Ikea to Outfit Fiat Dealerships

July 13, 2006  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in on July 2006 How’s this for cross-marketing?

Fiat, the big Italian automobile maker, announced Wednesday that it will team up with Swedish furniture retailing giant Ikea to refurbish the look of its European car dealer network.

It’s all part of an image-building campaign at Fiat, which had lost money for years and recently returned to the black, boosted by sales of its new Grande Punto vehicle.

Fiat is testing the new showroom concept at 10 dealerships in Italy, where Ikea’s Scandinavian-style furniture and furnishings set the tone.

The concept is sceduled to roll out to Italy’s 350 Fiat dealerships by the end of 2007, and to the entire European network of 1,500 dealers by 2008.