CUSTOMER ANALYSIS
After considering research that was done in both Canada and the U.S., the surveys show that the average age of the Samurai buyer was considerably less than the typical small car buyer. The surveys also reveals that 43% of small car buyers in the United States were males, while a majority 75% of Canadian Samurai buyers were male. When Canadian Samurai buyers were polled as to why they purchased the Samurai, an amazing 83% described the vehicle they purchased as either "fun", "goes everywhere", "all-terrain", "pleasure", "tough", "sporty" or "versatile". 41% used the word "fun" to describe the automobile, which is exactly the way that Suzuki needs to advertise; to depict the vehicle with the image of being "fun". 64% Canadian Samurai buyers also mentioned Design and appearance as reasons for purchasing the car. Therefore, the car should definitely take the good-looking aspect into consideration when entering the US Market. According to the King Motor’ Suzuki SJ410 Buyer Survey, the majority of Suzuki buyers heard about the brand thanks to the word of mouth, even before seeing a dealer location. The first idea that came to the mind of 40% of the people surveyed when thinking about the brand was a motorcycle. If the small majority of the people thought about a Jeep before making the purchase of a Samourai, they finally changed their mind thanks to the economic value and the appearance. So even if higher than in Canada, the brand should maintain as well as possible its price positioning in the US below the customers expectations. One has to shade this information given the fact that multiple differences can be established between Canada and its neighbor. In the US people accepted the Samourai as a viable alternative to a 4 wheels car. It seems the Samourai fits the young and active people the most. Therefore, the Samourai corresponding to many potential buyers, it should avoid the risk to narrow the scope of its potential buyers and put some limitations to its target segment.

COMPACT SPORT UTILITY VEHICLE:
The most obvious position for the samurai is as a sport utility vehicle. It looked like a "mini- jeep" and had 4-wheel drive capability.
PROS:
* The features matched exactly with the attributes of compact sport utility vehicle. * Designed to drive well off road. * Positioning as a sport utility vehicle is consistent with the samurai's heritage. * The Samurai was smaller and lighter than the other vehicles. * Praising of foreign owners because of samurai's reliability. It had the ability to go anywhere where larger vehicles could not. * Ease of repair. * Smaller and lighter than the other vehicles. * Its price and size made it distinct from all other sport utility vehicles in the U.S. market. It was sold below the price of the other vehicles. Its $5,995 suggested retail price was well below the other vehicles’ $10,000 to $13,000 price range. * Thus the positioning of Samurai as sport utility vehicle solely concentrated on the low price and its ability to squeeze through places where bigger vehicles could not go. It needed to be advertised as a “Tough little cheap Jeep."
CONS:
* There seemed to be a problem of whether the positioning could generate the envisioned sales volume. * The market for sport utility vehicle was relatively small. In 1984 it was less than 3% in the U.S market. The goal was to build as annual sales of 30,000 units within 2 years of its introduction. To achieve this it was required to exceed the combined 1984 sales of all imported sport vehicles.