ASH8

LOS ANGELES -- Mazda's North American marketing boss has left the company.

Don Romano, chief marketing officer for Mazda North American Operations, resigned from his post, effective July 3, after 12 years with the automaker.

Romano was also the president of Mazda Canada Inc. Romano will be succeeded in that post by Shusuke "Kory" Koreeda, who had been executive vice president of Mazda Canada.

Romano's resignation was confirmed today by Jay Amestoy, Mazda's vice president of public affairs.

Romano, 51, is the highest-profile executive to leave Mazda since the automaker began restructuring its North American operations in March. On July 2, Mazda released 107 employees who accepted voluntary buyout packages. Offers that included separation pay, a lump-sum payment based on years of service, and assistance in locating a new job were extended to all of Mazda's of its 701 U.S. employees in March.

The circumstances surrounding Romano's resignation are unclear. Amestoy said there was "no connection" between the buyout offers and Romano's resignation, but he declined to elaborate.

A possible replacement for Romano as chief marketing officer of Mazda North American Operations would be the "subject of a future announcement," Amestoy said. He declined to elaborate.

In January, Romano spoke on a panel that discussed social media issues at the 2012 Automotive News World Congress in Detroit. He discussed how companies should deal with bad news that goes viral, saying companies can minimize such problems by training and empowering employees to handle customer issues quickly and honestly.

"None of us are immune from these kinds of problems," he said at the event. "Just explain it. Customers are very forgiving if you're honest about a situation."

Mazda sold 143,797 vehicles in the United States in the first half of 2012, up 18 percent from last year

From Autonews.com.

ASH8

Hmm..

While a 'great guy' and one who is good at his job, I am not so sure from an outsider looking at where Mazda is in North America that he could not have done better, after all 'Mazda's marketing' is/was his call, and some of the recent stuff has been..... just , well, horrible,,,,,, IMO.

Bladecutter

Did I read that article correctly?
Are they firing all 701 Mazda NA employees?
Or did they send an offer to all 701 employees, and 107 of them accepted, and the remaining 594 are going to fine?

That does not sound good at all.
And they're having their best year in NA in quite a long time, if I understand things correctly.

BC.

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

Blade: it was offered to all 701, so far 107 have accepted. There are no immediate plans to let everyone go, they are reducing their workforce through voluntary resignations and if need be (ie, not enough people resign) then they will proceed with layoffs.

while MNAO is selling cars at record pace, look at what the conversion rates have done and you'll see that revenue isn't where it should be nor has it been for 3 straight years.

Chris

iTrader: (10)

a lot of people who read articles like this do not understand how the moving parts like exchange rates effect the gross revenue from foreign auto manufactures.

Razz1

Come on ASH!

Tell it like it is!

It's the smiley faces that have been horrible

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

can i work in their customer relations or marketing department now?

cuz their problem is their marketing and relations are being run by people who doesn't know cars and worst is they just sit in their office for too long, the world is moving faster than tthey can imagine.

godesshunter

I don't know... I think marketing has been pretty good. Mazda commercials, both screen and print, are the only ones I can think of for the past few years that have emphasized the "fun to drive, fun to own" aspect. Jeep and VW did a few a while back but Mazda has stuck with it all along.

Chad D.

iTrader: (19)

Well, I hope that when the dust settles, the new President of Mazda Canada can put things in overdrive here. They are doing pretty good and have room for more increased sales with improved marketing in the great white north. go figure.
Mazda 3 is the top selling car in Canada and the cx-5 and mx-5 are selling like hot cakes.

Mazda Canada Inc. | Mazda Canada Sales Increase 3% in June 2012

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

but compare to Toyota, Mazda's sales is like ...

Especially their FT-86 ...

I like Mazda cuz their cars are Made in Japan (at least my 8, CX-7, and Mazda3 were) sucks to see the next one might made in Mexico, but if it helps them to stay alive I guess .... but hey, my next rotary will STILL be made in Japan ... right ?

77mjd

Right or wrong, Mazda seems to have the stigma in the US that all their cars are underpowered and slow. It won't be easy to overcome that.

Bladecutter

Ummm...

NO!!!!

I don't even want to imagine the ad campaign you would come up with.
Sales would drop to nearly nothing after you insult everyone for not understanding how great Mazda's are.

Unless, of course, you did it like a "Joe Isuzu" style of campaign.
That could be hilarious.

But, I think you would spend more time insulting owners of non-Mazda cars than trying to convince them that Mazda's products are actually better.

BC.