Analyzing De Nyscchen's 25-year comeback plan for Infiniti

When Johan De Nysschen left his post at Audi of America last year to take the seemingly thankless job of leading Infiniti's global operations, it seemed like a familiar scenario. Like Michael Dukakis going from one of two men that could have won the White House to teaching political science at an obscure Florida college.

De Nysschen was a key architect in rebuilding Audi in the US, from a punchline about "sudden acceleration" in the 1980s, to being a truly hot brand and legitimately vying with BMW and Mercedes-Benz for one-percenters' German car bucks. In talking about his task at Infiniti with me, he repeated a line that I wonder if he mentioned to Nissan-Renault honcho Carlos Ghosn at the hiring meeting: "It took us 25 years to bring Audi back in the US. This kind of thing takes a long time."
What's he up to? On the surface, Nissan has made a few moves to get Infiniti its own identity within the company. The organization moved from Tokyo to Hong Kong and registered a new company ID: The Infiniti Global Ltd. When he got there, he said, "The cupboard was emptier than I knew." So De Nysschen is also directing the new product plan, as well as asking ad agency TBWA/Chiat Day to put together a walled-off agency for his brand, rather than having the agency divide teams for both Nissan and Infiniti.

On the hardware front, Infiniti will employ a high-performance four-cylinder engine from Daimler by way of an alliance between Nissan-Renault and the German automaker. And it will also get a vehicle platform from Daimler that Infiniti and Nissan are co-developing – an arrangement that is similar to the alliance Volkswagen has with Porsche for the Cayenne and Touareg.

What did he tell Ghosn was his recipe for fixing the 23-year-old brand? "We have to have our own powertrains, our own designs, our own identity. You can't run a premium brand like you run a mass-market brand." His goal before he packs it in? "To be accepted into the club of global luxury car brands."

Sales target? Fasten your seat belt. Though Infiniti sold fewer than 200,000 globally in 2012, the former Audi US chief says he plans to reach 500,000 sales by 2017. Granted, he says, a big chunk of that will come from China. Still, we are reminded of what the kidnapper told Liam Neeson in Taken when he warned the bad guy not take his daughter: "Good luck."

Infiniti's global ambitions are just that. More than half the company's sales are in the US, though it is sold in 15 countries with just 230 dealers. There has been a long established pattern of cars that are sold as up-market Nissans in Japan sold as Infinitis elsewhere.

One of the first marketing measures De Nysschen tackled was model naming. He has ditched the haphazard nomenclature of the G, M, J and FX for a new system going forward, whereby all sedans and coupes will be called Q – as in the new Q50, which is the updated G37. All crossovers and SUVs wil be called QX followed by a double digit number.

Ironically, back in the 1990s, De Nysschen had to meet with Infiniti officials to discuss a beef over model naming because Infiniti had the Q prefix, and Audi wanted to use it for what became the Q3, Q5, Q7, etc. The compromise was that Audi would have to stop at Q9, and Infiniti, he says, will use Q and QX followed by double-digit numbers.

Yeah... that ought to be clear to everyone.

So, Infiniti has had one consistently praised model, the G, which is also the only model prefix with any name recognition associated with Infiniti. And he scrapped it as first order of business?

Lest we think De Nysschen is a bit mad or a masochist, we should remember that Liam Neeson did actually get his daughter back in Taken after killing, like, a hundred Albanian bad guys, and suffering only a shoulder wound and a gimpy leg.

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/01/19/a...-for-infiniti/

 

Agree with this.

 

well, most of the engines they want to sell in this expansion are going to be from Mercedes and Renault... so PR speak.

As to the naming, it is complete disaster, because their two products that did well worldwide were G and FX and now will be called Q50 and QX something.

 

The problem with the names G and FX is that they're well recognized here in the US--but as the article states--not all of the "Infiniti" models sold in the US are marketed as "Infiniti" models overseas.

If Infiniti wants to be a global luxury brand, there has to be a clear separation in both nomenclature and marketing--just as Lexus did a few years ago in Japan and other Asian markets. I won't know whether renaming in the entire lineup with the "Q" moniker will be good for them or not in the long run, but it's probably a lot better than what Acura is doing...

 

Just reading the title, I thought they meant it was going to take another 25 years to make a comeback.

 

The new G or Q in the back looks very nice. I like!!

 

At this point the naming does not matter, but if he can do to Infiniti what he did for Audi, that would be great

 

The article does not say how long it will take to rebuild 23-year old Infiniti but it does say that it took them 25 years to rebuild Audi after the sudden acceleration scandal of the 1980s, and implying that it could take a long time to do the same for Infiniti.

 

Hopefully it wont take 2 decades for Infiniti. Audi was a case of rebuilding from a complete tarnishing of the brand fuel by media hysterics. Audi basically had to start from ground zero and reestablish itself because its reputation was destroyed. Infinti needs to focus itself and find a steady momentum and a solid brand image. That also takes time but not as along as living down the bad press Audi endured.

 

As we've seen with Lexus, what it takes is a long time of consistently excellent products and sticking with a consistent message, I still think to this day that "The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection" was one of the greatest marketing slogans, ranks up there with the "Ultimate Driving Machine".

Acura would be a good example of how not to be consistent.

 

I don't think it's a disaster. I think it's an indication of how far into the future they're looking. The current naming scheme is good for short term gains in the US, but in the long term they will hold Infiniti Global back.

Granted I wouldn't have picked "Q" (maybe "G" was better), but they were forced to pick it in many ways due to trademarks etc...

 

I love Infinitis but they have BIG problems with their lineup. They need more models, newer styling, and better efficiency. The service departments also need to step it up and use Lexus service style as an example. I love them because they always feel so much more fun to drive than any Lexus I have come across. When I had my G I often found myself screaming WOOHOO as I floored it, came out of a corner, or ran through a long tunnel with my insane intake and exhaust set up on the car.

 

Sounds like he's going to jack up the prices, decontent the cars, and espresso machines and yoga classes to the service waiting area.

 

Palmer: Nissan Considered Killing Infiniti


The high profitability of successful luxury brands motivated the Japanese auto maker to retain its premium marque, but not without making some changes.


DETROIT – In nearly 24 years of existence, the Infiniti luxury brand has been less than a stellar performer.

Parent Nissan had a volume-rules mentality when it came to Infiniti sales, says Nissan Executive Vice President Andy Palmer, and little attention was paid to developing the type of products that have made the German brands so desirable.

Results were predictably mediocre, and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn considered killing the brand.

“Very frankly, very candidly, we don’t need Infiniti, we just don’t need that brand,” Palmer tells WardsAuto in an interview at the 2013 North American International Auto Show here. “Mr. Ghosn challenged me and said, ‘We don’t have to do Infiniti, you can cancel it if you want.’”

But with luxury brands typically accounting for half the profits of auto makers that have one, Palmer couldn’t help but see a future for Infiniti – if Nissan would commit to doing things “properly.”

“(Infiniti has) nice premium cars, but frankly, (they’re) kind of discount,” he says. “And we’ve been selling those cars over a period of 23 years with a Nissan-push mentality.”

Many luxury brands owned by volume manufacturers fall into that same trap, he says, except one: Audi.

Audi has escaped any negative connotation from its association with midmarket Volkswagen by maintaining some autonomy, Palmer says.

Keeping some operational distance while still part of VW’s enormous corporate structure has allowed Audi “to create a series of professionals that understand the premium market in a very premium way.”

For that reason, Nissan identified Johan de Nysschen, the former chief of Audi in the U.S., as an ideal candidate to head Infiniti.

During de Nysschen’s seven years atop Audi’s American arm, sales rose from 77,917 vehicles in 2004 to 117,567 in 2011, and the brand began to be breathe the same rarefied air as BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Nissan finally got its man last summer after years of pursuit, naming de Nysschen senior vice president of the brand worldwide, but not before making some changes.

Prior to de Nysschen’s arrival, “we said, ‘I want the best guy at Audi,’” Palmer says. “(But) you’re not going to get the best guy at Audi unless you’ve got some reason for him to come.”

Palmer rattles off the list of changes made over the past three years to lure the Audi executive to Infiniti, including the signing of a joint-venture pact with Daimler that will see Mercedes engines under the hood of the new Q50 sport sedan; relocation of Infiniti offices from Japan to Hong Kong and the lucrative Chinese market; and green-lighting the 3-row JX cross/utility vehicle and G37-replacement Q50.

Now with the proper “assets” to right Infiniti’s path, Palmer says he has a commitment from de Nysschen to improve Infiniti much the same way he did Audi.

One of the first things de Nysschen did after joining Infiniti was to back away from Nissan’s previously announced goal of selling 500,000 units globally by 2016, pushing the target back to 2017. Infiniti’s global sales tallied roughly 200,000 last year.

Palmer says de Nysschen told him: “I need some time; I don’t need the volume pressure. What I’ll give you ultimately is a premium brand. And somewhere, by developing a premium brand, you’re not going to be disappointed by the profitability and the volume that comes.”

In an interview with WardsAuto here, de Nysschen says, “If you hold people’s feet to the fire, just for volume, you encourage the wrong kind of behaviors,” referring to discounting and incentivizing at retail.

Selling 500,000 units in “2017 or 2020 is less important than that we develop the brand metrics which entrench Infiniti as an unquestioned member of the club of premium automotive brands,” de Nysschen says. “That is our mission.”

Infiniti will renew all existing models in its lineup, as well as add four new ones over the next four years.

The brand already has confirmed a production compact sedan, based on the Etherea concept, is due in 2015 and a production version of the LE electric-car concept from last year’s New York auto show will arrive in 2014.

De Nysschen says a production version of the Essence concept supercar is a possibility, as is a larger-than-M model, although it’s unclear in what segment that car would be positioned.

“We don’t intend and try and recreate (a) Mercedes S-Class or BMW 7-Series or Audi A8,” he says. “That segment indeed is stagnating. No, we plan to produce a very emotional car.”

The future model would be “very progressive, perhaps even provocative (in) design.” It would be an “aspirational” car, he adds, mixing elements of luxury and performance.

It may be a niche model in cost, but not in appeal.

“I think many people would want it (due to compelling features and design), but it will occupy a premium-price position,” de Nysschen says.

http://wardsauto.com/management-amp-...lling-infiniti

 

ouch.

It's always been your product, not your naming guys. The product needs more fun, more emotion, more innovation.