Asher/Gould Wins Suzuki Advertising Account
Suzuki--still struggling to regain respect from skeptical American car buyers--on Friday shuffled the keys to its estimated $20-million annual advertising business to Asher/Gould of Los Angeles.
The account was one of the largest and most sought after on the West Coast.
American Suzuki Motor Co.’s new agency is perhaps best known locally for creating TV commercials for American Savings that feature Norman Rockwell-like characters who get their car windows carefully buffed at the gas station and their baggage lovingly handled at the train station.
For Brea-based Suzuki, the move is an attempt to boost sagging sales and overcome image problems. And for Asher-Gould--recognized as a strong retail agency--the addition of a Japanese car maker adds luster to its image as a “hot” firm in the Los Angeles market. Earlier this summer, Asher-Gould won the $10-million Baskin-Robbins ad business.
Suzuki’s headaches began in June, 1988, when Consumer Reports magazine wrote that design flaws in the Suzuki Samurai made it more prone to rolling over than other sport utility vehicles. Early this year, Suzuki appeared to be vindicated when a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration concluded that the Samurai was no more susceptible to rolling over than other similar sport trucks. The federal agency denied requests by a Ralph Nader-backed consumer group, the Center for Auto Safety, to recall the vehicle.
Nevertheless, Suzuki seems to have been unable to persuade American car buyers that its vehicles are entirely safe. Ward’s Automotive Reports says Suzuki’s sales are less than half of what they were a year ago, even though the company has since added a new vehicle to its lineup.
“We picked an agency that we think can help solve our problems and build our reputation back up to where it belongs,” said Thomas Meyers, Suzuki’s national advertising manager.
Executives at Asher/Gould were ecstatic. “It’s a red-letter day for Asher/Gould,” said Morley Gould, president of the 30-year-old agency. “We’re dancing on the ceiling.”
Gould said he expects to hire up to 20 additional people to help with the new business. “This strengthens our position as being a big-league agency,” Gould said.
But executives at two other Los Angeles agencies were far less pleased. “We’re stunned,” said Kent Cooper, vice president of public relations at Hakuhodo Advertising, which was the other finalist for the business. “It was a full-court press. We just didn’t win this time.”
And at Keye/Donna/Pearlstein, which formerly handled the Suzuki business and dropped out of the review, executives had little to say. “We’ve retired from this one,” said Leonard Pearlstein, president. “That’s history for us now.”
Officials at both Suzuki and Asher/Gould say new advertisements are not expected to debut until April.
“We need to broaden Suzuki’s image,” said Suzuki’s Meyers, “and only advertising can communicate that.”
Besides its sports utility vehicles, Suzuki recently introduced a subcompact car, the Swift, into the U.S. market. “Our job,” said Bruce Silverman, executive vice president and creative director at Asher/Gould, “will be to help change Suzuki’s image from that of a one-vehicle car company to a full-line car maker.”
Can advertising do that?
“It will take a heck of a long time,” said Ted Sullivan, automotive analyst at Wharton Econometrics, a Bala-Cynwyd, Pa.-based research firm. “It took Audi four years to recover from its image problems,” he said, in reference to complaints by consumers about “sudden acceleration” in some Audi cars. “It could take these guys just as long.”
