Changing tires for the new Fiat image
ZKG aims to put the Turin-based automaker's commercial vehicles on the fast track for customers
ZKG wants to put the Turin-based car manufacturer's commercial vehicles in the fast lane with customersBy Luca Aloisi Falling sales, cost-cutting measures and ongoing squabbles over the leadership of Fiat have left serious damage to the Turin-based car manufacturer's image. Zogg Kettiger Gasser (ZKG), Fiat's new Swiss lead agency, wants to achieve a turnaround in brand perception with a mix of hard-selling and image messages.
The Fiat brand is currently under heavy pressure. Speculation about a possible sale of the car division made the rounds when the intensified earnings crisis in the vehicle division came up at the Annual General Meeting in mid-May. However, the situation is less dramatic following the sale of the aluminum unit. The restructuring of the Group, which has been organized into business units with a vertical structure for several months, is also providing a breath of fresh air. However, little of this has yet filtered through to end consumers.
The Fiat image must be redeveloped in the mind
Measured in terms of market figures, sales of Turin passenger cars and commercial vehicles have fallen at an above-average rate. In contrast to the relatively modest Swiss passenger car market
the commercial vehicle market has gained in importance at European level. The Association of Swiss Automobile Importers has seen sales of light commercial vehicles (under 3.5 tons) double in the last nine years. While 12522 new units were added to the small truck fleet in 1993, over 25300 new trucks rolled onto the domestic road network last year.
However, it is precisely this type of vehicle that is currently feeling the effects of the recession (-12%) the most. As a result, Fiat has also suffered, with its LCV sales falling by 23% in the first seven months. A consequence of unfortunate corporate reputation management?
"Today, cars with the Fiat logo are just as reliable as other brands, are among the leaders in terms of equipment and safety and offer excellent value for money," says Max Winiger, Fiat Account Supervisor and co-owner of the Zurich agency ZKG. "But the image of a brand develops in the mind of the consumer. And this is exactly where our job begins," he says, describing the challenge for the Turin-based client for whom ZKG delivered the Mitsubishi budget.
Clear road - the dream of all road users
With the blessing of Fiat in Turin, which Max Winiger is a little proud of, ZKG has now developed a new NF campaign. D'Arcy, one of Fiat's global lead agencies, uses the creativity of the individual countries and supports good concepts, explains Winiger, and: "This freedom is motivating."
Thanks to the incentive, a national print campaign has recently been launched that builds a bridge from the product to the image component, to the road shots from the driver's perspective. The aim is to create an emotional effect on open roads. The hard-selling message can be found on the road signs, which read 0% Leasing instead of place names. B12 posters will soon complement the advertising campaign.
At Fiat Switzerland in Geneva, Franz Wermelinger, who commissioned the campaign, expects an increase in sales: "The campaign also has a strong impact for us.
It has an image character and is part of a process that aims to bring about an image turnaround," he says. Wermelinger knows that a campaign alone cannot achieve the goal: "We recently introduced a new organizational structure with profit centre-like business units. Marketing and After Sales are now product-specific," which allows for a better customer focus, he adds.
The aim is to identify customer needs more quickly and process them in a more targeted manner. Fiat is also currently investing in dealer training. Wermelinger, who previously worked at Volvo Trucks and helped build up the Eastern European market for Ford, is confident. He believes that the previous year's figures will be reached by the end of the year. This would enable Fiat to confirm its position as number 4 on the Swiss commercial vehicle market behind Mercedes, VW and Renault, contrary to the declining sales trend, and gain market share.
Admittedly, Fiat's new image is still a far cry from Scholz & Friends' (S&F) Mercedes appearances, which position the brand unmistakably. At the opening of the International Motor Show for Commercial Vehicles in Hanover, an S&F advertisement posed the question: "What do commercial vehicles actually do for us?" The answer was given in a 12-page supplement of the Stuttgart-based global corporation in the Süddeutsche Zeitung: Commercial vehicles bring love, hope, joy, help and the newspaper - for example with the Love Parade truck, the aid convoy, the bus of the national football team, the fire engine or quite simply with the delivery van.
The Fiat brand is currently under heavy pressure. Speculation about a possible sale of the car division made the rounds when the intensified earnings crisis in the vehicle division came up at the Annual General Meeting in mid-May. However, the situation is less dramatic following the sale of the aluminum unit. The restructuring of the Group, which has been organized into business units with a vertical structure for several months, is also providing a breath of fresh air. However, little of this has yet filtered through to end consumers.
The Fiat image must be redeveloped in the mind
Measured in terms of market figures, sales of Turin passenger cars and commercial vehicles have fallen at an above-average rate. In contrast to the relatively modest Swiss passenger car market
the commercial vehicle market has gained in importance at European level. The Association of Swiss Automobile Importers has seen sales of light commercial vehicles (under 3.5 tons) double in the last nine years. While 12522 new units were added to the small truck fleet in 1993, over 25300 new trucks rolled onto the domestic road network last year.
However, it is precisely this type of vehicle that is currently feeling the effects of the recession (-12%) the most. As a result, Fiat has also suffered, with its LCV sales falling by 23% in the first seven months. A consequence of unfortunate corporate reputation management?
"Today, cars with the Fiat logo are just as reliable as other brands, are among the leaders in terms of equipment and safety and offer excellent value for money," says Max Winiger, Fiat Account Supervisor and co-owner of the Zurich agency ZKG. "But the image of a brand develops in the mind of the consumer. And this is exactly where our job begins," he says, describing the challenge for the Turin-based client for whom ZKG delivered the Mitsubishi budget.
Clear road - the dream of all road users
With the blessing of Fiat in Turin, which Max Winiger is a little proud of, ZKG has now developed a new NF campaign. D'Arcy, one of Fiat's global lead agencies, uses the creativity of the individual countries and supports good concepts, explains Winiger, and: "This freedom is motivating."
Thanks to the incentive, a national print campaign has recently been launched that builds a bridge from the product to the image component, to the road shots from the driver's perspective. The aim is to create an emotional effect on open roads. The hard-selling message can be found on the road signs, which read 0% Leasing instead of place names. B12 posters will soon complement the advertising campaign.
At Fiat Switzerland in Geneva, Franz Wermelinger, who commissioned the campaign, expects an increase in sales: "The campaign also has a strong impact for us.
It has an image character and is part of a process that aims to bring about an image turnaround," he says. Wermelinger knows that a campaign alone cannot achieve the goal: "We recently introduced a new organizational structure with profit centre-like business units. Marketing and After Sales are now product-specific," which allows for a better customer focus, he adds.
The aim is to identify customer needs more quickly and process them in a more targeted manner. Fiat is also currently investing in dealer training. Wermelinger, who previously worked at Volvo Trucks and helped build up the Eastern European market for Ford, is confident. He believes that the previous year's figures will be reached by the end of the year. This would enable Fiat to confirm its position as number 4 on the Swiss commercial vehicle market behind Mercedes, VW and Renault, contrary to the declining sales trend, and gain market share.
Admittedly, Fiat's new image is still a far cry from Scholz & Friends' (S&F) Mercedes appearances, which position the brand unmistakably. At the opening of the International Motor Show for Commercial Vehicles in Hanover, an S&F advertisement posed the question: "What do commercial vehicles actually do for us?" The answer was given in a 12-page supplement of the Stuttgart-based global corporation in the Süddeutsche Zeitung: Commercial vehicles bring love, hope, joy, help and the newspaper - for example with the Love Parade truck, the aid convoy, the bus of the national football team, the fire engine or quite simply with the delivery van.
