of it as an upscale brand.
Posted by: carlisimo | September 22, 2009 at 9:48 PM
fulcrumb is onto something here. Note that Fiat has not announced a product plan, not even a strategy--merely the outline of a strategy, and even that may be intended for public consumption more than for actual implementation. But let's assume the hints are accurate: Fiat plans to bring a bunch of new small cars to the US. They don't intend to badge-engineer Fiat products into other brands. They plan to move the Chrysler brand upmarket.
Put it all together and you get a strategy that looks like this: Jeep remains focused on offroad. Fiat and Alfa are specialty sub-brands for premium small cars. Dodge is small to mid-size FWD cars, based on Fiat platforms with new sheetmetal. Chrysler is large, RWD cars only.
In this scenario, Chrysler would support the next-gen 300, a more upscale 300+ (Imperial?), a large coupe/convertible, and perhaps CUV and sportback (aka four-door "coupe") variants, all on the same platform. That's a quick and relatively low-cost way to push Chrysler upmarket. If it works, Fiat will invest in a next-gen RWD platform. If it fails, Fiat will still have most of its volume through Dodge, and can always build up the Fiat brand in the U.S.
Not easy to rebuild the reputation of the Chrysler brand, but ditching the Sebring and Aspen is a good start.
Posted by: cpmanx | September 22, 2009 at 9:51 PM
Fiat management has no clue what they are talking about. Chrysler's image has deteriorated in the last 10 years thanks to mediocre offerings and extreme cost cutting. Just look inside the car, it's awful - molded hard plastic, bland colors, and a bare minimum in terms of ingredients. Making Chrysler into a luxury brand to compete with Cadillac and Lincoln is a great idea but there needs to be a plan to do so. I remember times when Chrysler was benchmarking Audi for fit and finish. Without putting money into Chrysler, Fiat will never make it into a luxury brand.
Posted by: euroman71 | September 23, 2009 at 7:25 AM
Chrysler 300 is already above Lincoln in the sense that it is RWD using MB components. Lincoln MKS uses Volvo components. What Chrysler need - perfect platform, make suspension lightweight using more expensive materials and come up with nice interior. It is not so hard to beat Lincoln and Buick. Caddy has CTS and thats all about its luxury status.
Plymouth served well for Chrysler to dump small and cheap vehicles. If there is a will anything can be done.
Posted by: savetheland | September 23, 2009 at 6:03 PM
I dont think Bill Visnik gets chrysler. Chrysler is ( supposed to be) a luxury brand, Dodge the common car brand, and Jeep the off road brand- spanning from basic (wrangler) to upscale like LR (JGC). Like some have sarcastically mentioned, an itallian automaker should know a thing or two about style and luxury componants. Chrysler engineering and Hemi/ RWD (Also upcoming Pentastar V6 etc., Fiat 4's) architecture with an Alfa Interior= Caddy, Lincoln topping luxury sedan/coupe/convertible- whatever. Bill Visnik is pretty narrow minded.
Posted by: mopar424 | September 24, 2009 at 1:34 PM
It is very plausible for Chrysler to evolve into a super premium brand and there is an excellent example of how to do it: Hyundai. The Genesis is proof that branding theory is a bunch of marketing bunk because it all boils down to product and not smoke, mirrors, heritage, etc. Chrysler has the basic engineering in place with several of its platforms. The only thing keeping the 300C from being a "Genesis" for Mopar is the need for updated transmissions and a desperate need in upgrading the interior materials to go beyond perceived quality to actual quality. After all isn't that what Cadillac did with the current CTS?
Posted by: cadetgray | September 25, 2009 at 8:10 PM
It is very plausible for Chrysler to evolve into a super premium brand and there is an excellent example of how to do it: Hyundai. The Genesis is proof that branding theory is a bunch of marketing bunk because it all boils down to product and not smoke, mirrors, heritage, etc. Chrysler has the basic engineering in place with several of its platforms. The only thing keeping the 300C from being a "Genesis" for Mopar is the need for updated transmissions and a desperate need in upgrading the interior materials to go beyond perceived quality to actual quality. After all isn't that what Cadillac did with the current CTS?
Posted by: cadetgray | September 25, 2009 at 8:10 PM