Marketing With a Soul - Alan Bethke & Matthew Bershadker

0:00Hey, welcome to the CMO Whisper Show. I'm your host, Steve Olensky. Part marketing practitioner, part ad agency veteran, part journalist. I was a writer for Forbes for 10 years. I've had so many insightful conversations over the years with business leaders, to athletes, to celebrities, to, of course, CMOs. The only difference now is instead of sharing those insights through written form, I'm doing it this way. Last time, Alan Bethke, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Subaru of America, joined me on the show. We talked about the heart of Subaru's love campaign and why this brand has such a unique emotional connection with its customers.

0:40Now, if you missed that episode, definitely go back and listen. Not yet. After this one, it's literally one of the most memorable conversations I've had. Today, I'm thrilled to have Alan back, but this time he's not alone. Joining him is Matt Bershaker. Bershaker. He'll correct me if I'm wrong. Lord knows I'm probably wrong. President and CEO of the ASPCA. Not only that, we're recording live at Subaru headquarters in Camden, New Jersey. Now, Subaru of America and the ASPCA have been partners for 17 years. Subaru is the ASPCA's largest corporate sponsor, donating more than$41 million over the years.

1:21The support has helped rescue, treat, transport, and rehome more than a quarter of a million animals across the U.S. Every October, more than 600 Subaru retailers team up with local shelters to host adoption events, sometimes right inside their showrooms as part of the Subaru Loves Pets program. Through it, they cover adoption fees, provide supplies and make sure people leave ready to be the best parents they can be. Now, this year alone, Subaru and its retailers will provide over$3 million in direct funding through ASPCA grants to prepare animals for adoption. And together, they've shined a spotlight on overlooked underdogs.

2:05Those are senior dogs and those with special needs. Even creating National Make a Dogs Day on October 22nd, a day to celebrate and adopt those dogs who are often left behind. With all that in mind, it's going to be an amazing conversation. I want to welcome back Alan Bethke to the show. Welcome, Alan. Yeah, great. Thanks for having me be here. Totally, totally my throw. And Matt, I'm sure I butchered your last name, Bert Shaker. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. But say your name for us. Bershad Kirk. You were close. Damn. Okay. I'll get it in post. Okay. I really want to jump in with some questions that both of you can shine in on and answer.

2:49And the first one is about Subaru and the reputation around dogs and its advertising. So let me start with you, Al. With so many commercials in the marketing feature featuring pets, how do you differentiate your creative, but it's so feel so uniquely Subaru because obviously dogs are not only for Subaru. Yeah, correct. I think it's a great question. And dogs and car advertising recently, I think, has become quite popular. But Subaru was, I think, really first to this space. We've been using pets in our advertising for a long time. And I think that helps us be authentic and genuine with that connection with pets and with our customers.

3:24We actually started our dog advertising all the way back around 2009. And we did something that was totally unique and crazy at the time. We had dogs driving cars, acting as human beings. And it made people laugh, just like you did. And it got people's attention. And from there, we built on that campaign. We later created a group of dogs that we call the Barclays. And maybe you're familiar with that. It's a family of dogs that live human lives driving Subaru products. And again, it makes people laugh and enjoy pets. And that's the point. And on top of all of that, the Barclays driving vehicles, you mentioned it in your intro, but we created something that we call National Make-A-Dogs Day, which was an effort not only to focus on pets, but also helping pets.

4:12And so we use advertising every October to help support the adoption and support of loving animals that are in shelters. And we can talk a little bit more about that today. And then, of course, we do what other car companies do, which is just put dogs in car commercials in a regular traditional way. Right. And, you know, through all of that, I would say that Subarus had a longstanding, genuine, authentic connection with pets. I think before a lot of our competitors and not only to put pets in advertising, but to help pets and to make a difference in our world for these pets that we love. Matt, from your perspective, how does it, I'm sure authenticity, everybody talks about that word today in every part of everything we do.

4:57Talk about it from ASPCA's vantage point of being with a company like Subaru that truly lives and breathes the authenticity. Yeah, thank you for that. It is part of Subaru's corporate DNA. This connection with community, this connection with pets, identifying and understanding the power of love and that connection that people have, the human-animal bond. And the authentic part that Alan spoke about, I think, is really, really important because consumers are savvy and they can see through it when it's not. And to further underscore that point, Subaru uses real rescues in their campaigns. They use a three legged dog named Lincoln.

5:34They use a senior dog named Angus. These are some of the harder animals to adopt out of shelters because the perception is that they're more difficult or that they're going to come with challenges. The reality is far from that. And Subaru makes that point very, very clear through their under underdogs campaign and through highlighting real life rescue rescue stories. And we're incredibly grateful for that and aligns beautifully with some of our strategic priorities. So great segue into the underdogs. I want both of you guys to talk about that, because obviously it's a different connotation. But in this context, I love what it means about senior dogs and those with special needs.

6:12So where did the inspiration come from for this campaign? And Matt, I can start with you. I think the inspiration actually came from Subaru's side. So it might be better to start with Alan. What I would say before I pass it off to Alan is that we at the ASPCA for a long time have identified the need to highlight these animals, to get people to see past the aesthetic into their souls, into their hearts. And Subaru really captures that in their advertising. and people connect deeply with their advertising and with the dogs that are featured featured in it. Take us through the inspiration behind this whole campaign.

6:50Yeah, it's a great question. So we have something that we've been doing with ASPCA for a long time. It's actually through the Share the Love event. And the Share the Love event is different than the underdogs and National Make a Dogs Day. But the Share the Love event focuses on helping adopt dogs and support dogs at the end of the year And National Make a Dog's Day was something that Subaru wanted to create more during the middle of the year or towards the middle anyway. And at Subaru, we wanted to create a special day where we could ask for pet owners to do something special for their pets. And if you are able to also consider adopting a pet.

7:28So when we were thinking about that idea, we started to look at how can we make it special? How can we make it more unique and really find an area of pets in the pet community that was being underserved? And so we had some initial conversations with ASPCA. This is about eight years ago now. And those initial conversations were, what are the dogs that need the most help? And those types of animals that Matt just described a minute ago were identified to us, the ones that were older, the ones that were bigger, the ones that might have some sort of disability or some sort of need or challenge. And the PCA communicated to us that those dogs need the most help.

8:06So we created this campaign and special day. It's on October 22nd and we called it National Make a Dog's Day. And the idea was if you have a pet at home, especially a dog, do something great for your dog on that day to celebrate them because dogs love us and animals love us every year, every day. So let's do something for them special, of course, on every day, but also on that day. But in addition to that, we wanted to draw attention to these animals that are in the shelter, these animals that needed more help to get adopted. And so we coined that phrase, the underdogs, in a loving way, in a special way to bring attention that these dogs might have a few challenges, like Matt mentioned, that are on the outside.

8:48But those challenges really aren't challenges. These pets deserve to be in someone's home and they can make great pets. And that's why we called them the underdogs. I just I cannot I love that. It's just the connotation of that of that phrase underdog. Right. And I'm a big sports fan. I don't know if you guys are. But, you know, you always hear that you root for the underdog. Right. And the one who has the longest odds. Right. And that kind of thing. So when I heard that it's called the underdog, I'm like, I mean, I want to I want to talk about it. I want to give you guys a platform. Matt, I can see you beaming from ear to ear.

9:20I can tell this resonates with you very much. Well, it just it raises so much awareness about these animals who do need help. You know, I'll visit shelters all over the country and you'll see puppies and cute younger dogs. And I don't worry about those. I know they're going to find a home. I worry about the seniors. I worry about the underdogs. And for Subaru to put the heft of their brand and their marketing behind shining a light on these animals, they've saved countless lives. And from a personal perspective, I think it's appropriate to share about a year and a half ago, we adopted an underdog about she was about 10 years old.

9:55She now has three legs as a result of some horrific things, which we won't get into only about a handful of teeth as well. And she is the light of our home. And she quickly came in and asserted herself as as the boss with my two bigger dogs. And she runs around and people look, they say, oh, you said she only has three legs. I can't even tell. And you can't tell because her spirit is so large. And that's what you see with all of these animals. And again, to have Subaru identify this, to have them make it a main thrust of their efforts. It's huge. It's huge for the dogs sitting in shelters all across the country.

10:31So, Al, let's go back. How did this all this this particular partnership with the ASPCA? How did this come about? Yeah. So this is going back a ways. This is going back to about 2007. In 2007, Subaru was just starting to craft our love campaign. And as part of that, back in that year, we didn't have too many owners at Subaru. We were a smaller brand, but the owners that we did have, they were passionate about Subaru. And the one thing that we tried desperately to do was understand our owners, what made them unique, what made them special. And in doing that research with our owners, we found out some insight that we thought was very important.

11:08The first was the vast majority of our owners had pets. They were pet lovers. More than 70 % of our owners back then had a pet. And they would often send us stories about their pet with them in their Subaru. Unsolicited. Unsolicited. So that was a little bit of insight that we said our owners love pets and they're having their pet enjoy their life together as a family, including their Subaru as well. And so that was a little bit of a spark of interest for us. And then on top of that, we had some additional research that said a lot of our owners liked to give back to charity. And when we dug a little bit deeper on that, we found out that giving back to animals and pets was particularly of interest to our owners.

11:49And on top of that, we found out that the ASPCA was the number one pet organization that our owners all the way back in 2007 were donating to. And so with that information, we went on a on a quest to establish our brand in a unique way. The love campaign that we talked about before. And we started to make a contact corporately with ASPCA to talk to them about creating a relationship that could help pets. Alan knows this, Matt, I don't know if you I talk to marketing leaders all the time. bp cmos this is not to blow smoke but that's massive free it's one thing to see a picture of a of a of a car owner with a pet go that's cute but you went beyond that and you did the diligence and i'm saying you that's not that's just necessarily you because i'm sure it'd be the it's your team to see beyond that oh it's not just this cute puppy picture in a subaru oh my god look at this we keep getting these pictures and then you dug it a little further and you found out the ASPCA.

12:46So that's cute. I mean, you guys, the brand could have just went, this is nice. Let's not make a nice social picture. But you went way, way beyond that. Yeah, I appreciate that. For us, authenticity matters. And when you can identify who you are and who you want to be for the right reasons, that's a good place to start. And this insight from our owners, it came from our owners. The insight from our owners led us to pets and eventually to the ASPCA. And we've had a great relationship ever since. Matt, why does this partnership work so well? There's no shortage of corporate nonprofit partnerships in the world.

13:21Why does this one work so well? I think there's a few good reasons for that. And you're right. And this is a longstanding partnership. It's a very, very powerful relationship. The early conversations, what we saw immediately was this. There's deep mission and values alignment, right? This is part of being part of your community, giving back. It's not only good business, obviously, but it's part of who Subaru is in their corporate DNA. And we saw that early on. You know, our brand is our primary asset. And so therefore, we're really careful about who we partner with. And Subaru's reputation and their integrity, and they're known for their community engagement, that made it all very, made it a natural fit for us.

14:01And the way Subaru leans into relationships, leans into the emotion and the love, it also made it a pretty natural fit for us. Because if you think about it, the entire animal welfare movement and the ASPCA, all 1400 employees, they're here because they love animals. They want to change the world for animals. Animals are part of people's families. Pets are part of their families. We grieve their loss deeply. And Subaru understood all of that immediately or innately. And therefore, it became a very natural fit in this alignment of love and the power of love and the power of the human-animal bond was really, I think, on display.

14:39Alan, I want to ask you, you've been at this long enough. It doesn't mean you're old. We say we're experienced or seasoned. I've got the gray hair to show it. But these partnership opportunities come up all the time, whether it's nonprofit or not. Right. We just heard from Matt why this one works. Yeah. But what to my audience, right? What are some lessons that they can take from this partnership in terms of talking to other brand leaders like you? Yeah, I would really echo a lot about what Matt said. I think finding a shared passion with an organization matters. And the more that you can do that for the right reasons and in the right way, the better.

15:21And once you find the right matchup, you can make it work if both are committed to it. And one thing I would say about the ASPCA, they've been great partners with Subaru. Of course, Subaru is a for-profit company. We're in business to sell cars and everything associated with that. But we want to spend our time, our efforts, our resources, helping others and giving back to our world. And in working with the ASPCA, they are an excellent organization focused on the very important topic of pets. And working this relationship together has been amazing. we want to do the right things and we want to do it the right way.

15:59And so we lean on ASPCA for their knowledge, for their history, for their expertise, for everything that they know in their space, which is everything pets. And they've been great to help us not only do this on a national level, but do it locally with all of our retailers. We have about a little more than 640 Subaru retailers. We call our dealers retailers across the country. And the ASPCA helps us organize and localize our pet activations, not just nationally, but locally so that we can have a national local footprint. And for us, that's huge. And it's been a great relationship and something that we really cherish and value at Super.

16:36Matt, from your perspective, talking, giving you the floor to talk to nonprofit leaders like you, what lessons can you pass on from this partnership to those folks? I think it's a lot of what Alan has said, the authenticity, the values alignment, ensuring that both parties really play a substantial role. And it is a partnership, right? It's not the corporate entity carving off a few dollars for the nonprofit, right? It is the power of the two entities together. What is it? The sum is greater than the parts. I mean, that's the key to a powerful corporate nonprofit for profit partnership. It's not, again, as I said, it's not Subaru just donating a few dollars to us.

17:21It is together we create this powerful relationship. And hopefully we help Subaru sell a lot of cars because that's what we understand how important that is. We at the ASPCA and our staff, we have a lot of Subarus around here. So we try to do our part like that. But it really is making sure there's a values alignment, that there's integrity, that both partners are equal players. And finally, the other thing I would add about that I think makes this relationship powerful and special is it was really from, you know, the top down from Tom Dahl down. This relationship was embraced throughout the leadership at Subaru.

17:55And that makes a big difference. OK, getting personal now. Al, I'm going to start with you. Your own experience as a pet owner or rescue owner. Yeah. Tell us about your and your family's experience. Yeah. Well, my family's always had pets. I grew up with pets, primarily dogs and cats growing up in Ohio. And then I met my beautiful wife, Julie, in college, and we've had dogs and cats ever since. The cats have always been adopted. And the dogs, probably our last four or five dogs since we kind of have been together, have all been adopted as well. I usually leave that to my wife. She starts looking at different shelters and finding dogs that basically you can fall in love with all of them, of course.

18:36But finding one that she really falls in love with first, she's in charge of naming the dog. Our current dog is a dog called Vegas Lightning, and he was adopted. He's a bit of an underdog. He is a very large dog. He is a Newfoundland mix, and he weighs about 95 pounds. He's the most gentle soul on the planet, and it's just a wonderful, loving part of our family. Before Vegas Lightning, we've had other dogs like Hollywood, also named by my wife, who was a boxer pit bull mix, also adopted and dogs before that. And then all of our cats, well, their names are a little less exciting, but they've been adopted.

19:16So we're big believers in pets in general, but also in this mission to help find homes for pets and to do that in the right way. And we think that that's through shelters. You know, there are a lot of pets that need a place to live. And we're glad to help you a little bit of that solution. Yeah. Matt, I know you referenced your three legged angel earlier. Tell us about your other current and past pets. Sure. So up until recently, we had three. Unfortunately, Tarzan, who is who was rescued from we adopted him from a rescue group in Texas. Sadly, we had to euthanize him a little while ago. But he was a big, big angel and had also a tough, tough beginning.

19:59He was a lab mix about 90 pounds. And now we're left with whiskey. Who's our little three-legger or tripod who we talked about. Um, and she's, she's wonderful. And we also have a lab named Loki who failed out of a service dog school. Uh, and so we adopted him and when we got him, we, you know, he's amazing. He's in this amazing dog, but he's also probably the most selfish dog you'd ever meet. And I now can see why he failed out of service dog school because he doesn't do anything unless food's involved. So we have two now. My daughter is 11. She maybe plays the role that Alan's wife plays. She helps me find.

20:37She's constantly combing the internet looking. She said, you know, daddy, we had three, we can get back to three. And so Tova and I are often advocating for a third. So we're thinking, we're thinking about going back to three. It's a good number. Right now it's risky and low key. Something tells me it won't be long. I think that's right. I think I think that's right. Well, listen, Alan, Matt, what you guys are doing together is nothing short of phenomenal. You're not just saving animals. You are really winning hearts, moving a few Subarus off the lot, of course, which doesn't hurt. Matt, huge thanks for being here today.

21:12I know your calendar is really busy. Again, thank you so much, Alan. You're not quite off the hook yet, so don't go anywhere. But Matt, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. If I may, final thing I'd like to add is I really want to acknowledge the Subaru retailers and the important role that they play in raising awareness in the local community where they're where they live and work about adoption. That's a key part of this partnership. So thank you so much for having me. Enjoy the rest of your discussion. And Alan, I look forward to seeing you in a week or two. Yeah, Matt.

21:46Sounds great. Thanks so much. Take care of yourself. Thanks, Matt. Thank you very much. Bye. All right, Alan, last time you were on the show, we dug into a lot of the love campaign and why it struck a chord. And this time I want to flip the script and talk some shop. Now, Subaru's recent creative efforts, how you're putting the focus on the customer experience and how you're steering marketing through all the changes coming our collective way. And I want to start with an economic outlook, if you will. And the first question is, how do you see economic headwinds and policy changes shaping automotive demand and marketing investment priorities for Subaru really heading into 2026 and beyond?

22:21Well, that's a big question. Yeah, it is. Want some coffee first? There's a lot in there. This is a really interesting time for the auto industry. Actually, the last five years have been quite interesting due to tariffs and microchip shortages and logistics issues throughout the planet. And currently, the industry is going through another interesting moment with tariffs. And that's certainly affecting all manufacturers, including Subaru. We have production facilities in the United States and also in Japan. And it's something that all of us are managing. But I do think this, that through all of these headwinds and challenges, Subaru has a lot of positives for our brand and for our company.

23:09I do think we have a very strong brand. We have excellent product. We have great retailers and we have a great foundation. And these headwinds that are being challenged or faced by all brands can have some effect on every company, of course, especially probably a little bit on the bottom line due to the tariffs. But Subaru's got this strong foundation and with a great brand, great retailers and great product, we're ready to challenge this current time and make our way through it. Regarding the trends, you know, there's a transition from combustion engines to EVs and hybrids. We all know about that.

23:42But I'd love to get your thoughts on some opportunities and risks as we as you balance that traditional car versus EV and hybrid. Yeah, it's an interesting time. And you're exactly right. The industry is going through a bit of a transition from traditional gas-powered vehicles into hybrids and into electrification beyond hybrids. And that might include plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles, full electric vehicles. And Subaru, the good news is prepared for all of that. We have a great lineup of gas-powered vehicles. We have two hybrids this year, Forster Hybrid and Crosstruck Hybrid, which is coming out very shortly.

24:16And then we've got one current all electric vehicle and two more coming next spring and then another one coming later next year. So we've got a wide range of vehicles in gas, hybrid and full electric for consumers to choose from. And those products are excellent. They have great quality. They have great value. They have great capability. They have great safety. And we have great recognition for our products like being named Consumer Reports number one best overall brand and number one best brand for quality. So we have a lot to be thankful in terms of our product and a great lineup for customers to choose from.

24:52So lots of opportunities. Are there inherent risks involved? Is it managing customer demand? Yeah, there's always some of that. You know, with the car business, it's kind of like a long cycle industry. What I mean by that is we have to prepare for the future far in advance. And so we're thinking about things five, six, seven years down the road already. We're working on those things right now. And so things that are happening today, this month, this year, next year, that's more in the short term, believe it or not, for our industry, for Subaru. So we've got the right product mix. We have a lot of investments in our facilities, production facilities and future advanced technologies to kind of make sure that we got the right product for the market.

25:35But regardless of what happens with either the government or the regulation, we want to have the right product for the consumer. It can be a great product for them for all of the reasons that Subaru wants, the things that are traditional to Subaru. And then also to make sure that we meet any kind of regulations that exist, of course. Right. You mentioned the new models coming out. Are you getting any feedback so far? What is it? Yeah, feedback has been great. So we've got a new Outback coming out right now. Just in a couple of months, feedback on that has been excellent. The sold orders or pre-orders, if you will, in the car have been very strong.