It’s hard to imagine a company with a more uninspiring name, disjointed branding, and muddled messaging than Amsterdam-based Stellantis, parent of more than a dozen auto brands ranging from moribund Chrysler to Maserati. Perhaps in Europe the name Stellantis evokes some passion, but it strikes me as some dreaded STD, as in “my partner gave me a terminal case of Stellantis.”
Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa seems bent on reinforcing my perception of Stellantis. He recently rolled into Stellantis’ North American headquarters in suburban Detroit to unveil a five-year, $70 billion business turnaround plan for the struggling transatlantic automaker that includes new products for all four of its North American brands.
“It all begins with product,” Filosa said.
Maybe that sounds more inspiring in Italian.
The project’s name: FaSTLAne 2030.
Does that make you want to run out and buy a Stellantis made vehicle or purchase some of the company’s stock?
Filosa speaks Italian and, given that he lived in Brazil, likely Portuguese as well. Maybe in those languages “it all begins with product” carries more weight than it does in English. But what’s Tim Kuniskis’ excuse?
Kuniskis is CEO of Ram’s truck brand. Stellantis recently unveiled three versions of the Ram Hemi V8 powered 1500 Rumble Bee. The name calls back to a similar street truck Dodge briefly produced 20 years ago.
“Trucks used to be just work tools,” Kuniskis told a crowd of journalists, influencers and other attendees assembled at the Chelsea proving grounds outside Ann Arbor before screening a commercial that featured Kuniskis and NASCAR legend Tony Stewart pitted against each other on a racetrack.
“Now, they’re like Silly Putty. It’s for whatever you want. They can be workhorses, they can be luxury vehicles, they can be used for off road, and they’re so natural for off road. The question is, what do you do next?”
Likening a Ram truck to Silly Putty forever changed my perception of the brand. I have long associated Ram with ruggedness, as in Ram Tough, the brand’s memorable slogan from the 1980s.
Great brands spend decades building an identity and can undermine it in a matter of moments. Bud Light learned that lesson the hard way when a promotion collided with many consumers’ perception of what the brand represented. Ram’s challenge is different, but the principle is the same. Consumers expect a truck brand to project toughness. Silly Putty projects something else.
One Company, Different Universes
A look at the sponsorships of Maserati and Ram drives home the disparate nature of Stellantis’ brands.
Maserati has carefully anchored its sponsorship strategy in bougie spaces where high-net-worth eyes gather, intentionally passing over mass market appeal in favor of pure, unadulterated luxury lifestyle alignment.
Rather than splashing its logo across stadium billboards, the Trident brand positions its vehicles as rolling centerpieces at elite cultural and sporting events. At the Rolex Monte Carlo Masters, for instance, Maserati embeds itself into the DNA of international tennis royalty.
Operating as the tournament’s main sponsor and official mobility provider, a fleet of Grecale SUVs serves as the VIP transit network shuttling champions and high profile guests across the Riviera, while exclusive hospitality villages act as the staging ground to debut limited edition custom builds to the global jet set.
Whether Maserati’s strategy is succeeding is a separate question. At least the brand appears to know who it’s trying to be.
“We are delighted to be, for the first time, Official Sponsor and Mobility Partner of Salone del Mobile.Milano 2026, an international benchmark for design, innovation and design culture,” Maserati COO Santo Ficili said in a news release.
Ram, meanwhile, is courting a very different audience.
While Maserati positions itself alongside international tennis, luxury design and the global jet set, Ram is a sponsor of President Trump’s upcoming UFC cage event on the White House grounds.
There is nothing inherently wrong with either strategy. Luxury brands seek affluent consumers at elite cultural events. Truck brands often align themselves with blue-collar and combat sports audiences. The question is what, if anything, connects them. Other than a common corporate parent, Stellantis offers little evidence that Maserati and Ram belong to the same company.
Detroit Once Knew How to Sell Cars
Stellantis isn’t the only Detroit automaker that appears to have lost its marketing compass.
Chevrolet became America’s bestselling automotive brand in part because it mastered the art of selling an idea rather than a vehicle. “See the U.S.A. in Your Chevrolet” wasn’t merely a slogan. It was a vision of postwar optimism and mobility.
Ford also understood the power of marketing. After years of quality problems, it reassured consumers with “Quality Is Job 1” and later challenged them with “Have You Driven a Ford Lately?” The message was simple: we heard your concerns and fixed them.
Today’s Detroit automakers often sound like they’re speaking to consultants rather than consumers. GM CEO Mary Barra regularly extols the virtues of software enabled vehicles. Ford recently launched a campaign called “Ready Set Ford.” While Ford has produced some brilliant promotions featuring actress Sydney Sweeney and Detroit Lions receiver Isaac TeSlaa, the slogan reminded me of the childhood game Hide and Seek.
Ready. Set. Go.
Marketing helped Detroit survive oil shocks, recessions, foreign competition and even bankruptcy. The industry’s greatest campaigns reminded consumers not merely what Detroit built but why it mattered.
Stellantis’ branding struggles are all the more puzzling because the company employs one of the most accomplished marketers in the industry.
His name is Olivier Francois, and he was responsible for some of the most iconic ads of the past two decades. Three years ago, Francois was quite deservedly inducted into The American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Fame.
Francois spearheaded Chrysler’s 2011 Super Bowl commercial featuring Detroit rapper Eminem stepping out of a Chrysler 200 at the city’s Fox Theatre and looking directly into the camera and confidently saying, “This is the Motor City, and this is what we do.”
The ad didn’t just sell a car. It sold the soul, conviction and generational know-how of southeastern Michigan. It was a masterclass in inspiring, emotionally resonant messaging.
With GM having abandoned its Detroit headquarters and increasingly moving key executives to Silicon Valley, Stellantis might again consider highlighting its Motor City roots and engineering prowess.
Admittedly, Francois is stretched these days. In addition to overseeing marketing for Stellantis’ 14 automotive brands and two mobility and finance companies, he’s also global president of Fiat.
Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa might consider freeing up Francois to focus his talents on the company’s overall branding.
Having spent more than an hour reading Stellantis strategy presentations, news releases and marketing materials, I’m still not entirely sure what Stellantis wants to be.
Detroit’s greatest marketers once sold America automotive dreams. Today, executives peddle strategic plans.