Alfa Romeo wants to offer more products, reengage with dealers

Eight years in, Alfa Romeo still has an awareness problem in the U.S.

The Italian luxury brand hasn't had much product to offer since its 2014 return, and it's now down to just two models: the Giulia sedan and Stelvio crossover.

But a needed spark is on the way this year in the Tonale plug-in hybrid, a compact crossover the brand believes can build familiarity as it prepares to go fully electric by 2027. The Tonale will offer two powertrain options delivering 256 hp for the conventional version and 272 hp for the plug in. It's expected to have more than 30 miles of electric range.

To improve its fortunes, Alfa Romeo has two straightforward missions to carry out beyond getting more consumers to take notice: It needs additional products and it needs to get dealers on board, said Larry Dominique, the brand's North America vice president.

"I still get people that walk up at gas stations like, 'Oh my god, what is that?' " Dominique said of driving the brand's vehicles. "We need to cover a broader number of segments. Our focus is going to be on volume segments. We're not trying to go outside the core markets for premium, for sure."

Dominique said he wants dealers "to get fully reengaged on Alfa." The brand has 138 stores in the U.S. At one point, Dominique said, the count was 177.

He said dealers can count on Alfa Romeo having stable leadership, because he doesn't plan on going anywhere and is having fun with the brand.

Dominique is working with dealers to build their confidence in him, the management team and the brand's product strategy. But he has made it clear that Alfa Romeo can't survive if its customer service scores continue to be the worst among premium brands, so more effort will be needed from dealers.

"Our network has shrunk over the last couple of years, but the core dealers love the brand, and they want to succeed with the brand," Dominique said. "So now it's about really working with them to reengage, get ready for electrification and really start to move the brand forward."

Alfa Romeo is likely smaller than some would have expected at this time, Dominique admits, but he doesn't mind having a more streamlined and agile network to work with. Its U.S. sales peaked at 23,800 in 2018 and haven't topped 19,000 in any year since.

The goal now is to build the brand in a consistent way, although he wouldn't rule out adding some stores to compete in more markets as volume increases.

"I'd rather push more throughput through the footprint we've got, making the dealers very successful, making us successful and treating customers the right way," Dominique said. "In the future, digital tools and [vehicle] pickup and drop-off will give us the tools to expand that geography to cover a greater area with the same network."

The Tonale will be the first new Alfa product since the Stelvio debuted in 2017. The crossover signals a metamorphosis for Alfa Romeo, Dominique said, by showing where it's heading in design and technology. It's the first step in the brand's journey to electrification.

The plan isn't to capture a "huge" amount of the BMW and Mercedes-Benz audience, Dominique said — just a portion of those customers who find themselves looking for something different.

"We're talking about increasing the volume of our brand by almost 50 percent nationally, so we've got to conquest," he said.

The Tonale will be a linchpin in an awareness crusade in the second half of 2021 that will seek to lift the entire Alfa Romeo lineup.

The brand will continue taking a targeted approach through a co-op program with its 11 dealer ad associations around the country to develop effective local marketing.

There won't be any national campaigns on cable TV or costly Super Bowl spots because those platforms aren't targeted. Alfa Romeo aired three ads during the 2017 Super Bowl, a huge investment that was meant to be a launching pad for the brand.

Alfa Romeo knows where its growth centers are and can hit them without broad outreach, Dominique said.

"We are a regional brand right now," he said. "We're not really a national brand in the context of high volume everywhere, right? We do great in the Detroit area; we do great in New York, New Jersey, south Florida, Southern California."