Selling the SKY

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Unless you're a combustion engineer Mazda's next generation SKY powertrains don't have a lot of obvious 'sizzle'. Indeed, as important and accomplished the technology is, it is not going to be easy to market.

Toyota has its Hybrid Synergy Drive on which to hang its environmental hat, while Volkswagen can point to tiny capacities, big turbos and even an engine with both supercharger and turbocharger to sell its "we're getting serious about the planet" message to new car buyers. Both these strategies are quite easy to move as a message.

Mazda's approach to saving the world, or at least a couple of tanker loads of fuel, revolves around what arguably makes better engineering sense... It is more subtle. Alas, mass market consumers are not good at appreciating subtlety.

SKY technologies concentrate on getting the best bang for your fuel bucks -- almost literally. Though SKY overall is a holistic approach to design, incorporating weight reduction across the vehicle and a consideration of production and manufacturing efficiencies, the key focus is the pursuit of perfect combustion. Making sure every gram of fuel that goes into an engine delivers as much work as possible.

But how do you make stoichiometry sexy? How does one make lambda live in the hearts of new car buyers? That's exactly what Mazda needs to do if it is to succeed with SKY.

To explain the intricacies behind the amazing (claimed) levels of efficiency the SKY petrol and diesel direct-injected engines exhibit, Mazda shipped its top engineers to Europe and conducted one-on-one technical sessions with journalists from around the world. The sessions took up the better part of a day!

The 'father' of these combustion technologies, Mitsuo Hitomi, conducted the engine briefings. The gearbox overviews were fronted by Toshiyuki Kikuchi, the program manager for the SKY-Drive effort. Even Mazda's global head of R&D was on hand in case the press needed more info...These were no lightweights and yet the sessions were frankly technically beyond many of the journos present.

Yours truly hadn't concentrated so hard since his Matric physics and chemistry exams. And at the end I came away better educated and impressed, but with a head swimming with engineering overload.

So if it takes a day to get most of the message through to 'experts' I can't help but wonder how Mazda is going to 'sell' SKY to the car buying public... And do so in 30 second swatches.

Masahiro Moro Mazda's global head of marketing is ultimately the man charged with doing just that. He's honest and worldly enough to admit it's not going to be an easy task.

"We need to find a way to make SKY a distinctive proposition to customers," he told the Carsales Network in a remarkably candid discussion.

"Nowhere is the task more difficult than our home market [Japan]. Toyota and Honda have car buyers 'educated' that hybrid is the only solution -- we have to re-educate and convince new car buyers that SKY is a smart and clever solution.

"In Europe, and to a lesser extent markets like Australia, we face the same task but also against downsized engines," Moro-San explained.

The USA is fresher fields for SKY he says. Indeed, Moro-San sees potential for Mazda to become a key seller of high-tech diesels in that market.

He says there are key alignments between Mazda buyers and those Volkswagen is already convincing to buy diesels in key US regions. Volkswagen's diesel buyers are new to the brand, he says. And by the time the SKY-G is ready for market in two to three years Audi too will have tilled the field for more diesel uptake stateside.

So what about Australia, we ask Moro.

He replies by turning the question around. He wants to know the 'takeout' points we've gleaned from our time with the engineers.

The numbers don't lie is yours truly's reply. If you can deliver the message of a combination of near-V8 performance and light car fuel economy in a real family sized car then surely buyers will take notice, I opine.

But I can tell he's not entirely convinced. He's a marketer and his search for a 30 second sound bite that will sink the opposition's on-the-surface-sexier technologies will continue for a while yet, it seems...

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