Monday 29 December 2014

US Market Has Not Been Friendly To Suzuki

By Cornelius Nunev


Suzuki's customer satisfaction data from J.D. Power and Associates is no longer forthcoming, which specialists believe is a bad sign for the automaker's future in the United States industry. Sales across the industry have been up 13 percent in the first quarter, yet Suzuki has dropped by 2 percent over that time period. This has led Suzuki to reduce its marketing on social media and television, and to close numerous United States dealerships.

Avoiding marketing

Compared to its competition, Suzuki is not promoting at all; in fact, many people feel like the automaker has dropped off the face of the earth. In 2009, the company stopped airing national television commercials, and the company does not currently even have a product preparing and marketing executive. The previous executive, Steve Younan, left the company in January and a replacement does not seem likely any time soon. Suzuki did not show up at the Detroit or Los Angeles auto shows, and the business has stopped doing anything with social networking during the last couple of months.

Automakers love to get their J.D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction reports to be able to track dealer performance. Suzuki is no longer receiving these reports from J.D. Power, and it has not found somebody else to do so yet. It did announce that it will be looking for a different vendor to get the data, according to Automotive News.

Fewer dealerships

Yearly since 2005, Suzuki has dropped some dealerships. In fact, in 2011, the company dropped 32 dealerships, which was about 12 percent of the total ones in the States.

While American Suzuki will continue to cut programs, Suzuki dealers feel the financial pain.

The silver lining

Suzuki's issues were being blamed on poor consumer awareness by Kay. Kay currently owns Buick-GMC, Honda, Nissan Motors, Ford and Chevy dealerships near Chicago.

James Morrell is a chairman on the Suzuki Dealer Advisory Board. He explained that there may actually be some good in reducing the number of dealerships out there.




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