How Datsun Became Nissan
How Datsun Became Nissan
Michael Shays CMC
Decades ago, when Nissan was too timid to use its own name in the U.S., they mar¬keted a light weight pick up truck here under the Datsun nameplate. It was a small utilitarian model designed to get a foothold in the U.S. There was nothing else like it on the market. It was a brilliant stroke, and the trucks began to sell.
The manager Datsun sent to the United States got involved in Los Angeles and discovered that the people who were buying his trucks were not using them to haul lumber or fertilizer. They were using them to commute to work, to go the supermarket, to take the family to the movies. And they were installing radios and carpeting. So he wrote back to the home office and asked for radios, carpeting, upholstered seats and doors - in short, a soft interior treatment suitable for a family car.
Tokyo refused. This was a light utility truck, they said. The customer wasn't supposed to drive it to the office, take the children to school or go to the mall in it. A soft interior would defeat the whole marketing concept.
Datson's local manager replied, “You don't understand. Here in the United States, people spend many hours in their cars. They are using our trucks for family transportation. More would buy if we had the kind of interior features they've come to expect in a family car.”
Tokyo finally got the message. The interiors were improved and the trucks sold exceptionally well. Datsun got their foothold. They then introduced the Z sports coupe and many successful models later, changed the Datsun nameplate to Nissan.
No matter whether you manufacture or sell a product - or deliver a service - you need to be a buying agent for consumers. You must get close to them and understand how they live. You have to care about them, or you will never understand them.
* * *
E. MICHAEL SHAYS CMC (ems@emsnetwork.com) is President of EMS Network, International, an association of senior consultants helping clients faced with conflict, transition, stagnation, and management dilemmas.
How Datsun Became Nissan - To learn more about this author, visit Michael Shays's Website.
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How Datsun Became Nissan
Michael Shays CMC
Decades ago, when Nissan was too timid to use its own name in the U.S., they mar¬keted a light weight pick up truck here under the Datsun nameplate. It was a small utilitarian model designed to get a foothold in the U.S. There was nothing else like it on the market. It was a brilliant stroke, and the trucks began to sell.
The manager Datsun sent to the United States got involved in Los Angeles and discovered that the people who were buying his trucks were not using them to haul lumber or fertilizer. They were using them to commute to work, to go the supermarket, to take the family to the movies. And they were installing radios and carpeting. So he wrote back to the home office and asked for radios, carpeting, upholstered seats and doors - in short, a soft interior treatment suitable for a family car.
Tokyo refused. This was a light utility truck, they said. The customer wasn't supposed to drive it to the office, take the children to school or go to the mall in it. A soft interior would defeat the whole marketing concept.
Datson's local manager replied, “You don't understand. Here in the United States, people spend many hours in their cars. They are using our trucks for family transportation. More would buy if we had the kind of interior features they've come to expect in a family car.”
Tokyo finally got the message. The interiors were improved and the trucks sold exceptionally well. Datsun got their foothold. They then introduced the Z sports coupe and many successful models later, changed the Datsun nameplate to Nissan.
No matter whether you manufacture or sell a product - or deliver a service - you need to be a buying agent for consumers. You must get close to them and understand how they live. You have to care about them, or you will never understand them.
* * *
E. MICHAEL SHAYS CMC (ems@emsnetwork.com) is President of EMS Network, International, an association of senior consultants helping clients faced with conflict, transition, stagnation, and management dilemmas.
How Datsun Became Nissan - To learn more about this author, visit Michael Shays's Website.
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 Michael Shays (Visit Michael's Website) Michael Shays is a senior management consultant, public speaker, facilitator and mediator. He has coached executives in 24 countries in six continents to resolve conflict, manage transitions, and develop breakthrough solutions to tough problems. He has helped over 500 clients, including AT&T, IBM, KPMG and, Hewlett-Packard, and the CEOs of smaller companies. After seven years with the operations improvement firm, Bruce Payne & Associates, he passed examination as a Certified Management Consultant and was recruited by Coopers & Lybrand as a direct entry Partner. BDO Seidman recruited Michael 14 years later to be the National Director of Management Consulting and Chairman of BDO’s International Management Consulting Committee. He left BDO in 1990 to open his own firm, EMS Network International, with strategic partners in four continents. See www.emsnetwork .com. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants USA and a recipient of their Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as Chairman of IMC USA, the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes, and the Journal of Management Consulting. He an active member of the Center for Breakthrough Thinking.
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