Subaru Canada is gearing up to launch a new all-wheel-drive vehicle into the sports utility category.
The Subaru Forester is comparable in size to Jeep Cherokee and Honda CR-V but is shorter in height. A price tag under $30,000 puts it in the same category as the Honda CR-V and Toyota’s RAV4.
All Subaru vehicles are all-wheel-drive but the Forester is the company’s first sports utility vehicle (suv) entry. (In 1995, the company launched the Outback, billed as the first sports utility wagon.)
Geoff Craig, national manager of advertising for Subaru, says Forester has the look of an suv but because it’s built on a car platform rather than a truck platform, it’s more user-friendly than others in the category.
Craig says a car platform gives Forester a better ride and better handling than ‘trucky’ suvs.
It also means better fuel efficiency. Craig says most people buy an suv for the image but later become disgruntled with the amount they are spending on gas.
The Forester won’t be in dealerships until June but the Subaru Fleet Division is already teasing the executive lease market with a print ad in fleet trade publications such as Canadian Auto Fleet and Motor Fleet Management.
Introductory ads for Forester will run July through September.
The teaser ad, created by Griffin Bacal Volny of Toronto, is dominated by a giant egg bearing the Subaru logo under the headline, ‘A new breed is born.’
A consumer campaign, likely television and print, will begin in August from Subaru’s u.s. agency Dallas, Tex.-based Temerlin McClain.
Adaptation, planning and placement will be handled by Temerlin’s Toronto office, which is housed with sister agency Bozell Worldwide.
Subaru Canada is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fuji Heavy Industries of Japan.
