Automotive News - February 12, 2018 - v2 - 28

SUBARU
continued from Page 21

out interference from outside investors.
Unfortunately, at that moment,
Subaru sales were on the decline.
Subaru sold 108,547 vehicles in the
U.S. in 1990. Just four years earlier, it
had sold 183,242 vehicles.
Hoping to build buzz for the brand,
Subaru turned to Wieden & Kennedy
of Portland, Ore., in 1991 as its agency of record. It was the automaker's
first ad agency switch in 17 years.
The artsy West Coast agency had
built a reputation for youthful and
edgy ads for Nike, including the
iconic "Just do it" campaign.
Subaru was the agency's first automotive account, and its staff of young
and avant-garde art directors created

SUBARU OF AMERICA
a campaign with the tag line "What
to drive."
It was visually striking, the public
agreed. But Subaru's executives concluded that "visually striking" wasn't
selling cars.
Wieden & Kennedy was responsible for marketing the SVX, a sporty,
high-performance car unlike anything Subaru had attempted. The
coupe's far-out looks included a window-within-a-window feature that
still stands out. But the model also
cost significantly more than any other Subaru. That turned up the pressure even more on the advertising
challenge.
The brief relationship ended with
Subaru abruptly firing the agency,
cutting its own U.S. work force and
undertaking another agency review
in 1993.

50 YEARS

For Subaru, things
get tough ... er
Subaru's product line at the time
didn't help, and the automaker's
sales declined further. At one point,
Subaru had a 300-day supply of inventory, with hordes of vehicles
parked on fields around the Indiana
plant.
In 1993, its U.S. sales declined to
104,179 vehicles. The next year was
even worse, totaling just 100,619 vehicles.
One obvious problem: Subaru had
no pickups, no SUVs and no minivan.
"I never once heard a customer
come in and say, 'When's Subaru going to come up with a 2+2, six-cylinder sports car for $30,000 because I'd
buy that,' " recalled Bill Garcia, deal-

er principal at Hodges Subaru in
Ferndale, Mich., near Detroit "I
would have much rather seen them
come up with a minivan design or
some multipassenger vehicle."
Along the way, Subaru changed its
nomenclature from "four-wheel
drive" to "all-wheel drive." It claimed
that research revealed that car consumers associated 4wd with pickups.
The automaker also began targeting very specific groups who might
be drawn to the brand's awd offerings. This included not just rugged,
outdoors-oriented consumers, such
as canoers, kayakers, skiers and
backpackers, but also people who
simply needed more assurance
about getting to work in challenging
conditions. They included health
care workers, teachers and education administrators, engineers and
other technical types.
Another change: There would be
no more budget-busting Super Bowl
ads, which the company had used to
introduce the Impreza in 1993.

They called
it an SUW

"We were looking for
market opportunities
where we could
compete. That was
the genesis for
Outback and Forester.
The products were
executed that way."
Tom Doll

28 * FEBRUARY 12, 2018

"That proved the point," he said of
the Outback's off-road chops.
Following the Outback, Subaru introduced the Forester in 1997 as a
smaller vehicle that shared the Outback's image and driving traits.
"We were looking for market opportunities where we could compete," Doll said. "That was the genesis for Outback and Forester. The
products were executed that way."
The two models gave the brand two
anchor products that remain its
strongest-selling nameplates.
Last year, 188,886 Outbacks were
sold. The Forester came in second
place, with 177,563. Each nameplate
outsold the entire annual Subaru
brand volume of those challenging
1990s years that spawned their birth.

A bigger change occurred in 1995,
when Subaru shifted all of its U.S.
models to awd.
"That was a bold decision at the Then the General
time," Doll said. "Half of our prodwalked in
ucts were front-wheel drive."
That change ignited a new era for
Other twists and turns have come
Subaru, Doll noted. And it came with along in the last 20 years.
two new nameplates.
In 1999, General Motors purThe Outback, essentially a Legacy chased a 20 percent stake in Fuji, bewagon that had been bulked up, coming the company's largest sharejoined the lineup in 1994 as a trim holder, for $1.4 billion. That arrangeline for the wagon. It bement initially looked to
came a separate nameplate
many like it would open
a year later. To differentiate
new opportunities for the
it, Subaru tagged the Outtwo companies.
back "the world's first sport
But little resulted.
utility wagon."
The most visual outcome
"We wanted to make it apwas a new model for one of
pear it was an SUV," Doll said.
GM's other holdings, Saab,
To launch it in that spirit,
with the Saab 9-2X. The car
Subaru acquired the out- Hogan: Outback was a reworked Impreza
doorsy star power of Paul got star power
WRX compact - pundits
Hogan, the Australian actor
quickly dubbed it the
of Crocodile Dundee fame, as the "Saabaru."
Outback's pitchman.
The GM-Fuji alliance didn't last
Hiring Hogan "was a tipping point," long.
said Alex Fedorak, a former member
In 2005, GM sold its Fuji stake for a
of Subaru's public relations team.
paper loss of between $700 million
Fedorak noted that Hogan once and $800 million. Toyota Motor
had been a vehicle salesman, and Corp. paid GM $302.6 million for 68
when Subaru brought him to a deal- million shares, equal to an 8.7 perer meeting, he easily connected with cent stake in Fuji, while Fuji bought
its retailer base and the Outback.
back the rest of GM's stake.
"He told us, 'You better be able to
Since then, Toyota's stake has
build a lot of these because I'm going grown to 16.5 percent, making it the
to sell the hell out of them,' " Fedorak largest shareholder in what is now
recalled.
Subaru Corp.
But there was more to the Outback
Recent years have given Subaru of
than a rugged name and looks.
America a new challenge to ponder
Subaru made it a capable off-road - how to expand.
vehicle with a healthy amount of
The automaker's East Coast heriground clearance, noted Mike Gey- tage has made the Northeast a tradilin, who did outside media work for tional strong point for the brand.
the automaker in the early 1990s and
According to Geylin, Subaru is so
again in the 2000s.
solid in New England that Subaru is
"It was more than tape and stripes," jokingly referred to as the official
he said of the Outback. "The car state car of Vermont.
could perform."
But to expand Subaru's retail base,
Geylin was responsible for plan- Doll said finding dealers in nontradining the Outback media launch in tional markets was sometimes a
the central coast region of California. challenge.
To map out a driving route for the
"We were weak everywhere else,"
press and others to experience the he said bluntly.
Outback, Geylin himself used a Jeep
Potential dealers needed convincWrangler. The off-road portion of the ing about Subaru's future product
program took a grueling two hours, plans and the brand's direction overand Geylin recalled that it was a all. That was particularly true where
"challenge" even in the Wrangler.
Subaru most needed to increase
However, the Outback prevailed, penetration - the Sun Belt.
he noted, and the vehicle was positively received by the media.
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