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How Datsun Became Nissan
Written by: Michael ShaysArticle Overview: If you want to be successful in the market, you must be a buying agent for the consumer. It is no longer viable to be a selling agent for the manufacturer. How Nissan almost lost its US foothold.
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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.
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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.
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