Brand & Value

Michael Utvich worked over 35 years on various contracts for Automotive Manufacturers, as a Consultant Associate for one of the leading Consulting Firms in Los Angeles who served the major offshore brand headquarters there- Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Kia, Hyundai, He also took projects for the Big 3 in Detroit, and other Auto Industry clients.

Beyond the superficial issues of  product launch” and image in the automotive industry, lie the much deeper challenges of branding and establishing clear value of both the Company and its products in the Consumer mind.

Defining the value of Automotive technology and what a car means goes much further than the machine itself, the supporting Dealership, or any of the ornamental extras that might be offered with the car. 

For all, but particularly higher end luxury brands, what matters most is the daily, even hourly, personal relationship the customer will evolve with his or her automobile  This may involve emotional connection, expectations, and personal confidence that the vehicle offers them as a “tool for living”, comfort, and specific desirable uses, and interactions.

The Brand is no longer a vague soft amorphous value.  It is very specific and grounded in Relationship.

The QDR  Imperative

It is a given that Consumers expect high standards of automotive product quality.  It is not surprising, therefore, that many, if not most auto brands base their marketing approach on an industry standard commonly summarized as: “QDR” -Quality, Dependability, Reliability”. This formula underlies many of the marketing and commercial pitches for auto brands stressing High Performance,  Safety, Security “Peace of Mind” and various other comforting, consumer-friendly ideas.

Customers like to think the products they buy are original, unique, specialty items, and not just a clone stamp off a factory line, with a few tweaks to make them look mildly original.

A Deeper Covenant

Toyota Motors debuted the LEXUS Luxury brand in the U.S. in 1989.

The term “Lexus” is a marketing-engineered re-spelling of the term “Luxury”, and an attempt by the brand to “take ownership” of the concept and reality of both the idea, and the key Consumer associations with Luxury. Lexus was willing to go even deeper than any other brand in this marketing mission.

For the first time in Automotive history, every Lexus customer received a laminated two-sided Wallet Card entitled the LEXUS COVENANT.

This card contained a series of statements that spoke specifically to the personal value and brand essence of the Lexus automobile, and the commitment of the Lexus company to deliver superior Automotive Technology that would offer their customer extraordinary personal comfort, experience, and personal pleasure.

Car companies had in the past made vague statements about plush seats or comfortable interiors but they never really had gone this far – to speak to the actual States of Feelings their customers would enjoy within the car –

A deeper challenge for product launch is the tension between the product-as-object and its deeper significance and relationship with the customer, on an emotional-motivational and even spiritual level. 

The bottom line:  A new language of Personal Branding is being crafted here – and all the work that I and other Consultants would do would use this as a Point of Departure on how Lexus Customers would be treated and addressed at every Touchpoint in their Ownership Experience

Lexus Brand Language

The Lexus “Time and Moments” approach, which was later articulated in TV commercials and marketing programs, broke new ground in connecting the quality of their engineering with customer comfort, satisfaction and personal well-being.

I should note that it is common across the Auto industry to model standard communications for each key player in the sales process for each stage in the Auto Sales Process. So people in the dealership know their role / responsibilities, how to Greet a Walk-in, how to Query a prospect and establish next steps, and orient any visitor to follow up on their interest.

Michael Utvich was involved as a consultant on a series of related projects related to the Lexus Brand and Communication.  Within the three principal stages of the Automotive Shop, Buy, Own cycle, I worked on what are called “Brand Behaviors” for key personnel in the Dealership and elsewhere in the Lexus ecosystem.

On the sales side Lexus had assigned “Brand Behaviors” to each key person in the store to address customer needs carefully.

It was a reflection of what would be the complete “Lexus Customer Experience” that was reflected at all “Touchpoints”, or at every experience the Customer might have with the brand, whether that might be on a visit to the Brand Website, during a telephone conversation with their local Lexus Dealership, during a visit to their local Dealership, or while driving their Lexus vehicle and using any of the in-dash services provided in their vehicle.

In the Service Bay, similarly, Lexus took care to move service appointments as rapidly as possible; and set expectations for service time if an appointment would take longer than expected.

What is significant is that Lexus Brand left nothing to chance. Customer relationships were considered and beforehand and valued, and the underlying objective was to maintain and build brand loyalty over time, through quality of product, attention to detail, and consistency of service.