Vincent Cobee agrees that the Datsun project has perhaps been the most exciting in his career of over two decades.
“To launch a new global brand along with five cars in four years and across four markets, while shifting the positioning of a global automobile company has been quite an experience,” the Corporate Vice-President of Nissan Motor’s Datsun Business Unit told Business Line during a recent visit to India.
The Datsun Go will be launched in India next Wednesday and will mark an important strategy for Nissan in emerging markets. The brand will also make its way into Indonesia, Russia and South Africa as part of an aggressive rollout plan.
Growth plan
Nissan Motor had clearly decided about five years ago that there had to be a “third leg” in its business which has, otherwise, been largely about the “hedonistic luxury” leg represented by the Infiniti brand and the Nissan brand in the larger automobile space.
“But then we also need to cater to high growth markets and this explains the significance of Datsun. The brand is the third pillar for Nissan,” Cobee says. The challenge now is to ensure that buyers queue up for the car right from India and Indonesia to Russia and South Africa.
The sub Rs 4-lakh Datsun Go has positioned itself as a serious rival to Maruti Suzuki’s established stranglehold in this part of the world. “Of course, we respect the dominant player but it is equally true that the Indian customer is becoming more and more diverse in his aspirations. This means that he is looking for modernity, fuel economy and luxury of choice,” Cobee says.
The message is loud and clear: times are different today than what they were some years ago when choices were limited and customers had to make do with what was offered to them.
Cobee also maintains that the sub Rs 4-lakh segment in India has not particularly seen “great levels of innovation” where the focus has been more on “product renovation”. He reiterates that despite the slowdown in Western Europe and India, brands which epitomised good cars and innovative/attractive features bucked the trend and did well.
“With Datsun, we are bringing an accessible product backed by engineering capability with attractive values,” Cobee says. The brand, in his view, represents a “substantial product expansion” for the first time where tremendous innovation has taken place. “It reflects an aspirational direction and is true to what was stated when the strategy was first announced,” he adds..
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