The Best Marketing Mix Of Nissan

NTRODUCTION

Customers demand variety, but variety often means extra costs because separate platforms had to be developed, which is not cheap. Company has to answer this challenge with maximize the use of platform.

The waiting ended sometime in 2004, Nissan began to develop new products specifically for the "general markets". This included China, a giant market with much promise and ASEAN. Toyota had already announced its "multi-purpose vehicle" (MPV) project which was intended to provide appropriate products for developing markets around the world and the MPV models were conceived to be cheaper to produce.

Coming in later may have been disadvantageous in one way but it also allowed Nissan to see what Toyota was doing and how well its MPV strategy worked and certainly it has been quite a success. For Nissan then, the challenge was to come up with a global product that would meet the needs of the same markets that Toyota's MPV project targeted but unlike Toyota, which is very rich, Nissan could not afford to develop an entirely new platform and had to make ue of common platforms. Nevertheless, the product development cost was said to be around US$ 120 Million.

The choice was the B - platform which was already used for some Nissan and Renault models and could be adapted for MPV, the body style deemed suitable for a large number of markets. The product plan called for the new model to be produced entirely outside Japan, something which has not been the case in the past where there has usually been a 'mother plant' in Japan. Because of this approach, it also took a bit longer than usual because extra and more significant investments were needed in other countries and the right ones needed to be selected as production hubs for the model even thought the engineering and design work was all done in Japan.

China was the first country in the world to get the new model called Livina Geniss (also called "Jun Yi") when it was launched on November, 2006. After China Nissan had looked at ASEAN and saw the biggest MPV market in this area was Indonesia so it was the best place to make the model for the region and pumped in money to refurbish its own plant in West Java to produce the first right hand drive variant of the model.

After years of seeming neglect, Nissan is aiming to regain its share in the ASEAN region, and one of the targeted segments is the "multi-purpose vehicle" (MPV) space dominated by Toyota. In Grand Livina, Nissan now has the weapon to take the fight to the Innova and Avanza.

In Indonesia market, Grand Livina is creating the awareness and re-branding of Nissan Indonesia in market's mind after so long people only recognize Nissan products are "expensive product" such as Terrano, X-trail and Serena. This awareness and re-branding is planed since 2002. Since that period, Nissan Indonesia was built dealer and service spot in many big cities in Sumatra, Java, Bali, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

The size of the Grand Livina is closer to that of an Avanza than the Innova, but the Nissan sits lower. There's still 185mm of ground clearance which is important in many Asian markets because of floods and bad roads. The sills and seat height have been thoughtfully positioned so that the hit point is at a more comfortable level for people to slide in, rather than climb in.

Grand Livina is special designed by Nissan Technical Center, Atsugi for ASEAN customers live style and need. They need family car which high of flexibility, functional and comfortable.

COMPANY PROFILE

When Renault formed its alliance with Nissan on March, 2004 and basically rescued the Japanese carmaker from becoming history, the priority in the initial years was to quickly fix the product lines since products are crucial to success. During the 1990's, Nissan's product lines had stagnated and customers wandered away, causing a sales decline which only compounded its massive financial problems. Because the recovery was such a massive task, priority was given to the markets which would be able to provide quick returns and these were the USA and Europe and of course, the domestic line-up also needed to be quickly updated.

Other smaller markets like the rest of Asia just had to wait till the big markets were stabilized and Nissan was in a better financial position. This is why it seemed like Nissan was not doing anything for this region (In terms of new products) and did not even announce any plans to make use of the benefits of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).

In 2006, the global sales amount to 5.9 million vehicles and represent 9% of the worldwide market. The Renault-Nissan Alliance ranks among the world's leading four automakers. It includes five brands: Nissan and Infiniti for the Nissan group and Renault, Dacia and Samsung for the Renault group.

The Alliance develops and implements a strategy of profitable growth and sets itself the following three objectives:

To be recognized by customers as being among the best three automotive groups in the quality and value of its products and services in each region and market segment.

To be among the best three automotive groups in key technologies, each partner being a leader in specific domains of excellence.

To consistently generate a total operating profit among the top three automotive groups in the world, by maintaining a high operating profit margin and pursuing growth.

On the strength of the numerous synergies generated by the Alliance over the past seven years and the performance of both companies, Renault and Nissan assert their ambitions for the future.

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.

As per Mach, 2007 the corporate data of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd are :

Company Name

NISSAN MOTOR CO., Ltd

Headquarters

17-1, Ginza 6-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8023 JapanTEL.03-3543-5523

Registered Head Office

2, Takara-cho, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 220-8623 Japan

Date of Establishment

December 26, 1933

Business Outline

Manufacturing, sales and related business of automotive products, industrial machinery and marine equipment.

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