Nissan 2010 Annual Report Download - page 14

g
Strate ies after the Financial Crisis
12
Product Plan:
Andy Palmer Senior Vice President
Altering Strategies
for a Transformed Market
It’s been said that you should never waste a good
crisis. We followed that logic in fiscal year 2009 by
reviewing every assumption, idea and product we had,
and changed the priorities of the company accordingly.
For example, Japanese auto manufacturers traditionally
produce a lot of models because customers focus on the
new. On average, Nissan had launched a new car every
month for the past five years. We knew this was not
efficient, however, and had been working toward a more
efficient product lineup. The financial crisis elevated the
importance of this corporate initiative. As a result, we
suspended our mid-term plan, NISSAN GT 2012, and
reduced our new global model introductions from 60 to 48.
When this initiative is fully engaged, our product portfolio
should be at the top level alongside our competitors in both
body type and engine efficiency.
Although we suspended our mid-term plan, we continue
to focus on zero-emission leadership. While we believe that
leadership in electric vehicles will drive our brand, we also
need to push CO2 levels down in the remaining 90 percent
of our product portfolio and we have promoted additional
technologies to accomplish that. Whether you call it fuel
economy or eco-drive, our “PURE DRIVE” initiative, together
with zero emissions, will be a key driver of our product
strategy to lower CO2 emissions over the next five years.
Changing Customer Dynamics
The crisis has also changed customer dynamics worldwide.
We’ve seen a shift where China, India, and other emerging
nations are quickly becoming as significant as the traditional
mature markets. The customer in the emerging market has
different priorities than those in traditional mature markets.
There is a certain expectation associated with design and
more of an emphasis on ensuring that cars are designed
specifically for “my culture and me.”
There has also been a shift in what customers value
most in a car and their views on the environment are
different as well. For example, customers in mature markets
such as the United States tend to acknowledge that better
fuel economy is essential, so downsizing the engine is
acceptable but downsizing the car itself is less desirable. In
Japan, more consumers view automobiles as basic
appliances. These consumers now buy a vehicle simply to
get from point A to point B, as opposed to an emotional
purchase and personal expression.
It is the role of Advanced Product Planning and Market
Intelligence to spot the changes in consumer behavior and
ensure our products reflect the customer’s needs.
Launching Price-Entry Vehicles
To better serve the growing number of car customers in
emerging markets, we are now focusing our attention on the
price entry segment, which is expected to grow to close to
20 million units by 2015. Nissan has not participated in the
lower part of this segment before, but we must find a way to
capture these first-time car buyers.
The big challenge is to produce low-cost vehicles that
are still profitable and reliable. We cannot compromise
quality; we need to maintain our brand image and meet the
needs of these customers, many of whom are spending one
to two years’ salary on their first car. We will use
partnerships to get the job done, including our existing
partnerships in India, China and Russia.