Subaru's Dual Personality Disorder

Stumbled on an article in BrandWeek this morning about Subaru. Apparently Subaru is one car company that hasn’t been eviscerated by the recession. Instead they have actually grown. Subaru experienced a 4% jump in sales while the rest of the auto industry suffered an average 32% decline, according to the BrandWeek article.

Now, I’ve been a devoted Subaru customer for years. Something about the car company has appealed to me and I’ll never be without an all-wheel-drive Subaru in my garage. I can point to my pragmatism as a buying motivator when it comes to cars. And the BrandWeek article points out that this is a common thread among Subaru loyalists. The article quotes Subaru CMO Timothy Mahoney as saying “We know who we are, and we do it consistently.” Timothy Mahoney may know who Subaru is, but he may need to rethink his marketing strategy to reflect his view.

Subaru has a history of schizophrenic advertising. It’s been a company without a firm brand direction since the early 90’s—in my opinion. When Subaru launched its flagship car, the Legacy, around 1990 it was positioned as the next Honda Accord and Toyota Camery. And it wasn’t. It was much more, but Subaru decided to focus on attacking Honda and Toyota and forgot the superiority of its car's engineering. That initial push from Subaru and Wieden and Kennedy didn’t turn out so well. Eventually Subaru started focusing on its car’s mechanical superiority. We began hearing more about all-wheel-drive, anti-lock brakes, dual airbags, horizontally opposed boxer engines, and “the wheels that slip to the wheels that grip.” All standard features on Subaru’s. Then it slipped back to competing with Honda and Toyota in the MPG wars.

Today we still have a schism when it comes to Subaru ads. I’m a big fan of the “Love” campaign being presented by Carmichael Lynch. But I’m a fan of the campaign because I’m a Subaru owner and loyalist. I get it. My criticism of the “Love” campaign is the same for the overall Subaru approach to advertising—make up your mind. Are you a fine-tuned performance machine with safety ratings Volvo would kill for? Or are you an economical sub-luxury brand for the up and coming hipster with a mortgage and 1.3 children?

I’m happy to see Subaru doing well through these biblical disaster movie times. I do worry, however, that Subaru may be relying too much on existing customers. What I would like to see is Subaru pick an image and own it. Either engineering superiority or economical practicality. Subaru owners are more likely to be repeat customers—but Subaru can’t continue to dip from the same well. Eventually it’ll go dry.