Masahiro Moro—or Moro-san as employees at Mazda North American Operations call him—reclined at his office in Irvine, where a picture of a red RX-Vision concept sports car Mazda Motor Corp. introduced in October at the Tokyo Motor Show hung on the wall directly across from his desk.
“I’m looking for a ride like that,” said the chief executive who oversees the bulk of the market that netted $10.7 billion in revenue for its Japan-based parent in fiscal 2016. “Something that would lift our brand image … [But that] cannot be achieved only through product and technology development. It’s also how we look after customers in a better, premium way.”
Moro was appointed a senior managing executive officer of the parent company last month—one of eight under Chief Executive Masamichi Kogai and Executive Vice President Akira Marumoto. Moro’s duties include global marketing strategy as well as oversight of sales, marketing, parts and service, logistics, communications and customer support for the automaker’s U.S., Mexico and Puerto Rico regions, which along with Canada had sales of 438,000 vehicles in its most recent fiscal year that ended March 31.
Mazda Canada Inc., which accounted for about 16% the total, is run by Masaharu Kondo. He replaced Shusuke Koreeda, who returned to Irvine in March as a senior vice president of strategy and assistant to Moro. Akira Koga, a former executive vice president at Mazda North American Operations, has been reassigned to Hiroshima and now serves as senior managing executive officer in charge of “corporate planning, profit control, global IT solution, and MDI.”
Brand Plan
The new lineup took shape after Moro stepped in for Jim O’Sullivan, who retired Jan. 1.
“I’m here to build the Mazda brand and make lots of enthusiastic Mazda fans in the U.S.A.,” he said. “In the past we have done a good job, and we still see a great opportunity for Mazda [here.]”
The North American market brought in the most revenue for Mazda in fiscal 2016—its $10.7 billion beat the total of the home market in Japan by nearly 14%.
Don’t expect Mazda to push for big sales volume gains here akin to the rapid growth of Hyundai and Kia in recent years.
“What we’ve learned since several crises we experienced—Mazda, to be honest, is a very tiny company,” Moro said. “We have only less than 2% of market share worldwide, as well as in the U.S.A., so we are not able to play the same game as big players do.”
He said he wants to “articulate Mazda’s brand value” by serving its customers “sincerely.”
“They’ll become big fans of Mazda” if that happens, he said, “and they’ll start talking to friends and family, ‘Hey you know Mazda, not a big company, but it’s great—product is great, attitude is great, the car doesn’t break down, the cost of ownership is lower, fuel efficiency is fantastic, and I love this design and craftsmanship.’ This to me is important, because if you really stay on the brand value, you have a different vision than other, bigger players.”
He looks to Mazda’s 800 employees nationwide and its 700-dealer network in the U.S. and Mexico as potential brand ambassadors.
They’ll have their work cut out for them—there’s no increase for Mazda’s marketing budget this year, and a reduction in ad spending seems to be under way. Mazda’s media placements last year added up to $262.5 million, down from $276 million in 2014.
“In the past, a majority of the marketing spend was to sell the car, and if I want to be true to what I said, we have to reallocate marketing funds to look after our customers throughout the ownership cycle,” Moro said.
“The conventional way to communicate with customers was at every service [visit]. But we won’t take that approach. More importantly, it’s about interacting with customers, inviting them to events or motorsports, so they can be a part of the Mazda family all the time. For example, I’d love for everybody to drive a Miata, even though you might already have purchased a CX-5. In the past, no one was interested to offer a test ride.”
The automaker, on that note, recently implemented its Mazda Courtesy Vehicle Program, which enables customers to borrow a Miata or some other new model while their vehicle is serviced at the dealership.
Moro is “happy so far” with Garage Team Mazda in Costa Mesa, the automaker’s agency of record, which also will have to get on board with his vision.
“We call them our strategic partner,” he said. “My anticipation for Garage Team Mazda is to be not just a media partner for brand communication, but to help us to transform the business to look after our customer.”
Brand Loyalty
Moro’s passion for Mazda emerged on trips to the beach in his father’s R360 some 50 years ago. His first car was a red Mazda 323, a used hatchback he bought when he turned 18.
His allegiance to the brand was tested while he studied law at a university in Kyoto—Moro turned down a job offer from a professor who had connections to Toyota Motor Corp.’s chairman at the time.
“Usually you should never say no … but I was a little bit immature at the time, and brave enough to say, ‘Could I stand down, my dad works for a Mazda car dealer,’” Moro laughed. “I told my dad this story, and he said, ‘S#*t, Toyota is much better!’”
He got his start at Toyo Kogyo Co. Ltd.—Mazda’s corporate name at the time—in 1983 as a sales consultant for a dealership near Tokyo, where, after selling “many cars,” he was promoted to store manager.
“I’m a pretty good salesman,” Moro said, adding that during a recent visit to Galpin Mazda in Van Nuys, he joked with the crew there that “if I was fired by Mazda, you could hire me as a salesman.”
His next move was to Mazda headquarters in Hiroshima, where he worked in the fleet department. He moved to product planning and sports car development, working mainly on “the second-generation Miata and the last generation of the RX-3.”
Moro then switched to product marketing and brand communication, serving as a general manager in Mazda’s global marketing division. Ford Motor Co., which had taken a 33.4% controlling interest, sent an executive named Mark Fields to run Mazda during a decline in economic activity in developed countries and deflation in Japan.
“He was my big boss,” Moro said of Fields, who now serves as Ford’s chief executive.
The two had some hits—Moro’s team developed Mazda’s first global brand strategy, which included the popular “Zoom Zoom” slogan created by its then-advertising agency of record, Southfield, Mich.-based Doner Co., in 1997.
Europe
Moro started at Mazda Motor Europe GmbH in March 2004 as vice president for select markets and retail management. He became vice president of marketing two years later, and helped Mazda establish its own distribution network in 22 countries—including Russia and Turkey—up from the two it had when he arrived.
“If you own the distribution network, everything we do for marketing, brand communication, public relations or sales and supply, is in our hands,” Moro said. “If you rely on an independent distributor, then you’re an importer. It was a huge effort, but we enjoyed those challenges every single day. [Our sales volume in 2001] was tiny, maybe 120,000 to 140,000 cars annually. When I left, it was about 330,000 units.”
Making Do
He returned to Japan in 2009, shortly after Ford, facing the darkest days of the Great Recession, reduced its equity stake in Mazda from 33.4% to 13%, netting about $540 million, and down to 3.5% by the end of 2010.
“It was a horrible time—we were on the verge of bankruptcy, and cash-out was significant,” said Moro, who served as global sales, marketing and customer service chief. “Japanese banks didn’t have liquidity to lend. I put together a marketing program to sell cars and get cash from the inventory to keep us alive.”
In 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off Japan’s northeastern shore, causing a tsunami that damaged several nuclear reactors in the area and interrupted the manufacturing operations of a number of Japan-based automakers—Mazda reported a $327 million loss in the quarter that followed the quake.
Moro waded into the aftermath of another natural disaster when he took on the role of managing director of Mazda Australia in May 2012, shortly after massive flooding in Thailand knocked the parent company’s suppliers there offline.
“Every day I would look at a long list of parts that are not available, and if any single part is missing you have to stop production,” Moro said. “We changed our strategy, so now we have a wider balance of suppliers and are not relying on just one company.”
Ahead
Moro has moved to Orange County but travels frequently to Japan. He’s also still making his rounds to Mazda dealers.
“I’m realizing the U.S.A. is a big country,” he said.
How long he stays in Orange County is anyone’s guess, based on his resume so far.
Mazda has in any case made a “clear commitment” to OC, he said, looking out his office window toward the 200 Spectrum Center building where the automaker has leased five out of 21 floors, with plans to move into the brand-new building early next year.
