Nissan is a Japanese motor company that was founded in 1911. It operates in many countries and employs more than 185,000 workers around the world. Its 2008 sales were worth $1.52 billion USD, and Nissan produced 3,395,065 cars in the same year. Nissan is one of the Japanese biggest automotive constructors with Honda and Toyota as principal competitors. In 2008, Nissan was ranked as the 6th automaker in the world.
In a global market environment, the automotive industry imposes high competition. Chinese manufacturers are rising in the world rank, but environment issues and gas prices make consumer's vision of a car change, the crisis has lowered people's purchasing power. These facts make the market to be more competitive, and push the brands to be creative.
In the current financial crisis situation, Nissan's sales have been impacted, just as its competitors'. General Motors, not so long ago from being close to going bankrupt, shows how things can change quickly. It might provide an opportunity to win some market shares because some kind of a new deal might arrive. We can then wonder on the following issue: How is Nissan oriented in its marketing in order to win some sustainable market shares in the crisis context?
In the first part, I am going to go over the automotive market evolution before introducing Nissan in its competitive environment. And last but not least, I will submit a marketing strategy for the company.
[...] In fact, Jacques Séguéla, a French advertiser, said on TV that if you didn't have a Rolex at 50, you had missed out with life. Also, the French president Nicolas Sarkozy is known for wearing a Rolex. And since he is a lot rejected by the opinion, this gives the brand a really bad advertising. The same things happened with the French brand Lacoste. It was originally tennis clothes designed and symbol of wealth. It gave a good image to the wearer. [...]
[...] Therefore, each brand has to market itself as different. Nissan registered a decrease of of its sales in Japan in 2008, but its joint venture with Dong fend (2nd automotive manufacturer of China), which ran out 271,915 vehicles last year seeked of launching four new models and to increase its total sales of 34% in 2008, with 345,000 units6. On the whole of last year, the sales of Toyota fell of and those of its mark of Lexus luxury of those of Mitsubishi Motors of and those of Mazda of Only Honda saw its sales progressing notably 6.4 while those of Suzuki Motor and Subaru (group Fuji Heavy Industries) remained stable. [...]
[...] Some of these points are conveyed by the product characteristics, but some might be less obvious going for example from mouth-to-ear. There are many way to build a brand image. The only thing is it takes time, money, and isn't directly bringing in sales. The brand image we want to build is going to be around Nissan values. It will create expectations in the customer's mind, and we have to mach it to the product. The brand image is a promise we make. [...]
[...] This would go through restraining the offer and marketing the brand more than the product. The offer restraining can be tough to implement because it might lead the brand to lose some market share. Marketing the brand instead of the product is hard financially because it won't generate sales right away. Finally, once the brand built, the company has to take care of it and keep promoting it. Bibliography 1. Wikipedia : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan 2. KPMG : www.kpmg.com 3. La Tribune (French newspaper): http://www.latribune.fr/accueil/a-la- une.html 4. [...]
[...] The brand offers a wild range of products. Its main are : Note, Altima, Micra, Sentra, Pathfinder, Murano, Qashqai, Rogue, Maxima, Skyline, Z Roadster, Z Coupé, Armada, X-Terra, X-Trail, Quest, Frontier, Cabstar, Primastar, Interstar. This gives the brand a competitive advantage which deserve to be marketed. This is what Nissan has been doing since the early 2000s advertising its brand as global. The Renault- Nissan joint venture : This joint venture allows Nissan to realize some economy of scale. For instance, they came up with a joined buying strucutre, the RNPO (Renault-Nissan Ourchasing Organisation). [...]
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