Only a Honda is a Honda, or is it?

Honda has recently launched a TV campaign trying to differentiate Honda from it's competitors with the tagline "Only a Honda is a Honda". The tagline is great, but does it really say anything? Or is it trying to draw a point of differentiation where none exists?

Honda rose to prominence in the U.S. in beginning in the 1970's with an equity built around affordable, dependable, and fuel-efficient cars. This strategy helped differentiate it from the American Big 3 and win market share. At the same time, Honda was able to separate itself from its compatriot, Toyota, because it leveraged a slightly sporty look supposedly born from its founder's racing history.

Fast forwarding to 21st millennium, American, European, and Korean cars have all essentially caught up with Honda/Toyota's reliability and fuel efficiency - essentially eliminating a big portion of what had made Honda a Honda historically. Not only that, but the Korean car manufacturers have enhanced the pressure on Honda/Toyota by continuing to undercut price, while offer a superior warranty and even including some historic luxury items in at base prices - thus creating a highly competitive value equation to help overcoming their weaker historic brand equity. Thus not surprisingly, Honda’s U.S. sales which were more than doubled the combined U.S. sales of Hyundai and Kia as recently as 2007, were only 1 percent higher last year.

So, when Honda says "only a Honda is a Honda" in their latest TV ads its moving into damage control mode.

While the ads don't mention any competitors by name they do make remarks implying that Honda is still the most reliable car on the market. For example one line claims that just because the competitor's warranty is reliable, it doesn't make the car dependable - clearly a reference to Hyundai's famous 10 year warranty. However, it's notable that Honda makes these assertions in a very vague and understated fashion - suggesting it may no longer have the ability to legally claim superiority. While Honda's brand equity gives it a reservoir of credit when it comes to dependability, the gap to all other car companies will continue to deteriorate as other manufacturers catch up. Thus, Honda must look to evolve its point of differentiation in order to remain a leader in the long-run.