Close-Up: Newsmaker - Honda marketing chief wants hardworking ads

the most iconoclastic car advertising seen in Britain.

Now Simon Thompson has quit to take on the pan-European marketing role
at Motorola, leaving Dodds a legacy that will be tough to sustain. Not
least because of "cog", possibly the most famous car commercial of all
time.

If he feels weighed down by such a bequest, he betrays no sign of
it.

Confident and sharp, he speaks at a speed equivalent to Jenson Button in
a Honda F1 racing car. If Thompson was his own man, Dodds has every
intention of matching him.

Although the pair barely know each other, their working lives having
overlapped only briefly, they share a common heritage. Both are steeped
in the Honda culture. And both did the same job - head of marketing for
the company's power equipment division - before moving over to cars.

Is Dodds thankful to have left a less sexy area of the business (power
equipment embraces such prosaic products as lawn-mowers, generators and
boat engines) for something a tad more glamorous?

"I don't think anybody who has been in a powerboat roaring across to
Jersey at up to 80mph would say it wasn't sexy," he smiles. More
seriously, though, the experience taught him not only how to run a small
business, but also how to reach a diverse range of customers with a
modest marketing budget.

Looking at Dodds' CV, it seems that much of it has been a preparation
for the role he has just taken on. He has helped set up and manage
retail centres for Vodafone, and worked as a business manager for a
new-car franchise group and a regional sales manager for Volvo. He
joined Honda six years ago.

As a result, he can boast a breadth of commercial experience. "Working
with very small budgets teaches you the value of things," he
explains.

"You always have to get the bangs for your buck and that makes you think
carefully when you spend your money."

Does this mean he might wish to pull back from Honda's trademark
advertising? Perhaps even re-examine the relationship with Wieden &
Kennedy, the agency that created it?

As far as a review is concerned, Dodds is unequivocal. There will be no
business up for pitch in the forseeable future. "That's not to say I
won't look at the service the agency provides and the value we derive
from it," he adds. "But we will have an adult conversation. It won't be
a case of somebody new coming on to make a point."

Dodds' comments are significant in the light of the ongoing debate about
whether Honda's TV commercials are too self-indulgent and insufficently
hardworking. The former marketing chief of a rival car-maker has
dismissed them as "mental masturbation" and argues that Honda's sales
increases have more to do with its entry into the small and diesel car
markets.

If Dodds agrees with this assessment, he is diplomatic enough not to say
so. "I loved 'cog', 'grrr' and 'impossible dream'," he says.

He is less enthusiastic about "yume no chikara", a development of the
Power of Dreams concept that features company managers with balloons
emerging from their ears to symbolise the way in which the Japanese
"see" a dream.

"It wasn't as emotionally engaging as the others, but I understand why
it was done," he says. "The problem is it becomes increasingly difficult
to top the last ad, and we don't want to rely exclusively on the
strength of our TV advertising."

But is that advertising ... erm ... a corporate wank? No, he insists.
The quality of the products reflects the advertising, and vice
versa.

Certainly, the market remains tough for all car manufacturers. An
enfeebled economy caused a 5 per cent drop in all UK car sales last
year. Nevertheless, Dodds declares himself pleased with Honda's April
performance, which resulted in just under 8,200 registrations. This
represents 5.2 per cent of the market and makes Honda the
sixth-biggest-selling car brand.

Equally satisfying is what he believes is the changing perception of the
brand long regarded as reliable but aesthetically unpleasing. One
manifestation of this change is the fact that 25 per cent of the cars
part-exchanged for the new Civic Diesel are premium marques - Mercedes,
BMW, Audi and Volkswagen. "We've positioned Honda as 'alternative
premium'," Dodds says.

Given his background in sales, it is no surprise he is eager to ensure
Honda's communications make life easier for its dealer network. Dealers
might be expected to be underwhelmed by ads that fail to show lots of
gleaming product. Dodds, though, claims showroom people are generally
supportive of the strategy because they have experienced the benefits of
it.

"They have seen the increased footfall and the changing perception of
Honda," he says. "They also know the communication isn't geared to how
many cars you can sell next week, but to how you engage with your
potential customers. It's all about being in partnership with our
dealers. It's not about us managing them."

The implication seems to be that while TV ads will remain important,
Dodds wants to see Honda's communication more evenly spread, with sales
boosts not so heavily linked to TV campaigns.

"We have to look more seriously at our online activity," he
declares.

"We have overhauled our website and made it more reflective of what we
do in TV. But there is a lot more work to be done in carrying this
through at dealer level and to our press advertising." Nor, he agrees,
would a successful season by Honda's F1 team and its star drivers,
Button and Rubens Barrichello, do the brand any harm.

In the longer term, how will Dodds and other auto marketers deal with
criticisms that they promote global pollution? Honda's hopes lie with
its Civic IMA model, a hybrid vehicle fuelled by electricity and
petrol.

Dodds drives one, but acknowledges there is much consumer resistance to
overcome.

The fact the Metropolitan Police has just ordered around 100 such cars
will help, he predicts. But it's hard to convince people that hybrids do
not need a battery the size of a wardrobe or that you don't have to keep
plugging them in.

"Above all, they think they are just souped-up milk floats," Dodds
observes.

Mind you, there was a time when everybody thought every Honda was like
that. Not many do now.

THE LOWDOWN

Age: 32

Family: Wife, Mary

Lives: Thursley, Surrey

Most treasured possession: Byron Nelson sand wedge

Drives: Honda Civic IMA

Favourite TV programme: The Apprentice

Describe yourself in three words: Challenging, driven, perceptive (so

says my PA, Dee Mavor)

Hobbies: Golf, playing the guitar, motorsport

Personal mantra: What would the customer think?