GM to teminate its endorsement deal with Tiger Woods
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/24/t...h-tiger-woods/

GM should've realized way before they found themselves in this financial crisis that their cars are too old-fashioned and bulky looking to be associated with any celebrities.

If Acura could sign an endorsement deal with Tiger, that could boost Acura's image to the next level (I'm just thinking out load...).

 

Tiger is hurt and not playing golf. GM had to end their 'have Tiger caddy for you' contest early. Who believed he drove a Buick, anyway?

 

I don't see how Tiger could help Acura ... didn't work real well for Buick .. not sure that Acura really wants to have a Buick 'big-name' selling their cars too ... besides, they have that icky grille doing a bang-up job

 

I personally never understood what compels a person to buy something just because a celebrity endorsed it .

 

Tiger can sign with anyone so $$ talks

 

...for the same reason that people vote for a particular political candidate because a certain celebrity endorses him/her........people are just stupid.

 

Tiger will do the same thing for Acura as he did for Buick/GM.

Nada. Gilch. Just endorsement money down the tubes.

If people buy a car because of him, they're stupid.
Now...if he's endorsing golfing products...that's a different story.

 

Is Acura a sponsor of the PGA? If so, dont think anyone would help regardless of who they are, or even if they did sponsor him, probably would be little to no effect unless Acura adopted some kind of "special edition" to appeal to their customers...kinda like Lexus/Coach, Explorer/Eddie Bauer etc...I could see it, Acura bundling a couple extra K to the sticker of a new car...but doesnt seem like thats something the company would ultimately do...

 

Acura has Ayrton Senna and Alex Zanardi for Acura/Honda endorsements. I have a VHS marketing video with Alex Zarnadi driving a 2G TL Type-S around giiving commentary. There's a youtube video out there with Senna driving a NSX around Suzuki racetrack in Japan

 

Celebrity Endorsements are most effective when there is "believability" or "credibility" associated between the product and the celebrity.

I doubt anyone believed Tiger Woods drove an actual buick.


I think Acura wants to target Yuppies and it shows in their ads = Young urban professionals who like tech in their cars with luxury and performance all rolled in to a good, clean looking car.

BTW
The ad marketing firm that does majority of Acura's marketing is a firm in California called Rubin Postaer & Associates. (RPA).

 

The only thing that Tiger did for Buick was funny commercials. I love the one with the woman sending Tiger a picture of himself! Absolutely hilarious!

https://acurazine.com/forums/picture...pictureid=4957

Hey Mods, can you put this picture inside my post for me? Thanks.

 

Celebrities offer immediate recognition that normal spokesmen cannot provide. A familiar face can promote a product more effectively because the prospective buyer trusts him/her as if they were a friend. The problem is that if you choose the wrong celebrity, distrust can promote a negative reaction. That's why you don't see too many endorsement deals come across Sean Penn's or Britney Spear's desks.

Lindsey Wagner sold millions of Fords in the 1990s just by her "trust factor". Whether they were as good as advertised, she made us believe in Ford products.

Tiger endorsed Buicks because his father Earl loved 'em. The problem is that many people did not believe he truly owned Buicks. If he was pushing Enclaves this entire time, then maybe we'd believe him to some extent, but years ago when he was selling the merits of a Buick Regal, for example, the endorsement somewhat falls flat.

 

I actually have the full DVD. Its amazing how focused he was on fitness before it became fashionable. Great video, you can even see a young Bruno Senna...

 

Tiger did actually have a Buick...what else would the help drive?

 

Also gotta love those penny loafers he's wearing in the video when it shows the pedals and his heel/toe technique!

 

I would assume that if someone is paid to endorse a product, one of the provisions of the contract would be that he or she would actually have to use that product in public. If Tiger Woods is seen driving any car but a Buick, the credibility of the advertising campaign would be completely gone.

I'm sure that Buick gave him the most expensive, fully loaded model in their line, possibly an AWD Enclave, and that they kept it in excellent condition, both mechanically and in appearance. I would even guess that they paid for the gas.

 

Celebrity endorsements won't help Acura. A clear marketing direction, which Acura hasn't had for years, will help. They are a branch of Honda, an organization devoted to helping humanity with machines and precise engineering, with environmental responsibility. Maybe Acura could market itself similarly to Honda (not exactly the same, obviously) as the luxury car company that's environmentally responsible given increased environmental consciousness? They are also clearly trying to be the Japanese Audi. Maybe more ads on SH-AWD, which is probably the best-executed implementation of torque-vector based AWD out there, even better (and different) from Quattro?

An alternative is to go "Apple mid-90's" on us and hire a Chief Evangelist. Colin would be perfect in that role.

I happen to "get" Acura because I'm a longtime Honda owner and believer in "the power of dreams". That's the best slogan ever, to me. Unfortunately, Acura's current approach doesn't work in bringing in people from outside the Honda world.

 

I thought about this exact idea on my way to work and did a search on it and found this thread. I think it would be an interesting combination Acura-Tiger Woods to bring some brand recognition to Acura. Everyone who knows Acura knows they are great cars, but not enough people know about Acura and it would get people talking about Acuras and maybe more test-drives.
By the way, Davis Love III of the PGA Tour is sponsored by Acura. They had a commercial with Acura, Davis, and Pinehurst. Apparently Acura is the official car of Pinehurst Country Club in North Carolina for whatever that's worth.

I think the Acura name needs to be plastered around. Acura should use the downturn in the economy to boost itself up, promote it's gas effecient, yet sport/luxury cars that are affordable.

 

Senna did a lot of the testing for the NSX (not just the occasional hot lap for promotional purposes), and it's a big part of why that car handled as well as it did.

Personally, I don't see how a Tiger Woods-endorsement would be beneficial to Acura. The brand needs a different type of personality, if at all.

What Acura really needs is to garner some real success in motorsports, under its own name and not vicariously through Honda. Nothing gives your brand as much clout as actual racing pedigree.

 

Source: http://www.patronhighcroftracing.com/

 

Thank God for Patron. Without it, I'd remember what I did this New Year.

I say, the less exposure this car gets the better. I love having a car that NOBODY ELSE HAS. It's one of the greatest feelings. Of course, it only lasts for a few months, but it's a great few months indeed =)

 

That's terrific! Acura needs more of that!

 

Yes, because the unwashed masses hang on the doings of ALMS like white hangs on rice. I mean with all the TV exposure and stuff, it can't miss the Acura target market, right?

 

Well, you can be sarcastic if you want, but ask yourself which marque with any real cachet didn't get that without some major (and sustained) success in motorsports. Perhaps the ALMs series isn't going to get Acura there, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. The car enthusiast is a small segment of the overall car-buying population, but they are an influential segment. If you win them over, you get a lot of street credibility and word-of-mouth spreads fast, and has more influence than any advertising (with or without celebrity endorsement) you can do.

 

The Patrón Girls had absolutely no influence on my becoming a fan of the Acura Highcroft ALMS Racing team -- I swear!

 

OK, S2000. I think you're on to something....

 

*lol*

 

I could see Tiger in a Sky Redline, Corvette Z06, STS V-Series, XLR, Corvette ZR1, G8 GXP, CTS or CTS V-Series.... They make plenty of great cars..

GM needed to save some $$$, shame he was a good spokesman..

 

Now that I have your atttention...

2008 American Le Mans Series Race Results for Patrón Highcroft Racing Team

R1) 56th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring -- 4th in class / 5th overall

R2) Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg -- 2nd in class / 3rd overall

R3) Tequilla Patrón ALMS at Long Beach -- 1st in class / 3rd overall

R4) Utah Grand Prix -- 9th in class / 25th overall

R5) American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix -- 1st in class / 1st overall

R6) Acura Sports Car Challenge of Mid-Ohio -- 2nd in class / 4th overall

R7) Generac 500 at Road America -- 1st in class / 3rd overall

R8) Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport -- 1st in class / 3rd overall

R9) Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix -- 2nd in class / 2nd overall

R10) Petit Le Mans -- 9th in class / 37th overall

R11) Monterey Sports Car Championships -- 9th in class / 15th overall

2008 Season ALMS P2 Team Championship Results

210 Penske Racing (Porsche)
162 Patrón Highcroft Racing (Acura)
129 Dyson Racing (Mazda)
128 Andretti Green Racing (Acura)
88 Lowe's Fernandez Racing (Acura)
85 de Ferran Motorsports (Acura)
40 BK Motorsports (AER)

 

+1. I think Acura's (and, to a lesser extent, Honda) biggest problem is that they don't have a true "car guy" from within, sort of like a Lee Iaccoca, if you will. I remember growing up in the 80s thinking that the Chrysler products were like the ugliest POS out there. Boxy, ugly, and irrelevant, compared to the other 1980s domestic offerings out there. But as much as I could care less about its products, the one thing that I remember, even to this day, is watching a commercial of its then-CEO, Iaccoca, talk about how safe their cars were, that he got into an '89 Dodge Spirit, I think, and drove it straight into a brick wall at about 30 mph, and had the airbag deploy and walked out, and I don't think he was even wearing a helmet, either. And, a few years later when they came out with the LH series cars (the Interpid, Eagle Vision (?), Chrysler Concorde) and 1st gen Jeep Grand Cherokee they were at the time the hottest cars around. And then he retired and he sort of took that vision of the Company with him. Nevertheless, Chrysler Corp. was the hottest car company in its day.

Even as much as everyone blames Daimler AG for the demise of Chrysler today, which has some truth in it, Daimler-Benz AG (as it was known pre-merger) paid through the nose for its "merger of equals." The Chrysler execs and shareholders made through big time. So of course the newly-christened DaimlerChrylser AG had to cut costs to recoup on its investments, which, ultimately, led to its near-collapse as we see it today.

Takeo Fukui may have an engineering background, but he seems more of a bean-counter than a car guy. The late Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's, once quipped that he absolutely hated filming those Wendy's commercials, but he did it only because their ad agency said that people loved watching them and it was helping sales. I don't think any ad agency could ever meld Mr. Fukui into a modern-day Dave Thomas or Lee Iaccoca, for that matter, but they do need a visionary like Iaccoca desperately, who is affable, a real car guy, and high enough up the food chain to actually get things done in the Acura division. And they need to really listen to their customers and prospective customers more.

Acura having its own Lee Iaccoca, an actual exec within its Company and def. NOT a paid actor, would do far more for the brand than any paid endorser or celeb ever could. Sort of like how Carlos Ghosn is for Nissan.

And Dick Colliver is definitely no Lee Iaccoca (or Carlos Ghosn). If you read any of his press releases and how he spins the plummeting sales of Acura, even well before the credit markets imploded, you'll see why.

 

The 2009 Motor Trend Power List

The 25 People Who Matter

1. Takeo Fukui
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. president/CEO
Global vision pays off in a depressed market
2008 Rank: 22

Why he's first: The high-profile hydrogen fuel-cell car being test-marketed, Chrysler Turbine-like, in California. And there's a clear hybrid strategy that undercuts Toyota in price by relying on the simpler Integrated Motor Assist (IMA). Mainstream Hondas tend to be small and midsize I-4- and V-6-powered cars and crossovers. Even Honda's sole pickup is a unibody V-6. No wonder sales aren't so bad.

Early Fukui: He visited Michigan for his first time in November 1974 to get an emissions test of the Civic CVCC. "What I remember most," Fukui says, "is that the EPA inspector congratulated me for achieving the industry's top rating for fuel economy."

Up next: 2010 Insight five-door hatchback, a fuel-efficient $18,000 car. Also Fit hybrid and maybe the Acura TSX 2.2-liter diesel.

"Caution" signs: On-again/off-again work on a V-8 is on again. Not the best timing, but probably necessary for the next Acura RL and the NSX replacement. In typical Honda fashion, its P.R. department wouldn't confirm an Automotive News report quoting Fukui on the new engine. If Honda goes forward with a V-8, it will be low-volume and probably among the most efficient eight-cylinder engines ever built.

Bring out the safety car: After spending hundreds of millions to be a backmarker, Honda has put up its Formula 1 team for sale.

Fukui says: "The foundation of our efforts is the Honda Company Principle that has guided our business for more than 50 years. Maintaining a global viewpoint, with products of the highest quality, at a reasonable price, for worldwide customer satisfaction."

We say: It's working. Honda is a right-size automaker with right-size cars.

Source: http://www.motortrend.com/features/c...keo_fukui.html

 

Takeo Fukui Honda Motor Company Ltd CEO

 

Note that I didn't say that Mr. Fukui was incompetent by any means. When you have a company as big as Honda Motor Co., with its diverse product mix (everything from lawn mowers to personal aircraft to the world's first commercially-available fuel cell vehicle), you don't get into that position by making callous decisions and just winging it. And, as of late, Honda has also been immensely profitable.

But look at its car portfolio, for example. Mr. Fukui has publicly stated his desire to take the Acura brand into a "Tier 1" luxury status, alongside Bentley, Rolls-Royce, and others. It's been four model years since it killed off the NSX, the car that was once said to have given Ferrari a hard run for its money. The NSX replacement with the V10 engine has been permanently scrapped. Honda's only RWD car, the S2000, is itself slated for discontinuance and is based on a design that's been largely unchanged since its introduction over 9 years ago. And all of its sporty cars, the Acura CL, the RSX, and the Honda Prelude and Civic Del Sol, all popular models, have been killed off and not replaced. Honda's ground-breaking Insight Hybrid vehicle itself was largely un-updated throughout its lifecycle and the Civic and Accord Hybrids that accompanied it didn't really compare too favorably against the Prius and later Camry hybrid counterparts. And then there's the Canadian market-only Acura CSX, a re-badged Civic. Heck, I won't even go there.

From the corporate financial perspective, Honda Motor Co. has been immensely successful and has attained heights and achievements probably even Soichiro Honda himself probably didn't dare dream. No one is debating or questioning that.

My whole point is that Honda has the ingenuity and know-how to produce some really great cars, not just supercars like the NSX but fun-to-drive cars like the Prelude and cool cars like the Del Sol. But they haven't since killing them all off. Was it because they simply weren't profitable?

For all the good that Carlos Ghosn has done for Nissan, the one thing that was bad was, for all the necessary cost cutting he had to do at Nissan to make it profitable again, in doing so he gave Nissan and Infiniti a bad reputation for having one of the worst interiors out there in the early 2000s. And prior to his arrival, Nissan was never known for having interiors that bad before. But he did it and used the cost savings to produce expensive chassis and powertrain upgrades that was used to introduce a new line of more exciting cars. Sales went up and, eventually, the quality improved. A few years ago when the Concept GT-R was introduced, Mr. Ghosn said in an interview that the car would be profitable from day one, and that if it proved to be money-losing from either costs of production or not enough sales to support profitability, he would kill the car immediately.

In an age of near $5-per gallon of gas (as we experienced in mid-2008), a V8 or even a V10 seemed excessive. But for Mr. Fukui to publicly kill the NSX suggests that the car was not profitable or viable to begin with.

And speaking of profitability, Porsche, which is basically a niche automaker based on its small volume of sales, was reputed to make an average of US $28,000 on every vehicle that it sells, and that profit number is actually higher on models like the 911 Turbo and Cayenne Turbo. No wonder Porsche has the money to acquire Europe's largest automaker, Volkswagen AG.

You can't be passionate about cars and quality and not watch your bottom line. That's what almost killed Nissan in the late 1990s. But I do believe that you can be both passionate and profitable as a car company, even in this day and age, as Porsche proves to be the most profitable car company in the world on an absolute dollar basis. Even more so than Toyota Motor Co., the world's 2nd largest auto manufacturer.

Mr. Fukui obviously has the talent and skill to run this company and he's done a good job so far. It takes guts to make a statement like that about wanting to be a true "Tier 1" luxury brand. I'd like for him to pick up the towel he threw on the floor and put his energy and money where his mouth is (or used to be).

 

Great post.

 

ditto

 

OK, true enough. Car companies "communicate" or "connect" with enthusiasts through Motor Sports - successfully. And that has a positive image on the brand and "trickles down" to a broader audience.

BUT, I disagree that that (Motor Sports) creates more word of mouth that has more influence than a well selected/executed celebrity endorsement.

What car company did/does TW endorse? What clothing does MJ endorse? What Credit Card does TW endorse? Instant recall right? Not just you but a huge segment of the popluation compared to the recognition that Acura and Audi dominate ALMS.

 

I hear what you're saying about the whole brand awareness issue. I guess I've just never personally experienced a motivation to purchase something just because a celebrity gave it his/her endorsement, preferring to study the product's history and the uniqueness of its engineering or design before choosing whether or not to pay good money for the right of ownership.

Perhaps I'm suffering from fallacy of composition in thinking that what's true for me is also true for others. Peace.

 

I agree with the passion of your post, but not all the elements of it.

On this I want to point out that if they were that popular, they would have been replaced. The Del Sol was a flop (compared with CRX), and the Prelude's role in the Honda lineup was filled with the S2000. The RSX and CL never sold much more than 20K a year. Hardly groundbreaking numbers when compared with 300-400K for Accords or Civics.

Production decisions are made 3-4 years prior to a car being released. In 1999, Honda/Acura had: S2000, Integra Coupe, Prelude, Civic Coupe, Accord Coupe, Insight, NSX and CL. All two doors. They had exactly one SUV of their own design, the CR-V. The profit at that time was in SUVs and they responded. By 2003 we had CR-V, Pilot, MDX and Element. The Ridgeline and RDX weren't far behind. You now had the MDX selling 60K a year at full price with no incentives vs. a CL selling 15K with heavy dealer cash. They made the right call.

I also have a different view here. My dad sold Toyotas back in the 70's and later was a GM of a Lexus store. He told me that when selling against Datsun you always showed the customer how cheap the seats and interior were and how if you loaded the bed, the front wheels would come off the ground.

In the 80's Datsun was so far behind that they abandoned the Datsun name for Nissan. They set out a new goal called Project 901 which was to be #1 by 1990. The result was the 300Z and the 240SX among others. Those interiors were far behind the Supra and Celica of the day. The point is the poor interiors are nothing new at Nissan and by the 90's Honda had really arrived to push Nissan a rung lower.

Ghosn's cost cutting has resulted in a rather lack luster 4 cylinder engine and ridiculous reliance on the VQ. This engine (and the V-8) are all good engines but not known for their fuel efficiency. This lack of flexibility is hurting them in this economy. Also, they appear to not have invested in hybrid tech since they are buying Synergy Drive from Toyota.

The thing that bugs me the most about the "Tier 1" statement is that it is so repeated on these forums. Acura knew that 2007 was going to be a soft year with no product launches. Yet you have to get up and make a speech at every car show. You can't really get up in front of all the automotive press and proclaim your desire to be a "Tier 2" brand can you? Personally I don't take it literally because the concept is so against the core Honda philosophy. I could see them producing cars that equal Tier 1 features/performance but in our current price range. I'd just add some $$$ to the price range to account for timeframe that the next gen cars arrive.

As I said, I agree with your sentiment, but not all the elements. I want to see what we all want. I want a new small RWD coupe with a high revving 4 cylinder. I want a new RWD or SH-AWD V-6 coupe for Acura. I want a new Supercar to replace the NSX. BUT I understand the reasons that we are in the current situation (product wise).

 

Insight will not be as successful as Prius. First it is coming at wrong time when car sales are going down. Second Oil price will remain depressed.
The same is true for Fit hybrid. It is a non-starter. Honda is alteast a decade behind in Hybrids than Toyota. Toyota license to Nissan.
TSX diesel is overpriced and underpowered even if it is launched in US market.
No one buying $35K car with just 150bhp in 2011. (All European diesels are derated for US market. I dont see how Honda can uprate it)
They will need 250bhp V6 diesel with fuel economy of 4cylinder at that time in TSX for $35K with 7 or 8 speed Auto.
Honda V6 engines (Even diesel engines/4cylinder) are not as powerful and efficient as competition So how on earth they think there first V8 will be efficient. You only can improve on some thing which you actually built in thousands every year for decade. There is hardly any difference between LS 460 AWD and RL V6 AWD. (Not withstanding 700 lbs difference in weight).

LS460 has as good fuel economy as TSX. with performance and NVH that is beyond Acura Technical capacity. And that was 2006. Imagine about 2010/11.

 

I disagree in that Iaccoca is hardly a "car guy" when compared to Fukui. Although Iaccoca is a brilliant business leader and spokesman, most of the acquisition of Chrysler by MB was his fault for not planning the long term future of Chrysler. The very long product life cycles (14 years for the K-car) and not securing a good stable product line (ie Civic/Accord, Corolla/Camry) to provide a foundation for the future.

Although he may not have the charisma of Iaccoca, Fukui has been in a number of mostly engineering and development jobs in his career. I'd hardly call him a bean counter in that he was in charge of the Honda F1 engine program in the 80's and was extremely successful with it. Supposidly his engineers always marveled in the fact that not only he knew the bore/stroke of the F1 motors but also the weight in grams of the pistons and valves. He may not be press-friendly but accoring to the Japanese press is very well respected from within Honda and it's competitors. He also has a great love of motorsports and was a friend of Ayrton Senna even after Honda left F1 in 1992.

If you would have used Bob Lutz (GM, Chrysler, BMW) as a example fo a car guy I would agree. Ghosn is a also a brilliant business leader but not what I would call a car guy. He's done extremely well at Nissan/Renault but the area where he excelled at Nissan was breaking up the decades old business relationships that Nissan and many of it's sub-contractors had. Not only was there alot of waster in more expressive products but quality was also poorer. Nissan under Ghosn re-established new contracts and vendor relationships that lead to lower costs and better quality.

In modern times the only exec that I would include as being a great spokieman is Dieter Zeiter of MB who did some great commercials for Chrysler products. But the fact of the matter is the marraige of MB and Chrysler was poor one. There used to be weekly flights on a MB owned Airbus to promote collaboration between the two companies but there was alot of non-action taken. Oddly enough the best collaboration of the two companies was the extremely successful MB Sprinter which has been well received in Europe and the US.

And you are right that some Chrysler exec's made off with alot of money, Bob Eaton's salary at Chrysler was more than all the Senior VP's (~8 German exec's) of MB combined in 1998 .