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.
To learn more about this author, visit Michael Shays's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 |
Related Articles |
|
 How Datsun Became Nissan
|
| |
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.
|
|
What I learnt From One Of The UK’s Best Selling Business Authors
|
| |
A few months ago, I embarked on a new project, The Great Successful People Package to interview numerous top successful individuals, in order to pick their brains on what made them a success and what important point...
|
|
Dangerous Supply Chain Myths (Part 2)
|
| |
Segment 2 - Supplier Development and Management: The Fruit of a Poisonous Tree?
Supplier Development and Management
Effective supplier development and management should deliver a competitive advantage in cost, ...
|
|
Market Domination through Experiential Event Marketing
|
| |
Not many years ago within our lifetime you were able to advertise on any of the then big three networks and receive a huge marketing push. Today with over 500 cable and satellite channels, thousands of publications ...
|
|
Reinvent or Die
|
| |
Some of you might know that in the mid 90’s I worked as a turnaround manager and interim CEO for troubled companies. I got to experience the pain of going out of business over and over again. I first saw this with a...
|
|
|
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.
|
|
 |
|
Michael Shays's
Complete
List Of
Management
Articles
|
|
If you enjoyed this article, get Michael Shays's Complete List of Management Articles For FREE!
|
|
|
|
