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Home , Bob Lutz (businessman), Calty Design Research, Designworks

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S S D R R N E JUNE 2017 JUNE E / A K K A R B A

BRAND BBRAND

T E && K E THE BIG STORY STORY THE BIG A R CCAKE BAKERS A CCARETAKERS THE BIG STORY

Lincoln’s Andy Georgescu speaks at WardsAuto Interiors Conference in May 2013.

Really IT TAKES MANY INGREDIENTS No Right or Wrong TO BAKE A CAKE. Leave out the eggs, Answer flour or frosting, and the cake flops. 8 Likewise, it takes contributions WardsAuto Interiors Conference Brand from employees across multiple in Dearborn, MI. ‘Storytellers’ divisions and disciplines within an At the time, Georgescu was Vs. automaker to make its vehicles Lincoln’s U.S. product market- ‘Designers’ and brands successful. ing manager, and he lightheart- 12 The metaphor about baked edly provoked his fellow panel- goods comes from a marketing ists, designers Eric Clough from Checks and Balances guy – Lincoln’s Andy Georgescu – and Ben Jimenez from Within OEMs who takes his role as “brand care- ’s , 17 taker” seriously. Four years ago, by suggesting people in market- he referred to himself as such ing are the true brand caretakers, during his presentation at the because, unlike anyone else, they

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THE BIG STORY

WHO ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT So who are the most important BRAND CARETAKERS IN THE AUTO brand caretakers in the auto indus- INDUSTRY? try? That’s a bit like asking parents That’s a bit like asking parents which child is their favorite. which child is their favorite. We posed the question to dozens of engineers, designers have a keen understanding of the and executives from across the customer and those who poten- industry and came away with tially can be brought into the fold. fascinating stories about pivotal Of course, Clough and Jimenez moments in the evolution of could state definitively why automotive brands, all of them designers are the most important hinging on dogged intervention brand caretakers, because they by brand caretakers at various have the unique ability to create levels of an organization. a visual first impression, capture There’s Bob Lutz, an irrepress- lightning in a bottle and establish ible car guy who led the charge an immediate emotional bond for the Viper, pushed GM merely by putting pencil to paper. products forward on many fronts,

Bob Lutz, then Corp. president, with GTS before running of Indianapolis 500 in May 1996.

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U.S. through the 1970s and early 1980s but then was foundering badly for many years. It all changed when Japanese executives Takeshi Tachimori, Ikuo Mori and Yasuyuki Yoshinaga set out more than a decade ago to recraft the brand and its products to better suit American tastes. The cars would be big- ger and more stylish, efficient and functional, starting with the Impreza in 2007, Forester in 2008 and Outback in 2009. If not for the tireless support from Japan, “nothing we could do in the U.S. would work,” says Thomas Doll, president and chief operating officer of Subaru of America and a 35-year veteran of the automaker. During its darkest days, from 1998 to 2006, “Subaru of America While at BMW had to convince an anxious missed the greatest car market in in early 1970s, Chevy Corvette team the Saturn history” as U.S. sales topped 17.4 Lutz led revival of motorcycle Sky roadster was no threat and, million units, an exasperated Doll division. He had while at BMW many years earlier, tells WardsAuto. left for Ford of turned a sleepy, underachiev- “And we’re not growing. We’re when BMW delivered ing motorcycle operation into a staying at 180,000 cars a year this R100 RS as a 2-wheel powerhouse. and having to incentivize the gift. And there’s Subaru, the Japanese bejeebees out of the cars just brand that had a good run in the to get the level of sales we were

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PHOTO COP YRI GHT ©

THE BIG STORY ERI C T HA AY A ER/ / GET G T TY TY IMA IM GES G

Subaru’s Tom getting,” he says. The average based) Crosstrek CUV arrives this Doll presents Subaru U.S. showroom was mov- year; and the 3-row Ascent CUV Outback at 2014 New York ing fewer than 350 vehicles a year. goes on sale in summer 2018. auto show. The new strategy took root, U.S. sales in 2016 topped 615,000 and Subaru in the U.S. gained units and this year are expected momentum by having all-wheel to surpass 650,000. drive on every vehicle at a time Doubling down and committing when AWD cars were skyrocket- more resources to the U.S. dur- ing in popularity. It didn’t hurt ing the recession “was something that rally-racing fans lusted after that took some stones, and they the WRX and STI. did it,” Doll says of the Japanese Today, Subaru has enjoyed executives. “They are really the 66 consecutive months of sales the true caretakers of the brand. increases; the redesigned Impreza Now, fortunately we’re reaping has earned a Wards 10 Best the benefits of that. Our job now Interiors trophy; a new (Impreza- is to try to sustain it.”

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Really No Right or Wrong Answer Identifying an automaker’s embodies a brand’s heart and most prominent brand caretaker soul is one of its caretakers. These is a philosophical question that are the devout protagonists who can make for heated conversa- frown at the notion of compro- tion during happy hour, but there mise, refuse to cut corners, put the really is no right or wrong answer. organization before themselves Automakers excel in different and may be known as a pain in the ways, so powertrain engineers at ass. They are passionate, unyield- BMW, manufacturing managers ing in the pursuit of excellence and at Toyota and electric-propulsion often win internal arguments. specialists at Tesla may feel a dis- By contrast, Volkswagen’s engi- proportionate burden as brand neers who figured out a way to caretakers. The same is true for game vehicle-emissions systems stylists working on the next-gen- only for the purpose of passing eration Ford Mustang or Corvette government testing procedures or developers of the next human- are the opposite of brand care- machine interface at Mercedes- takers. Benz or driver-assistance system But the Volkswagen Group does at Volvo. have a well-known champion, and Anyone at an automaker who singing his praises is none other than Lutz, who spent half a cen- ANYONE AT AN AUTOMAKER WHO tury fighting (and often winning) EMBODIES A BRAND’S HEART AND battles on behalf of several auto- SOUL IS ONE OF ITS CARETAKERS. motive brands around the world. These are the devout “Ferdinand Piëch probably protagonists who frown at the understands (his company’s) notion of compromise, refuse to brands better than any other CEO cut corners, put the organization in the industry,” Lutz, who retired before themselves and may be in 2010 from as vice known as a pain in the ass. chairman-product development,

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THE BIG STORY PHOTO COPYRIGHT © SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGE as VW Group chairman in 2015, for retaining the British appeal of Bentley and the Italian allure of when he led the acquisition of those brands. Lutz was especially impressed when Bentley launched the Continental in 2003 – the first new vehicle under VW ownership. S “It was a totally English expe- rience because he understood that Bentley owners don’t want a German car,” Lutz says. “He was a genius. Like many guys passionate about brands, he had a very keen understanding of what is brand appropriate and what isn’t.” A serious misstep for Piëch, Lutz considers retired VW Group however, was introducing the Chairman Ferdinand Piëch “a conservatively styled Phaeton genius” brand caretaker. luxury sedan in 2002 as a VW flag- tells WardsAuto in an interview. ship, seemingly competing with “He has shown an uncanny the Audi A8. ability to do the right thing, espe- “The Phaeton was a celebrated cially for Audi. Audi was a joke flop,” Lutz says. “But Piëch over- when VW bought it, and he knew all did fine for VW as a brand and exactly what to do to make Audi the group as a whole.” what it is today. His batting aver- Lutz says each automaker’s age is probably higher than any CEO should be its brands’ most other brand caretaker.” ardent caretaker, but he admits The 85-year-old Lutz also praises that expectation often is unreal- the 80-year-old Piëch, who retired istic because many of them come

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up through the finance side of a company and can be somewhat removed from the product. Take Alan Mulally, for instance. He led Ford through eight tumultuous years and by most accounts was a masterful leader before retiring in 2014. But his background was in the airline industry, coming from , so his knowledge of cars under- standably was limited. Executive Occasionally, top executives, Design Director Alfonso Albaisa. such as FCA’s Ralph Gilles, come up through the ranks, and that can put the design staff on edge. Infiniti President Roland Krueger gradu- ated years ago from industrial design school in and now manages ’s luxury brand and its entire global business. Infiniti President Roland Krueger. “It’s a little tricky because he as a designer and bears the role was a designer, so his relationship of brand caretaker. is naturally close” with the prod- “Most of the people that we uct, which challenges designers have responsible for our brand to do their very best, says Infiniti were designers,” Albaisa says. “So Executive Design Director Alfonso our company is a little unusual, Albaisa. and maybe that’s why our cars And there’s more. Francois are like they are and that we have Bancon, Infiniti’s vice president- a significant presence of design in product strategy, also started out the brand.”

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Brand ‘Storytellers’ Vs. ‘Designers’ Design consultant Devin Liddell says strong brands require strong leaders, and he sees the need to replace the “caretaker” mantle with titles that are more specific and more accurate. “This is not to suggest that marketing, advertising, etc. is no longer important. It definitely is,” says Liddell, principal brand strat- egist with Seattle-based Teague, a consultancy whose design work includes the UPS truck and every Boeing commercial airplane ever produced. “But I’d argue that marketing Consultant Devin Liddell sees is really a brand’s ‘storytellers,’ marketing department as brand “storytellers.” and that engineers, exterior styl- ists and interiors specialists are a lute clarity about what a brand brand’s ‘designers.’” stands for and how those beliefs If an automaker has various should be expressed across any departments constantly jockey- discipline, and that clarity comes ing for ownership of the brand, from the top,” he says, calling “then the irony is that it’s likely attention to Steve Jobs, not a very strong brand,” Liddell and Elon Musk, among others. says. An automaker, such as General “In strong brands, there is abso- Motors, owning multiple brands

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“Some stakeholders

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must clearly differentiate them. the brand more, others may influ- “A house of brands makes that ence the brand more, but every- clarity all the more important,” one has the opportunity to make Liddell says. “But if we’re hoping some sort of impact,” Bolain tells that the kind of clarity that drives WardsAuto. strong brands can emerge from a “To me, that reinforces the need single silo, and then successfully to have a brand that is really well spread to other silos, I think that’s defined and understood – a brand wishful thinking.” that is thought out in a manner Brian Bolain, ’ general that enables stakeholders to find manager-marketing, challenges something to grab onto.” all employees to assume the role That mission can take many of brand caretaker. forms at Toyota’s luxury brand: “Some stakeholders may touch engineers striving for exhila-

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Asked after his recent speech at the WardsAuto Interiors Conference in who carries the brand-caretaker mantle at BMW, Eric Brown says, tongue in cheek: “Mostly interaction design- ers, I would say.” As interaction design director at BMW Group in California, Brown sees well beyond the automaker’s tradi- tional strengths in the areas of powertrain and chassis control to the futuristic i3 and i8 performance hybrid. Design, technology, marketing Eric Brown rating performance in a new and the BMW Connected Drive from BMW vehicle; Takumi masters obsess- mobility services played a crucial Group Designworks ing over levels of craftsmanship; role in launching those vehicles speaks at marketers finding stories to tell a few years ago and helped WardsAuto about innovative technology reshape the “user experience” for Interiors Conference onboard; and dealers emphasiz- other mainstream vehicles in the in May. ing Omotenashi (hospitality in Bavarian stable. Japanese) that enables high lev- “So I think in the past, maybe it els of customer service and satis- was the design team that owned faction. the brand,” Brown says. “But as The consensus among many we move into these new experi- respondents to our question ences involving technology and about the most important brand connectivity, this is widening caretakers was fairly universal: quite a bit. Now, you need a team It takes a village, but it often to own the brand.” starts with the individual. Lutz could not agree more.

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R90S led resurgence of BMW motorcycles when launched in 1973 under Lutz leadership. While he was executive vice presi- no one was in charge. dent for car sales and market- Lutz offered to pull together an ing at BMW in the early 1970s, internal team of bike enthusiasts the colorful product advocate and pump some life into the busi- approached the automaker’s CEO ness. The CEO agreed, so long as and inquired as to the corporate the work did not interfere with structure for motorcycle develop- car duties for any of the workers, ment and production. Lutz included. At that point, BMW had been As the team came together, he selling motorcycles for 50 years, found employees who “felt like but the division was not profitable, an oppressed, forgotten minor- sales reached only about 10,000 ity.” He scheduled two meetings, units annually and the automaker which proved seminal. was considering selling the motor- “It took us two 4-hour meetings, cycle division, Lutz was told. and we had an amazing consen- Designers and engineers worked sus on what we needed to do for on motorcycles on the side when the next product,” Lutz recalls. they weren’t developing cars, and “We had sketched up some bikes,

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WHEN IT COMES TO BRAND work team with a strong cham- CHARACTER AND WHAT pion at the top, which was me, WORKS AND WHAT’S BRAND- performed a miracle and saved APPROPRIATE... BMW’s bike business.” “It goes beyond product. In the late 1980s, Lutz had a It goes to how you advertise, tougher time selling the Dodge what media you advertise in.” Viper, a track-ready bare- knuckled brawler of a car, within and then the team went away, got Chrysler because the “market- investments, completed design ing guys” wanted an automatic sketches, and the manufactur- transmission, power top, anti- ing guy did his estimates. Then lock brakes, air conditioning and we presented it to top manage- other niceties to make it more ment and said, ‘Here’s our next- salable. generation bikes. We’ll need this Lutz and his team stood their many million deutschemarks,’ ground. “We said to marketing, which was a small sum by car ‘You’re not going to have any of standards.” that stuff. It’s the way we engi- In 1973, the R90S, a 900 cc neered it, no frills,’” he recalls sportbike, went on sale for saying. DM11,000, “which was precisely He’s had enough run-ins with DM2,000 more than a base BMW marketing departments over the 3-Series, and the variable margin years to make him leery. was larger than a 3-Series, too,” “I can say this honestly because he says. The R90S “was an instan- my own MBA is in marketing,” taneous hit,” and planned pro- Lutz says. “Marketing people duction sold out in the first few often are relatively clueless when weeks. it comes to brand character and “We all were enthusiastic, and what works and what’s brand- we all understood the brand appropriate. It goes beyond prod- and what had to be done,” Lutz uct. It goes to how you advertise, says. “That single act of a net- what media you advertise in.”

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Lincoln President Kumar Galhotra unveils Continental at Auto Shanghai in 2015.

Checks and Balances Within OEMs Lincoln’s Georgescu has a differ- lag other luxury brands), expanded ent opinion about marketing. He its product portfolio, gained a foot- sees automakers, including Lincoln, hold in China and created the Black structured in departments that Label suite of premium trim and act as a series of checks and bal- specialized services. ances on each other. “Everyone And as of this model year, every exists to provide important input Lincoln sold in the U.S. comes in the process…that results in with pain-free maintenance: working for the betterment of the When a customer needs service, customer,” he says. a Lincoln representative from the In the four years since Georgescu dealership bring a Lincoln spoke at the WardsAuto Interiors loaner, take the customer’s Conference, Lincoln has significant- vehicle in for service, then return ly grown its sales (but continues to the fixed car to the customer and

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FCA’s Tim Kuniskis, pictured with SRT Demon, sees brands as living organisms.

swap for the loaner. brand,” he says. “The role of the The program has been “wild- customer, I think, plays a dispro- ly successful,” says Lincoln portionately large role in how we President Kumar Galhotra. “We’ve succeed and define ourselves. We done tens of thousands of these bring in that customer insight. I trips already. We did 5,000 just continue to believe brands suc- last month,” he says. “People ceed in part by listening actively who receive the service – 95% to their customers.” of them would recommend it to Tim Kuniskis, head of passenger their friends and families. It’s a cars for Dodge, SRT, Chrysler and warm and human way to engage Fiat at FCA North America, sees with the customer.” brands as living organisms that That’s good marketing, Georgescu cannot be owned or managed. says, by taking an inconvenient The industrious Dodge broth- chore off a customer’s to-do list. ers, for instance, have been core “The role of the marketer is to the brand’s sporty, muscle- critical to the success of the car marketing in recent years

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Dodge They fail for lots of reasons, and Brothers: sometimes the hardest-working, John (left) and most dedicated brand caretakers Horace. can do nothing about it. “Truth is, you can have passion- ate people who are just wrong,” Georgescu says. “Or they can be right, but the company lacks capital or products. It takes a lot of things going right for an auto- maker to succeed. It takes fewer things going wrong for it to fail.” So who’s the most important because the scrappy attitude that brand caretaker at your company? launched vehicle production in The answer always should be: 1914 remains intact today. “Me.” WWAA Asked if he stands in for the Dodge brothers today, Kuniskis says no. “You can never replace This story was the Dodge brothers. I get the written by honor to look after this brand, Senior Editor but it’s not me,” he says. “It’s Tom Murphy (CEO) Sergio (Marchionne); it’s with contri- our board; it’s the engineers; it’s butions from the designers; it’s everybody that James M. understands that brand is the Amend, Bob most important thing.” Gritzinger and David E. Zoia. Murphy Hundreds of automotive brands has worked at WardsAuto for 20 have come and gone over the past years, covering technology and lead- century, including the recently ing selection each year of the Wards departed , , 10 Best Engines, 10 Best Interiors , Saturn and . and 10 Best User Experiences.

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