For the Honda Brand, a Cinematic Stroke

WITH the automotive industry battling an economic downturn, is it the right time for a carmaker to introduce another installment in a corporate image campaign that carries the theme, “The power of dreams”?

The American Honda Motor Company believes so, bringing out this week three short films — a k a long commercials — to be watched online. The so-called webisodes, each about seven minutes, will be available, starting on Monday, at a Honda Web site (dreams.honda.com), under the rubric of the “Dream the Impossible documentary series.”

Commercials that will serve as trailers for the short films, meant to drive traffic to the Web site, are to appear on ABC.com, CBS.com, hulu.com and NBC.com. There will also be ads on sites devoted to news, technology and other topics; they include CNN.com, time.com, wired.com and yahoo.com.

The “power of dreams” campaign, which started in September 2007, and the webisodes are created by RPA, the longtime agency of American Honda Motor, in Santa Monica, Calif.

One webisode is scheduled be shown at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, where American Honda Motor is the automotive sponsor. Plans call for the short to run before “Mary and Max,” which is to be the first movie screened at the festival.

Attendees at the festival, in Park City, Utah, from Thursday through Jan. 25, may be treated to a ride in one of 12 new Insight hybrid small hatchbacks being supplied by American Honda Motor. Another new Honda, the FCX Clarity — a fuel-cell car the company is offering for lease in California — is to be on display at the festival. The campaign is emblematic of efforts by consumer marketers to maintain their advertising presence despite the ravages of the recession. Honda sales in the United States fell 34.7 percent in December compared with the same month of 2007; for all of 2008 they declined 8 percent compared with the previous year.

The Honda ads are particularly interesting because campaigns like it — seeking to burnish a longstanding corporate image, rather than sell products in the short run — are often the first casualties when consumers slow or stop spending.

“This is not a ‘Go out and buy a Honda’ campaign,” acknowledged Barbara Ponce, manager for corporate advertising at American Honda Motor in Torrance, Calif., part of the Honda Motor Company of Japan. Rather, she added, it is “communicating with our customers about what our brand stands for.”

“As we revisit our strategies in tough times, we have to ask the tough questions,” Ms. Ponce said. “In these economic times, everything becomes challenged.”

Still, she said, “we stayed the course” on the campaign, which the company began considering in the spring.

“Consumers are going back to the basics, back to foundations, values,” Ms. Ponce said, “and this campaign is focused on our values as a company, the people who make up what Honda is about.”

The webisodes, directed by Derek Cianfrance, are low-key in their promotion of Honda and are polished and absorbing enough to make a viewer (almost) forget they are sponsored shorts, and part of the trend toward branded entertainment.

The webisodes feature employees of American Honda Motor in realms like engineering, design and safety, along with executives like Takeo Fukui, president and chief executive at Honda Motor, the parent company. Some more recognizable names also appear in the shorts, among them Danica Patrick, who races Honda cars; the actor and screenwriter Christopher Guest, who drives an FCX Clarity; and Orson Scott Card, the science fiction author.

One webisode, “Mobility 2088,” imagines how people may get around eight decades from now. A speaker wonders how good an idea jetpacks would be if “all the idiots on the road today” filled the skies.

A second short, “Failure: the Secret to Success,” describes how setbacks can sometimes lead to achievement. Examples include the problem-plagued engines that Honda supplied for race cars in 1994, which were replaced with better ones a year later, and an orange color for the Honda Civic that dealers and consumers deemed “hideous”; the color subsequently found favor, when it was offered on the Honda Element.

A third webisode is devoted to what is described as a Honda corporate philosophy in the think-outside-the-box vein. Speakers discuss how better ideas are generated when there is no safety net, using Japanese metaphors like “kick out the ladder” — the name of the episode — or “take the ladder away and set fire to it.”

One speaker offers a frank opinion of those expressions. “Maybe it sounds better in Japanese,” he says.

The goal in producing the shorts was to convey some of the “honesty and authenticity” with which employees of American Honda Motor are imbued, said Todd Carey, vice president and associate creative director at RPA, who worked on the campaign with Curt Johnson, vice president and creative director.“I can’t really speak about the economic factors” involved in deciding to proceed with the campaign, Mr. Carey said, “but there’s an overwhelming sense of optimism that comes out of these films,” which may connect with consumers depressed by all the news about the recession.

“It’s not advertising optimism,” Mr. Carey said. “It’s authentic documentary-film optimism.”

The Honda sponsorship of the Sundance festival was arranged with the Sundance Institute by Evan Shapiro, president of the Sundance Channel and IFC TV, part of the Rainbow Entertainment Services division of the Cablevision Systems Corporation.

“Honda and the automotive business are under pressure,” Mr. Shapiro said. “The question is, how do you prepare for the other side of the recession?” The answer is a campaign like this, he said, which “isn’t some spots disguised as shorts” but rather entertainment that is “content driven.”

Although Ms. Ponce declined to discuss the budget for the campaign, she said the webisodes cost “70 percent of the cost to produce a regular 30-second TV spot.” That would mean a sum in the recession-friendly range of $200,000 to $300,000.

New Cars Arrive, Courting Few Buyers

The prolonged slump in vehicle sales has barely slowed car companies from blitzing the market with new models.

But with industry sales expected to fall below last year’s depressed levels, automakers will be challenged to attract attention from consumers who are staying away from showrooms in increasing numbers.

General Motors, whose United States sales fell 22 percent last year, made the most news Sunday, by introducing a sedan and two crossover vehicles at the opening on Sunday of the Detroit auto show. The company also said it would add two more models to its Chevrolet lineup — a minicar and a seven-passenger crossover — in 2011.

G.M. executives said the models had been in development long before the overall market slid 18 percent last year, and the company hit such dire straits that it needed to seek financial help from the federal government.

“These cars are paid for, their development is behind them, and the manufacturing investment is done,” said Robert Lutz, G.M.’s vice chairman for product development.

He said he hoped the new Buick Lacrosse sedan and the two crossovers, the Chevrolet Equinoxand Cadillac SRX, would sell without incentives and lift G.M.’s sagging revenues.

“Some people say a bad market and a poor economic environment is an unfortunate time to launch new product,” Mr. Lutz said. “I think it’s an extremely good time to launch new product because that’s when you need the added revenue.”

Automakers and analysts believe that industry sales in 2009 will drop significantly below the 13.2 million vehicles sold last year, possibly to as low as 10.5 million units.

Under those conditions, new models will be hard-pressed to draw anywhere near the level of interest they typically receive when they first hit the market.

Developing a new model usually takes three to four years, meaning G.M.’s offerings started being developed when American consumers were buying about 16 million vehicles a year.

“The problem is you can’t turn product development on and turn it off depending on the market conditions,” said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

In G.M.’s case, the company will probably cut back on new models as it downsizes to meet conditions attached to its $13.4 billion loan package from the government.

“The nature of auto companies is to overproduce, but that is definitely going to change with the new financial reality,” Mr. Cole said. “I don’t think we will see these bad habits come back.”

The Ford Motor Company showed off two new models Sunday, the Taurus sedan and Fusion hybrid, as well as a 540-horsepower version of the Mustang.

But with the market shrinking, Ford is playing down expectations somewhat for the Taurus.

The Taurus was the best-selling American car in the early 1990s, but it gradually lost its appeal and became an also-ran in the full-size sedan segment behind the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.

The new version, Ford executives said, will find a smaller niche in the market.

“We’re not expecting to ever do the 400,000 units we did at its peak,” said Mark Fields, president of Ford’s Americas division.

Other models that were introduced in Detroit included hybrids from Honda and Toyota’s Lexus division, as well as concept cars from German automakers.

The automaker with the least to show was Chrysler, which was coming off a year when its sales had declined 30 percent.

Chrysler recently received a $4 billion loan from the government in order to stay solvent until March. The company’s chief executive, Robert L. Nardelli, said Sunday that Chrysler was counting on more federal aid to complete its reorganization process.

While it showed a few prospective electric vehicles on Sunday, Chrysler had no new models ready for the market.

But Mr. Nardelli said new car introductions would resume in 2010, and pledged that Chrysler would still be in business by then.

One of Chrysler’s vice chairmen, James Press, said the automaker did not think the lack of new models would hurt its sales in 2009. “We feel we haven’t extracted the potential of our current product line,” he said.

2009 Honda Civic Sedan

First introduced in 1972 as a cheap hatchback with outstanding fuel efficiency, the 2009 Honda Civic Sedan is refreshed for the ninth generation this year, giving it a leaner, sharper, sportier look. Few of its local competitors, the likes of Chevy Cobalt, Dodge Caliber and Ford Focus or such out of towners as Nissan Sentra, Toyota Corolla, Volkswagen Rabbit and Mitsubishi Lancer, to name but a few in this ever growing pack, come close in the looks category.

But the Civic has changed more than its looks. For the first time, the new Civic has Bluetooth hands free technology and USB audio interface available and a vehicle stability system is standard on some models.

The standard engine on the Civic is a 1.8 liter, 140 horsepower I4, but some models get a 1.8 liter, 113 horsepower I4 or a 2.0 liter, 197 horsepower I4. Likewise there are three transmissions, in various mixes with the different engines - a 5-speed automatic with overdrive or either a 5-speed or 6-speed manual, also with overdrive. The right combination gets a startling 25 miles per gallon in the city and 36 miles per gallon on the highway. Other combinations stay close to that.

There are a bewildering 21 trim lines for the Civic. The basic breakdown, however, is DX, LX, EX, Si and GX, in order of price and amenities, from lowest to highest. Each of these, except the GX, has several iterations based on features. All of them have the same basic look, and all of them are nice. Further, you can get most or all of the best features on any of them.

The Civic gets 4 stars from NHTSA for rollover and front side crash tests. All other areas get 5 stars. Child safety locks, antilock brakes, all around airbags, tire pressure monitor and inside trunk release are all standard features on the Civic, making it very up to date in the safety area.

The Civic started out as a plain Jane vehicle whose merits were low initial price, low operating costs due to high fuel efficiency and ease of access through the hatchback. Definitely geared to the young driver and new family, it was a good buy and quickly became popular.

The 2009 Honda Civic Sedan still appeals to their initial audience (plus a much wider group), still gets great mileage and at $15,405, still has a great initial price. But today's Civic can just as easily be a status symbol or a luxury ride. Somehow, Honda just keeps getting it right.

Honda Accord 2008

The Honda Accord has moved up in the Top 10 ranks even though its sales are virtually flat compared with a year ago, because sales have fallen for the Dodge Ram pickup, which outranked the Accord last year. The Honda brand is advertising its gas mileage; the four-cylinder Accord gets an EPA-estimated 22 mpg city/31 highway. The V6 Accord, which shuts off two or three cylinders while cruising, gets 19 mpg city/29 mpg highway, which is respectable for a 268-hp engine. A redesigned Accord debuted in September, 2007.

The Accord for 2008 is available as a sedan, which has grown large enough to be classified a large car by the EPA, or a coupe. There are three basic engines available, including a 3.5L iVTEC V6 producing 273 horsepower and 250 ft-lbs. of torque. Do the math and you’ll realize the ‘08 Accord with this engine is the most powerful Honda ever produced. It also features a new Variable Cylinder Management system when ordered in the sedan that can power the vehicle on three, four or all six cylinders to achieve an excellent 19/29 mpg. The other two mills are a 2.4L inline-four producing 200 horsepower/170 ft-lbs., and another 2.4L producing 180 horsepower/166 ft-lbs. All models of the ‘08 Accord can be ordered with a five-speed automatic, while four-cylinder models can also be had with a 5-speed manual transmission, and the V6 Coupe can be optioned with a six-speed manual.