Native name
マツダ株式会社
Matsuda Kabushiki Gaisha
January 30, 1920
Worldwide
- Kiyotaka Shobuda
(Chairman) - Masahiro Moro
(President and CEO)
Motor vehicles, engines (1,135 thousand units, FY 2023)[1]
¥3.8 trillion (FY 2023)[2]
¥142 billion (FY 2023)[2]
¥143 billion (FY 2023)[2]
- The Master Trust Bank of Japan (15.6%)
- Custody Bank of Japan Ltd. (5.1%)
- Toyota Motor Corporation (5.1%)[3]
48,750 (2022)[4]
Mazda Motor Corporation (マツダ株式会社, Matsuda Kabushiki gaisha), also known as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan.[5] The company was founded on January 30, 1920, as Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., a cork-making factory, by Jujiro Matsuda.[6][7] The company acquired Abemaki Tree Cork Company.[8] It changed its name to Toyo Kogyo Co., Ltd. in 1927 and started producing vehicles in 1931.[9] The name Mazda was derived from Ahura Mazda, the god of harmony, intelligence and wisdom in Zoroastrianism, as well as from the surname of the founder.[10] Mazda is one of the largest automakers in Japan and the world. In 2015, it produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, of which nearly one million were made in Japan and the rest in various other countries.[11] It ranked as the 15th-largest automaker by production volume globally in 2015.[12] Mazda is known for its innovative technologies, such as the Wankel engine, the SkyActiv platform, and the Kodo Design language. It also has a long history of motorsport involvement, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1991 with the rotary-powered Mazda 787B.[13] Mazda has several alliances and partnerships with other automakers, such as Toyota, Nissan, Isuzu, Suzuki and Ford.
Markets
As of January 2022, the United States is Mazda's biggest market, followed by China and Japan.[52] Mazda's market share in the U.S. fell to a 10-year low of 1.7 percent in 2016.[53] Mazda's brand loyalty was 39 percent in 2016, below the industry average of 53 percent.[54] On October 24, 2022, Mazda decided to get rid of assets in Russia, with the company transferring a stake in a joint venture in Vladivostok to Sollers JSC for 1 euro.[55]
Mazda is a major sponsor to several professional sports teams, including:
The company also sponsors various marathon and relay race events in Japan, such as the Hiroshima International Peace Marathon and the Hiroshima Prefectural Ekiden Race, along with numerous other sporting and charity endeavors in Hiroshima and Hofu.[64] Mazda was also the league sponsor for the now-defunct Australian Rugby Championship.
Mazda maintained sponsorship of the Laguna Seca racing course in California from 2001 until February 2018,[65] going so far as to use it for its own automotive testing purposes as well as the numerous racing events (including several Mazda-specific series) that it used to host, as well as for the 2003 launch of the Mazda RX-8.[66] Since April 2018, the venue's primary corporate sponsor is WeatherTech.
Mazda also sponsors the Western New York Flash, a professional women's soccer team that plays in the WPA and has some of the best players in the world, including world player of the year.[67]
Mazda has been a sponsor of Club Deportivo Universidad Católica's basketball team of the Liga Nacional de Básquetbol de Chile.[68]
Marketing
Mazda's past advertising slogans included: "The more you look, the more you like" (1970s to early 1980s); "Experience Mazda" (mid-1980s); "An intense commitment to your total satisfaction, that's The Mazda Way" (late 1980s); "It Just Feels Right" along with advertising describing Mazda's use of Kansei engineering (1990–1995); "Passion for the road" (1996); "Get in. Be moved." (1997–2000). Another marketing slogan was "Sakes Alive!", for its truck line.
Since 2000, Mazda has used the phrase "Zoom-Zoom" to describe what it calls the "emotion of motion" that it claims is inherent in its cars.[69] Extremely successful and long-lasting (when compared to other automotive marketing taglines), the Zoom-Zoom campaign has now spread around the world from its initial use in North America.[70]
The Zoom-Zoom campaign has been accompanied by the "Zoom-Zoom-Zoom" song in many television and radio advertisements. The original version, performed by Jibril Serapis Bey (used in commercials in Europe, Japan and South Africa), was recorded long before it became the official song for Mazda as part of a soundtrack to the movie Only The Strong (released in 1993). The Serapis Bey version is a cover of a traditional Capoeira song, called "Capoeira Mata Um". In 2010, its current slogan is "Zoom Zoom Forever". The longer slogan (Used in TV ads) is "Zoom Zoom, Today, Tomorrow, Forever".
Early ads in the Zoom-Zoom campaign also featured a young boy (Micah Kanters) whispering the "Zoom-Zoom" tagline.[71]
Since 2011, Mazda has still used the Zoom-Zoom tagline in another campaign called "What Do You Drive?". The punchline for this is "At Mazda, we believe because if it's not worth driving, it's not worth building. We build Mazdas. What do you drive?".
In 2015, Mazda had launched a new campaign under a new tagline, "Driving Matters", coinciding with the release of the redesigned MX-5.[72] This campaign was meant to solidify Mazda's "Zoom Zoom" slogan. A 60-second long advertisement titled "A Driver's Life", coincided with the new tagline on the following week.