Sports Sponsorship and Brand Development The Subaru and Jaguar Stories Martin Beck-Burridge and Jeremy Walton SPORTS SPONSORSHIP AND BRAND DEVELOPMENT This page intentionally left blank Sports Sponsorship and Brand Development The Subaru and Jaguar Stories Martin Beck-Burridge and Jeremy Walton ©Martin Beck-Burridge & Jeremy Walton 2001 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P0LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2001 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-1-349-42524-2 ISBN 978-0-230-50822-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230508224 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Beck-Burridge, Martin. Sports sponsorship and brand development : the Subaru and Jaguar stories / Martin Beck Burridge & Jeremy Walton. p. cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Sports sponsorship. 2. Automobile racing—Economic aspects. 3. Automobiles—Marketing. 4. Fuji Jåkågyå Kabushiki Kaisha. 5. Jaguar Cars Ltd. I. Walton, Jeremy, 1946- II. Title. GV716 .B43 2001 338.4'379672—dc21 2001046007 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 Formatted by The Ascenders Partnership, Basingstoke Contents Acknowledgements vi PART I THE BACKGROUND 1 Introduction 3 2 Sport,Sponsorship and Marketing 11 PART II THE STORY OF TWO CAMPAIGNS: THE SUBARU STORY 3 Fuji Heavy Industries and Subaru in the 1980s 47 4 Prodrive and Fuji Heavy Industries:The Development of the Relationship 58 5 The Results of the Relationship 69 6 Portrait of the Partner 83 PART III THE STORY OF TWO CAMPAIGNS: THE JAGUAR STORY 7 Jaguar,JaguarSport and Le Mans 93 8 On Track to Post-Leyland Recovery 103 9 From Track Stars to Major Commercial Players 113 10 Recreating a Brand through Sponsored Motor Racing 126 11 Achieving Global Brand Recognition 140 PART IV CONCLUSIONS 12 Lessons from the Campaigns 157 Index 173 Acknowledgements The authors are extremely grateful for the assistance and co-operation of Fuji Heavy Industries, and Jaguar Cars Ltd. Specifically Subaru Tecnica International and Prodrive gave generously of their time and practical help. As did key personnel at Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust and TWR Group. Without them this case study would not have been completed. At Fuji Heavy Industries,special thanks are due to Mr Katsuhiro (Keith) Yokoyama, Manager of Corporate Planning Department and Secretary to the President of Fuji Heavy Industries for the excellent arrangements he made and for his patience and forbearance with Martin Burridge. Jeremy Walton would like to thank the following individuals for their time and co-operation:Jaguar Cars Sales & Marketing Director,Roger Putnam, and Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust (JDHT) General Manager, Howard Davies.Also the following staff from Jaguar Communications and Public Affairs; Stuart Dyble for his enthusiastic support, Martin Broomer for his guidance,Cecile Simon for his practical assistance beyond the call of duty and Sally Lane,Manager Corporate Affairs.At TWR,our particular thanks go to Paul Davis who supplied production statistics that the authors had not seen previously. Martin Beck-Burridge is especially grateful to the following executives of Fuji Heavy Industries and Subaru Tecnica International who were interviewed during December 1999. Mr Takeshi Tanaka, President of Fuji Heavy Industries, Mr Takemasa Yamada, President of Subaru Tecnica International,Mr Noriyuki Koseki of Fuji Heavy Industries and Subaru.Mr Kuze and Mr Kazuyuki Narita were kind enough to meet the author in Tokyo and relate their experiences from the start of the Subaru and Prodrive relationship.Also,particular thanks to Mr Keith Yokoyama for his patience and efforts over many months. Many others helped with information and their experiences and the authors are grateful to them all for their frankness and co-operation. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors. vi To Thomas and our grandchildren PART I THE BACKGROUND 1 1 Introduction THE world’s automobile industry has, for at least the last two decades, been characterized by over-capacity of production in all sectors, an excess supply of products to all market segments and intense competition within the industry.Manufacturers have been constantly pursuing strategies and policies that will provide them with opportunities for escaping the dominance of price competition,which is still limiting the profit margins of even the largest mass manufacturers. However, for lower volume manu- facturers the problem is compounded,because they are unable to pursue the same economies of scale production and cannot compete against the major mass manufacturers on price alone.They are forced to pursue more selective and aggressive policies of differentiation and originality in order to succeed, and therefore avoid facing the mass manufacturers head-on. The large-scale mass manufacturers and the smaller niche players in the automotive sector compete in global markets characterized by factors that are redolent of the industry’s one hundred years of history,particularly in the major markets of the United States of America and Western Europe.These can be summarized as follows: • Mature markets with massive over-capacity of supply,probably 25 per cent in 2000 • Low demand growth,35.1 millions in 1999 to 39.4 millions in 2000;capacity growing faster than demand • Mass manufacturers increasingly searching for specialist niches for differ- entiated products • Product and production technology leading to commoditization of the product • Growing wealth, information and knowledge of customers leading to diverse demands for individual products • Intense and increasing market fragmentation These trends have led to increasing rivalry between the mass manufacturers themselves as they have struggled to increase market share in already saturated markets. In addition the smaller manufacturers such as Subaru,Porsche and others,have focused on being niche players,as the larger companies utilize modern production technology to deliver increasing 3