A designer boss may be just what Acura needs

LOS ANGELES -- The unexpected appointment of Jon Ikeda to head Acura puts him on a short list of top brand executives in the auto industry who got there by way of the design studios rather than the business offices.

It's a route that has produced mixed results. But having a designer in charge of a luxury brand that's light on cachet could be exactly the shot in the arm Acura needs, both for its product portfolio and its relationship with the Honda mothership in Japan.

"You could argue Ikeda's the human embodiment of Acura," Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book, told Automotive News. Acura is a U.S.-based Japanese luxury division now led by a Japanese-American who has worked for the company in both the U.S. and Japan.

Though Acura has had to push continually for resources and respect from headquarters, Ikeda already has proved he can get both. In 2006, he was instrumental in getting Acura its own design studio at Honda's campus in Torrance, Calif. 

"He's got both the design pedigree and, almost more importantly, the political pedigree within Acura," Brauer said. 

This will be important as Acura's planners seek to elevate and better define the brand. In February 2014, Honda created a separate business office for Acura to articulate a clearer product strategy and distinguish it from the bread-and-butter Honda brand. While Acura revived its "precision crafted performance" marketing tag line this year, the broader effort to wow U.S. consumers and Honda executives in Japan has bogged down. 

Honda declined to make any of its executives available for interviews following Ikeda's appointment last week. Ikeda succeeds Mike Accavitti, a longtime marketing executive who had been with American Honda since 2011. 

By the numbers, Acura has a lot going for it. Sales through the first half of the year are up 12 percent, outpacing the market's overall gains. And Acura has bucked the trend of shrinking car sales this year. 

Yet overall volume for Honda's luxury brand still lags far behind that of BMW, Mercedes and, crucially, Lexus, a brand that has spent the last few years spinning its dowdy image toward one that promises more excitement. 

"That used to be Acura's thing," Brauer said. 

As a designer with some notable successes, Ikeda should be well-placed to see Acura through a similar transformation. 

"If there's a brand's essence to be communicated to the public, I think a designer has a very strong way of communicating that," said Tom Matano, a former Mazda designer and company executive. He is now executive director of the School of Industrial Design at Academy of Art University in San Francisco. "That's what Acura needs right now." 

In addition to securing the U.S.-based design studio, Ikeda is credited with the styling on the third-generation TL, which ran from the 2004-08 model years. The midsize sedan is among Acura's top-selling vehicles. More recently, Ikeda was instrumental in naming Michelle Christensen as the exterior designer of the upcoming NSX supercar. 

At the same time, Ikeda will need to avoid pitfalls some of his fellow designers have encountered. 

Designers aren't usually known for their skills with budgets and management, said Stewart Reed, chairman of transportation design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., Ikeda's alma mater. Those who have succeeded in management roles, such as Ed Welburn at General Motors or Peter Schreyer at Kia and Hyundai, have had strong business managers with whom to work 

Others, such as Ralph Gilles, FCA's current global head of design, or Bryan Nesbitt, Buick's chief stylist, lasted in executive roles for only brief periods before returning to the studio. 

Another potential roadblock, says Matano, is skepticism from other execs. "A lot of people think because we're designers we're different and crazy and do whatever we want to do," he said, "but we're not."