Strategic marketing: The brand image applied to Nissan

Thèmes abordés

nissan, marketing, brand image, marketing strategy, product oriented company

Résumé du document

Nissan is a Japanese motor company that was founded in 19311. It operates in many countries and employs more than 185,000 workers around the world. Its 2008 sales was $1.52 billion USD, and Nissan produced 3,395,065 cars this same year. Nissan is part of the Japanese biggest automotive constructors with Honda and Toyota as principal competitors. In 2008, Nissan was the 6th automaker in the world.
In a global market environment, the automotive industry imposes a high competition. China manufacturers are rising in the world rank, environment issues and gas price make consumer's car vision change, the crisis lowest people's buying power. Those facts make the market change, and push the brands to be creative.
In the current financial crisis situation, Nissan's sales are impacted, such as its competitors. General Motors, not so long ago being close from going bankrupt, shows how things can change quickly. It can be an opportunity to win some market shares because some king of a new deal arrives. We can then wonder on the following issue: How is Nissan orient its marketing in order to win some sustainable market shares in the crisis context?
In a first part, I am going to go over the automotive market evolution before introducing Nisan in its competitive environment. And last but not least, I will submit a marketing strategy for the company.

Extraits

[...] 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. [...]

[...] Over the decades, the brand has built an image that is hooked in the motorcycle culture. People who buy a Harley buy the brand and the values implied. When the Japanese came to enter the US market with way more cost efficient motorcycles (that were way cheaper and even more reliable), it could have been a huge danger for Harley Davidson. But they just ignored them. And they were right. It didn't impact their market at all since the brand image drives them quite untouchable. [...]

[...] 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. [...]

[...] Also, automotive parts are standardized commodities. On the other side, the power axis is tipped in the final consumers' favor due to the fairly standardized nature of the automotive commodity. International environment I am now going to have a little overview of what the international environment is detailing by main regions (Asia, Europe, USA). Asia Although the Asian market was thought to match the European and the American market before 2010 by a KPMG study of 20052, the current crisis is deeply modifying experts' expectations. [...]

[...] The great diversity of rivals in terms of cultures and associated philosophies has intensified rivalry in the industry. Market growth is quite slow in the established markets of the U.S. However, growth is potentially huge in Asia. Threat of Substitutes The threat of substitutes to the automotive industry is fairly mild. Numerous other forms of transportation are available, but none offer the utility, convenience, independence, and value afforded by automobiles. The exception to this statement occurs in the global urban areas. [...]