Mazda ups market share in Taiwan

Taipei Times: How has the recent poor performance of the economy affected overall vehicle sales in Taiwan this year?

Hu Kai-chang (胡開昌): Taiwan was in the worst recession on record last year and domestic auto sales dropped to about 347,000 vehicles from 420,000 in 2000. Probably because people were too pessimistic about the economy at that time, many had predicted earlier this year the full-year sales might reach 345,000 vehicles for 2002. But people now are thinking it may not be that bad as domestic sales have begun to increase since the second quarter.

In July alone, auto sales totalled 43,000 vehicles in Taiwan, up 35 percent from a year ago.

In the first seven months, sales were roughly 4.7 percent higher than last year's level. I think optimism has beaten caution lately, and my forecast is approximately 360,000 to 370,000 vehicles in sales this year.

Basically, I am quite confident about this year's sales. While the market is still concerned with the US economic recovery and tensions across the Taiwan Strait following President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) recent "one country on each side" remarks, I think the basic fundamentals still look good and a gradual recovery in exports is speeding up the nation's recovery from its worst recession on record last year. That will help increase auto sales throughout the remainder of the year.

TT: Mazda has fared quite well in recent years in terms of sales. What's your sales goal in Taiwan this year and what's the secret to your success in increasing sales?

Hu: When we took over the management of Mazda from a former distribution agent in 1998, they sold 3,280 cars that year, accounting for only 0.7 percent of market share in Taiwan. But we doubled that market share to 1.4 percent in 1999 by selling 6,021 vehicles and continued to fare well in the following years -- taking 2.3 percent share in 2000 on sales of 9,745 vehicles and grabbed a 3.4 percent share in 2001 by selling 11,948 vehicles.

So far we have beaten our objectives in the last seven months, selling about 10,500 Mazda cars, which represents an increase of 30 percent from the same period last year.

Currently we have 14 local sales agents and we are encouraging them to continue upgrading showrooms and service facilities, which should help boost our sales by 34 percent to 16,000 vehicles this year.

There's no single reason why our sales have increased over the last few years, but the main concern for consumers in Tawian is brand image. So as soon as we took over the management of the Mazda brand in 1998, we worked first to rebuild our brand image by promoting Mazda as a brand of "Japanese delicacy" in the market. To achieve this goal, we differentiated ourselves from other Japanese brands by telling consumers our models are genuine imported Japanese cars, not those assembled by Toyota and Honda in Taiwan.

That strategy proved quite successful as for many Taiwanese, ownership of an imported car is more of a "face" and social status issue.

TT: Ford Motors Corp has acquired several brands under its umbrella, including Mazda, and you have shared some auto parts with your parent company in order to save costs. Aren't you concerned that this strategy will affect Mazda's identity?

Hu: Not at all. Honestly, developing a common chassis, platform or sharing some auto parts across brands has become a trend in this industry.