• by Karl Greenberg , July 5, 2011

Suzuki is rolling through the Midwest and Northeast this summer, visiting fairs in Chicago, Pennsylvania, New York and Vermont. The point is to promote its halo car, the Kizashi sedan, but the company showing off Japan market vehicles like the Wagon R, which is the top-selling vehicle in Japan, and the X-HEAD concept vehicle.

Suzuki, which has been marketing its cars for several years in the U.S., now has more reason than ever to talk up its auto business here, as vehicles like the Kizashi sedan are no longer essentially Korean Daewoos built by General Motors.

Marketing Daily caught up with Steve Younan, director of marketing for Suzuki's automotive division in the U.S. Younan, who replaced Gene Brown in the position last year, was at the Meadowlands in New Jersey for the kick-off of the Suzuki Kicks road show.

Q: What does Kizashi represent for Suzuki?

A: It's the flagship for our brand and it the reflects personality of Suzuki and the technology, design and style that we have been working toward in terms of changing Suzuki's brand image in the U.S. and world wide. We had always been known as a basic commuter car in the U.S. but we have been trying to move toward a more evolved position where the value, not just the price, is central. We are trying to democratize technology; we are trying to bring big-ticket elements you'd normally see in aspirational cars down something people can afford without sacrificing quality.

Q: Which vehicles do you benchmark for direct comparison with Suzuki cars?

A: We usually target a class of vehicles rather than one specific model. For Kizashi, for instance, we targeted Audi A4, Volkswagen Passat, Alfa Romeo 159 and Acura TSX. Kind of that $30,000 to $38,000 price class of mid-sized sport sedans. We are offering a solution to people who aspire to these cars.

Q: Who's buying Kizashi these days?

A: We are seeing a bit more of a male skew, maybe 65% of buyers are male, but I hope to expand [consideration among women]. Our focus has been toward performance-oriented enthusiasts. But we know there are a lot of females who like the driving experience who want control of the car and don't want the car to control them. We have been a little overly focused on the male side of the equation.

We have changed our ad strategy though. Our print advertising was in auto buff books exclusively last year. This year we have dialed that back a bit and moved some of those funds toward a broader range of publications like Women's Health and Men's Health, and magazines like Outside and Budget Travel, which appeal to both genders. We have a partnership with Lifetime as well, where we are doing more advertising and product placement. So we are trying to find more balance.

Q: Who is the Suzuki consumer in contradistinction to, say, a Honda loyalist?

A: One thing we did a few years back was to identify the mindset of buyers who would appreciate Suzuki as a brand and what we offer. We are probably closer to being a boutique brand than a mass-market brand in the U.S. We do sell the No. 1 car in Japan, so we are a mass brand there, but here we have some unique qualities.

So we have tried to identify with whom we have the best fit. In our research we identified a group we call "confident explorers." It's a blend of two mindsets. First they are people who are confident of themselves; they do their research and homework, they know what they want and are not looking for a brand to validate what their friends or peers may think of them. And then they are also more risk-takers and adventure seekers.

They live for the weekend, so they may not have the means to buy the most extravagant vehicle, because they want to put their money into the experiences they love. That explorer mentality works well for an undiscovered brand like Suzuki. We are not well known yet; people are still discovering us, so it's a good fit. If people are really just brand loyal to Ford, Chevy, Honda, Toyota, they probably aren't going to be our buyer.

Q: But can you survive in the U.S. market as a niche auto brand that isn't also a luxury brand?

A: There's no question economies of scale help a car company but if you look at, say, Mini, they are doing okay, though they are premium priced. I think for us, if we can sell 50,000 vehicles per year, that would probably be fine. It depends on a lot of things, however. If they yen is where it is now, it's tough. At 80 yen for the dollar it's tough for us to advertise and market ourselves. And we are struggling with a dealer network that functionally regional.

Q: I thought Suzuki had a national distribution? Is Suzuki marketing strategy regional?

A: We have dealers all over the country, but not all of them are focused on Suzuki. What we do have is a concentration of dealers who care very much about the brand in places like Denver, Chicago, Seattle, and up here in the Northeast. But in markets like California, Texas, and Florida, it's tougher because we don't have a lot of dealers there. So we focus our advertising on our strong regional markets, but we are also working to expand our network. As other regions get stronger we will market more heavily in those markets.

Q: Given your limited budget compared to bigger players, how are you working the share of voice issue?

A: Well, on the plus side, we have credibility among adventure minded people who see us for our power-sports products - motorcycles, ATVs, marine engines, for example -- and see that we do have that fun streak to our brand. It does help them understand your brand personality a little better. We place our media toward that mindset. If we are doing print, or online, Budget Travel and Outside are what that confident explorer is reading. They aren't reading Time or Newsweek. Those are very broad-based publications.

We will do some mass-market advertising that will bring prestige to the brand, like Super Bowl or Academy Awards, but most focus is on unique programming, such as "The Ultimate Wave," a film featuring surfer Kelly Slater and the Grand Vitara. That movie is now being played in a lot of theatres including New Jersey's own Liberty Science Center this summer.

Q: Are you looking to create more custom content?

A: We are going in that direction with Lifetime where, but we are moving more toward breaking through clutter by having products better integrated into programming, which is something we are going to be doing this fall.

Q: Suzuki has several "micro" cars here at this Suzuki Kicks show. They aren't available here, though. What's the point?

A: They are serving a dual purpose: one to tell the Suzuki story; that [the show] is not just about Kizashi but the personality of Suzuki, which is why we brought not just the Wagon R, and but also the X-HEAD (concept truck) here. It's to help people see there's something different about this brand and also tell the global story, that Wagon R is the top selling car in Japan, that Suzuki has expertise and leadership in Japan where we are the third largest manufacturer.

But we are also going to be doing surveys to understand U.S. consumer appetite for smaller cars like these. Would people sacrifice size to get 50 or 60 miles per gallon instead of spending $30 grand for a hybrid? It's an opportunity to gauge consumer interest.

Q: Not long ago Suzuki marketing was all about how the Suzuki cars and trucks are like Suzuki motorcycles. That always struck me as slightly irrelevant, and a little desperate.

A: At that time our product lineup of vehicles like Forenza, Verona, and XL-7 was mainly manufactured by General Motors. We had maybe one true Japanese Suzuki. Really we were selling more cars for GM than Hummer was. And they weren't true Suzuki vehicles. I think putting your name on a product line like that has questionable outcome. And it wasn't the best long-term decision for the company. We'd rather build from the ground up.

Q: What's the opportunity for Suzuki long term?

A: Baby boomers are parents of driving-age kids, and those kids don't want to drive the Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans etc. that their parents drive and that have, frankly, become Americanized. If you look at a Honda Accord, it's like an Oldsmobile, a bigger, heavier car. The Honda Accord of Europe is not a Honda Accord of America. They have been very successful because of that, but there will be a certain point in time where younger buyers are going to look at what their parents bought, and question whether they want that, and will look for undiscovered brands.

If we are in the right place with our product line, we can then leverage our motorsports heritage successfully. Those young people know about Suzuki from our motorcycles and they understand what we're about. If we have the right cars, and not warmed-up GM vehicles, but something unique, more breakthrough, that's our opportunity. We have to earn it, and that's why we are doing this research here.