Mazdas Position and Branding - Case Study Example

Mazda, A Case Study Mazda, A Case Study Brand is the emotional and functional values that are presented through a company'smarketing campaign to provide a unique and different promise for their customers. The promise must be different and arouse interest in the product at hand. In today's marketing world, a company must have an important brand. The brand plays a vital role in distinguishing the difference in one company's product from another. We choose a product because we identify with the message that the company is sending out to us through their marketing program, or because the product holds an allure in how we would like to be perceived by others. We need to form some kind of emotional link to the product. In determining a brand, there is the need to differentiate from others or form a shorthand logo, position ourselves or have an integrated strategy, and create a personality and vision while adding value. In this paper, it will be discussed as to how Mazda has formed that link with us and how their marketing program has created a brand that tells us who they are and why we should buy their car. Mazda has a very unique shorthand Logo. According to Mazda Zoom Zoom is1 shorthand for the love of exhilarating movement that we all have. It is the imagination we have about a car moving quickly down the road. They use the emotions we had as children in seeing a fast car and wanting to be part of that. Zoom Zoom is a promise that we will feel special when we get in any car built by Mazda. It is definitely different than any other company and when you hear Zoom Zoom, you think only of Mazda which is what is meant to happen. Zoom Zoom just sounds like fun when you say it. When Mazda began to reposition itself, it needed to change its strategy. It now had to be positioned as a hip, cool, and fun to drive car. It is also positioned to be a great car for young females who are professionals, according to the case study. Now we have a car that is fun to drive by the young who identify them through their cars and we are using the logo Zoom Zoom which is something we all said as children when we thought of anything fun that moved us from one place to another. There is, of course, another group that is touched by this phrase or logo. Older adults, especially the baby boomer age have always been involved with cars. That group of people has retired and is retiring in a completely different way than any other group before them.2 Zoom Zoom means fun and Mazda has positioned itself to absorb those customers. They do not see themselves as old like the generations before them. Instead they see themselves as headed for another adventure and Zoom Zoom fits all the cords. Mazda's position is certainly related to the fun already mentioned however; it plays to several types of personality. Let's take the Mazda RX 8 for example. It is a classic yet quick sportster that has a distinctive look and room in the back seat. So it is a commuter car that is fun to drive, kid-friendly, and a weekend toy. What more could you ask for It has a 247 horsepower motor that runs at 9,000 rpms. It accelerates quickly and stops fast. What more could you possibly ask for and who in their right mind would not buy this car The personality is one of fun and yet able to handle responsibility just like the personality of their trucks is one of power and towing capacity but at the same time rugged and comfortable. Mazda has quite a vision. 3 They promise to always build cars that are fun to drive and will provide high levels of environmental performance and safety performance. They believe that their Zoom Zoom brand is sustainable and they will plan to continue to use it over the long term. The envision that they will continue to work on technology and develop cars that create great driving performance as well as provide great interior environments and safety. They believe their cars will always be fun to drive and make you want to drive them again. They have as part of their vision that they will increase average fuel efficiency in their cars by 30% by the year 2015 and a lot of that efficiency will come from hydrogen fuel. This vision is well publicized and expected by the public.4 Mazda has created a great deal of value for its customers and for the employees and stockholders of the company. Mazda has an average mpg rating of 25.6 which has been quite a bit greater than most. Many are beginning to catch up but as already mentioned Mazda is moving toward a hydrogen engine. They hope to have that done soon and it will add much value for their customs. Add to all of this the fact that Mazda has the third highest resale value on the market and they have won the Garners recognition for 2010 for best value retention. 5Mazda adds value for its employees and stock holders in the fact that it continues to remain innovative and moving forward. It rewards employees regularly in motivating them to continue to move forward, it has created a viable "Mazda is one" campaign. Brand hierarchy consists of three phases in the branding process. Those phases are experiential, emotional, and rational. There was a time when most branding was done through the rational process and to some extent still is. The present generation though, is more emotionally attached to a brand and so that is being used more often. Experiential branding is effective on all of us because we all have experience. Rational branding is cognitive in its appeal. In other words, we normally understand it. We think it. When we talk about cognitive ability, we talk about the ability to think about it. The things that would fall into this category are room, efficiency, engine, drivability. We know that we must buy a car that meets our everyday needs and is going to stand up to our lifestyles. Mazda uses all of these things in the marketing of their cars. They have an excellent engine and are known for its stability and function. They are working consistently on fuel efficiency which is something we all have to have in this day, even if we have a need to have a fast or sleek car. Many of the people that are within the targeted age group have young children and though they want a young car, they have a need for a car that they can put the child seat in the back seat. Again, Mazda has that. They therefore are able to hit all of the chords necessary for a rational branding campaign. However, most often we think of Mazda in the emotional sense of branding. Emotional marking speaks to something that stirs us up. It gives rise to feelings, and expressions. It may cause a particular kind of behavior. It goes to our culture and draws emotion from achievements, triumphs, friendship, belonging, and love. It may also draw a reaction from our beliefs, patriotism and morality among many more emotions. In the case of Mazda, we most often think Zoom, Zoom which causes an emotional response. We think flashy, fast, childhood, and fun, just to name a few things. Experientially Mazda has proven through experience to be a company that you can depend on to have a comfortable car at a price that is affordable. It is expected to see a nice car, even flashy in some ways that drives well and is efficient. Many see and talk to those that have experienced the ride and they show you what it would be like even if you haven't through their online video game to try it. Most people have experienced something that would fall under the Zoom Zoom brand even as adults but certainly as children. There is, too, the fact that their advertising n television is done so well that we feel as if we have experienced the ride, even when we haven't. The brand audit is important for any company to have on an ongoing basis. This assures that the company is always on top of what is needed not only by the customer but by the company as a whole. This is the process used when Mazda determined that their shorthand of "Get In, Be Moved was not enough." Mazda determined that their dashboard was very weak and that they needed to combine their marketing strategy with the US Market in order to assure that their entire dashboard was correct. Brand auditing consists of an audit process of value. It is to be determined whether or not the value that is delivered is what was promised. In the case of Mazda, this process is more likely to be accurate now than it was prior because of the dashboard audit they recently completed. This audit included the corporate strategy being used and created a change in the way the dashboard was set up and organized. It also changed how Mazda North America was including in the strategy. The plan was to include distributing of Mazda North Americas overall strategy in the main dashboard. They determined in this process that there were several gaps in reporting even though Mazda is a metric company. Their dashboard was difficult to analyze and they discovered that the reason was that their brand audit process was probably not concise enough. They solved this problem by developing a single integrated marketing dashboard to help that happen. They started the process throughout the corporate part of their analysis with a gap analysis. They found that when they audited their tracking tags, it was hard to determine why customers where choosing their product since the tags did not lead them back to that information. They found that only portions of the dashboard were even tracked at all. There was not enough organization in the analysis given from the customer side. They then came up with an actionable plan. They now have key performance indicators that are much easier to track. Brand auditing also includes the heritage of the company. Does it tie in with the brand In the case of Mazda's audit the answer was yes but no one could tell because in the case of the internet for example, reviewing the history did not move to reviewing the brand. Identity communication symbols are audited during this process and Mazda certainly has a better Identity communication since the audit took place as Zoom Zoom identifies the company to everyone. Part of the brand audit process is to assure that employees are engaged, that behavior, sense of belonging, attitudes, and perceptions are tied to the companies well being. This seems to be the case in Mazda. Essentially any search on employee satisfaction shows the Mazda Company as a company to work for. This would indicate to the company as well as the public that Mazda is a fair and honest company which can only improve how people think about the brand. A very important aspect of any Corporations brand audit is to determine how the relations with their stakeholders are going. Obviously, Mazda needs to be a profitable company in order to have the stockholders remain happy. The relations with the customer directly relate to whether the company remains profitable, for sure. Mazda's profit figures are of course public and they are quite good. Stock has remained in good shape, even through the economic crisis that has happened. The resale value of their cars remains up and for both customers and stock holders this remains to be good new. The employees, who are also stakeholders, have continued to do well in what is now a crisis everywhere. Mazda cars continue to sell there for Mazda employees continue to have a job. Brand promise is probably in many ways the most important of the processes. If a customer does not know what the brand promise is, it is difficult to become attached to the product. Mazda has had a long company history since 1920 and that company history is definitely part of the affect of the brand promise. Everyone knows who Mazda is. In April 1998, however, Mazda decided to position itself as a World Wide entity and tough business consortium. They have a brand promise that is the same as their brand shorthand and identification which is Zoom Zoom. It is unusual for two words to be quite so important to one company and not only affect their brand promise but their shorthand and brand identification but Mazda has managed to tie all of them together in a great package. Mazda has a brand DNA that helps to build this promise. That DNA starts with personality. Mazda promises that their car will be stylish, insightful, and spirited. The question is always, "what was that" showing that they are stylishly different and great to drive. It breaks them out of the pack and makes them unusual. The second part of that DNA that affects their brand promise is the product itself. Not only is it distinctively designed in each of the cars, but it has exceptional functionality, responsive handling and remains fun to drive. Mazda has won many awards and continues to win many. Each of these awards contributes to the brand promise that is being built and maintained by the company. The target audience for the company is those who stay young. This is people of any age that stay young. However, it also target people that can generally afford around $20-$25 thousand for a car. That means professionals whether they are young or older, but with a personality that is looking to be young. That is a promise, "this car is for those who want to have a young experience." In conclusion, Mazda has discovered the way. They have a distinctive brand that not only draws our attention but promises to be forever fun. More importantly their award winning cars are attractive and realistically priced. Mazda has promised and has been delivering a car for the times. They have continued to look for methods of decreasing fuel consumption, even looking at alternative fuels. They have consistently redesigned their cars to meet the customer's needs and the customer has been responding. There is a consistent effort to do a brand audit and improve the brand essence by assuring that the personality and appeal of their vehicles is changing to meet the needs of the public. ZOOM ZOOM References http://www.mazda.com/vision Healty, J. (2003). Quick Mazda RX-8 combines, class and speediness, USA, today. Moor, Breanna, Irvine based Mazda Garners recognition. OCMETRO. Dec. 2009. Read More