If no one seems to want to buy your cars, it's probably a good idea to talk about something else. Like, say, a big fat warranty.
"Nobody stands behind their cars like Mitsubishi," a narrator says during "Anthem," a commercial from Mitsubishi that will debut this week. In the commercial, set to the song Draggin' the Line by Tommy James and the Shondells, cars and sport utility vehicles cruise by a seemingly infinite line of Mitsubishi mechanics outfitted in red coveralls.
The mechanics stand shoulder to shoulder on bridges and in tunnels, during rain, sunlight and snow. In one yuk-yuk moment, as a Mitsubishi Endeavor SUV whizzes through the suburbs, one mechanic maintains his rigid posture as a sprinkler squirts him in the face.
A second commercial, set for later this month, is called "Road Trip" and shows one of the same dedicated Mitsubishi mechanics -- red jumpsuit still spotless -- on a rolling dolly underneath a car, servicing the vehicle as it zips down the road.
The commercials, by the Los Angeles office of Deutsch, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, tout Mitsubishis as "the best-backed cars in the world" on the strength of the company's new 10-year, 160,000km, powertrain warranty -- which covers engine and transmission troubles -- and a five-year warranty for everything else. The company is also offering three years of free regularly scheduled maintenance, including oil changes and tire rotations, and five years of free roadside assistance.
"We want to assure people that we are a high-quality product," said Ian Beavis, senior vice president for marketing at Mitsubishi Motors North America, in an interview. "It's a much bigger idea than just the warranty. `Best-backed cars' says to consumers: `Mitsubishi is here to stay.'"
Mitsubishi, of late the industry's most beleaguered car company, certainly had to come up with a new pitch after a devastating recent turn of events. A little over a year ago, the once hot Japanese automaker ousted its top US executive, Pierre Gagnon, after aggressive lending to buyers with poor credit left the company saddled with defaults. In April, Mitsubishi's corporate problems boiled over when the company was abandoned by DaimlerChrysler, a large shareholder that no longer had an appetite for bailing out its Japanese partner from losses. Daimler said it would stop funding the turnaround efforts of Mitsubishi and began to scale back its investment. Top executives in Japan also came under a cloud after a safety scandal in that country.
In the US, the most lucrative auto market, the company has ranked below average in recent J.D. Power & Associates assessments of quality over the first 90 days of ownership, as well as longer term dependability. Sales are down a jarring 35 percent through the first nine months of the year in the US, according to the Autodata Corp, and in September the company's market share was just 0.6 percent, half of what it was a year ago.
"We're trying to rebuild the brand," said Beavis, who was hired last November by Mitsubishi's new North American chief executive, Finbarr J. O'Neill. "We're trying to get a stronger emotional connection with our customers and give them a more rational reason to buy."
Will selling on warranty, as well as service, help Mitsubishi?
"Their backs are to the wall and they have no choice but to make as much noise in the market as possible," said Peter DeLorenzo, a consultant and former adman in Detroit who publishes autoextremist.com, a Web site that critiques the car industry.
"Whether or not the warranty will be a ticket to success remains to be seen. They're just looking for consideration at this point," he said. "They're virtually off the radar screen and they're pretty much in desperate shape."
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