Mitsubishi 2002 Annual Report Download - page 10

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8
SPECIAL FEATURE—MANAGEMENT TALKS
DESIGN
8
What kind of brand identity do you think can be created?
ANSWER
The basic concept we have introduced is that we make cars for people, not people for cars. In the past, MMC
suffered because its models were not sufficiently user-focused in this way. This new philosophy recognizes
that we must target consumers with our cars, and I think that the design function is helping to lead the way by
defining the new vision in solid, visual and emotional terms.
Our three target segments are passenger cars (both compacts and sedans), minivans, and SUVs. The
core idea is that we produce emotional designs to create a stylish, yet sporty, Japanese image—one that
grabs the customer. We are avoiding pseudo-American designs or pseudo-European styling. Each car will
have a distinctly Japanese look and identity, because that is MMC’s nature. Our front-end designs are based
on respect of the triangular logo architecture as a strong, identifiable badge to help anybody recognize a
Mitsubishi car’s “face” instantly. I think it is one of the nicest badges in the industry.
Japanese taste has many appealing aspects to people all over the world. Our goal is to combine traditional
Japanese taste and Japanese “high tech” the best way we can. Future Mitsubishi cars will reflect this new
design philosophy as well as the technical and high-performance orientation coming from MMC’s strong
motor-sports tradition and excellent engineering heritage.
So the brand identity we are creating is modern, Japanese, and sporty. Over the next few years we will lay
the foundations to make MMC a premium brand. In late 2002, we will release the first product stemming from
the new design ethos, a compact car. In 2003, we will roll out more new models to fill out the lineup. We have
a very talented design team from Japan and many other countries, and I feel confident we are making rapid
progress. Our design studios in Japan, Europe, the U.S., and Australia are more and more interlinked with
each other. We have built up one great international team, and I am very proud of the results our designers
are achieving these days.
QUESTION
8
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