Talking about the 159, that's indeed a good example. A very capable car, very good looking and less anachronistic than the 156.
Yet, it's selling poorly (outside of Italy).

Given Alfa seems to summarize pretty well the problem, I'd take Marchionne's words, which were basically "we should stop making cars listening to people who wouldn't buy them, and we should stop making cars we can't sell anymore".

Which basically means, no one would buy an Alfa made as they used to be, see as the 156 was a good selling car but they were expecting more, and no one would buy an Alfa made like a BMW, see the 159 not selling enough.
Yet, people wanted a more refined and comfortable 156, while the 159 is just too big and heavy and not enough pure. Ironically I loved them both at he first turn.

The message seems to be there is no room for Alfa anymore, as it risks not to be for Saab and other minor players. Jaguar is trying to save itself, and it may have found the way (which means one less way possible for the other players).
Re-inventing itself should be the aim, but that doesn't mean it will work.

Given buyers go nuts for boring looking cars which are also pretty similar from each others, being different (and not for the sake of it) risks to be your death. That's relevant with the mass production market though.

I still remember a girl telling me the newer Mini (R56) was much better looking than the former (R53), when they have yet to invade the street I was till wondering on which were the differences.
Then there was that moron, opening the trunk of his 1.9 TDI 105 bhp Golf, exclaiming "see, these are 130 bhp"...

Don't say customers shouldn't be considered during the designing, development and marketing of a car, as they are the reason why that very car exists.