The other day when I was at Nirmal Lifestyle, I saw the Fiat Linea. As the commercial shows, truly you can't take your eyes of it. Amazing car, amazing design in its segment. It got me wondering though. Would people buy Fiat Linea in as many numbers as they would buy the new Honda City? Unlikely.
Fiat Palio was also an amazing car. People who drive it vouch for its greatness. And yet it hasn't really been a success for Fiat, right?
The communication hasn't addressed the right issues. Always focussed on the product though the issue was never the product to begin with. People know Fiat cars are awesome cars. The lineage is long and credible. But the issue they faced in India was lack of service or rather, lack of service centers.
Did Fiat work to solve it? Yes. They tied up with Tata. So now Tata service centers service Fiat cars too. That's all that Fiat needed to (and still needs to) say and say it loud. Something to the effect, "We knew you liked our cars, we knew we were making good cars but we didn't give you great service and now we have solved that for you."
Sometimes acknowledging the problem upfront helps more than trying to shovel it away. It sounds more honest and transparent and it could endear the prospects in a better manner than all the advertising put together.
Does all this mean that Fiat Linea won't do well? Does it mean that Fiat brand won't taste success? No. Fiat might succeed, Linea might sell well but the critical element is the time taken to convince the prospects and win their trust back.
Products would just keep coming in. But it's the service that would clinch the game for Fiat. Sooner.
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