In conjunction with the debut of the Justy, Cartopia magazine presented, over the course of two months, the comments of Kyoji Takenaka (later to become President of Fuji Heavy Industries), working then in Sect. 2, Product Planning Dept., Subaru Planning Div., regarding the approach and steps involved in developing a new product. In continuation from last month, we present this article that discusses the viewpoint of Subaru at that time in regards to creating new vehicles.

Engineers’ Lounge
A Car is a Tool to Expand Your Own Range.

For the Justy, we consider how to design and develop the vehicle, targeting young people in their twenties and early thirties. More specifically, the persons we consider as targets are actually all of us involved in the project. In my case, I am about to get married. In other words, this means that everyone could contribute to the development process while having a definite image in their minds of the target customers. Persons creating the design drawings could carefully draw each line in order to make a car that could be easily used for themselves while designers, when making clay models, could precisely scrape clay along one side with the same with the same mindset.

Since a car is something that you drive everyday, everyone should think about what kind of car they want. You don’t need to over-think it but rather if you plan something for yourself, plan a car that matches your own sensibilities, I think it will find the acceptance of the customers. It’s not about creating an image of the target customer, but rather you should align yourself with the age group of people who will be affected by the same feelings and concepts as yourself; this is the most simple and best understood approach.

Accordingly, if you consider the true essence of a car, it is, after all, just another tool for us to use. I think that everyone, while living their day-to-day lives, has that sense of curiosity in wanting to start something new or to confront a personal challenge, and a car can be a useful tool when trying to actualize the object of that curiosity. I think that a car that is simply something that can only be used in our current daily lives is without value. A car must be something that satisfies our needs when we want to break out of our daily routine.

My Job is Creating the Subaru Brand Image and Establishing Confidence.

The job of all engineers whose tasks are more white collar, such as my position, is fundamentally to work on somehow creating a brand image. That is, I think that we need to securely establish confidence in the technology of manufacturers and Subaru among customers who drive Subaru cars. Although it slightly delays the release of a model for the sake of making preparations, one way to do this is to practically implement leading-edge technology that has already been released, such as the Subaru ECVT, as a means to comply with the various customer needs. I believe that doing this will strengthen the Subaru brand image and that my job is to advance steadily towards realizing these goals.

(Extracted from Cartopia Vol. 142, issued in 1984)



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