Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Contemporary Brand
Management
Nissan
C3289835
5/12/2015
BA(hons) Marketing
Dr Kenneth Henrie
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Table of Contents
1.0 The Brand ............................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 What is a Brand? ................................................................................................................. 3
1.2 Brand Versus Product .......................................................................................................... 3
1.3 Nissan Background .............................................................................................................. 3
1.4 Market Insight..................................................................................................................... 3
1.5 Brand Architecture .............................................................................................................. 4
2.0 Brand Positioning.................................................................................................................... 5
2.1 What is Brand Positioning? .................................................................................................. 5
2.2 Nissan’s Brand Positioning Statement................................................................................... 5
2.3 Nissan’s Perceptual Positioning Map .................................................................................... 6
3.0 Brand Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 8
3.1 Brand Identity ..................................................................................................................... 8
3.1.1 What is Brand Identity................................................................................................... 8
3.1.2 The Brand Identity Prism ............................................................................................... 9
3.2 Brand Image...................................................................................................................... 11
3.2.1 What is Brand Image ................................................................................................... 11
3.2.2 The Brand Love Curve.................................................................................................. 11
3.2.3 Self-image and Image Congruence Hypothesis .............................................................. 12
3.3 Brand Equity ..................................................................................................................... 13
3.3.1 What is Brand Equity ................................................................................................... 13
3.3.2 Nissan’s Brand Equity and The Customer-Based Brand Equity Pyramid ........................... 14
3.4 Brand Loyalty .................................................................................................................... 16
3.4.1 What is Brand Loyalty.................................................................................................. 16
3.4.2 Percy and Elliott Brand Loyalty Model .......................................................................... 16
3.4.3 Rosenbaum-Elliot, Percy and Pervan (2011) Steps to Brand Loyalty................................ 18
3.4.4 Nissan’s Brand Pyramid (De Chernatony, 2010)............................................................. 18
4.0 Special Interest ..................................................................................................................... 20
4.1 Corporate and Ethical Branding.......................................................................................... 20
4.2 The Aim of Corporate and Ethical Branding ......................................................................... 20
4.3 Nissan as a Corporate and Ethical Brand ............................................................................. 20
4.4 Nissans CSR Model ............................................................................................................ 21
4.4.1 Carroll’s (1991) CSR Pyramid vs Nissan’s CSR Approach ................................................. 22
4.4.2 Schwartz and Carroll’s (2003) Intersecting Circles Model vs Nissan’s CSR Model ............. 23
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Dual/Multipurpose (Nissan.co.uk, 2015). Their product range stands them in good stead for the near
future with the market seeing a “rising demand for Dual/Multipurpose cars” (Mason, 2015).
Nissan is the sixth most popular car manufacturer with a 5.6% market share of the UK automobile
market. The market leaders are Ford and with a 13% share (Mason, 2015). Nissans competitors are
listed in Fig 1.1 below.
Figure 1.1 - Nassan's competitors and their market share % (Mason, 2015)
Brand positioning is competition orientated as its primary concern is attacking competitors’ market
share (Kapferrer, 2008). However, there are different interpretations as to what brand positioning
actually aims to do. For example, Rosenbaum-Elliot, Percy and Pervan (2011) put the focus much
more so on the brand benefit to the target audience; “in the eyes of the target audience, the brand
must be linked to a benefit that provides a motivating reason to consider it”. However, Chernatony
(2006) states that its purpose is to “identify a brands differential advantage” which Kapferrer (2008)
agrees with this and adds that it aims to identify, take possession of and communicate a ‘strong
purchasing rationale’.
Rosenbaum-Elliot, Percy & Pervan (2011) put forward a model or format for creating an effective
positioning statement. The basic format is as follows;
“___ is the brand for (target audience) that satisfies (category need) by offering (benefit)”
(Rosenbaum-Elliot, Percy & Pervan, 2011)
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For environmentally conscious, urban drivers, Nissan satisfies the need for affordable,
reliable and trustworthy products whilst offering the most innovative and exciting
automobiles available.
Nissan’s previous campaigns have focused predominantly on their “innovative and exciting” product
range which is conveyed through the imagery and messages in their communications for the Nissan
Juke, for example (See appendix 2.0) (Nissan, 2015). However, when looking at factors considered
when buying a car, price was the single most important criteria, followed by reliability (Mason,
2014). For this reason it is important that Nissan position themselves to be affordable and reliable
whilst highlighting the ‘benefit’ of being innovative and exciting (Rosenbaum-Elliot, Percy & Pervan,
2011). Points of difference (Keller, 2013) can be communicated through the ‘innovative’ features
that Nissan’s current product range offers, for example, ‘lane departure warning’ and ‘blind spot
warning’. This would be advantageous as safety was ranked the 3 rd most important factor to
consider (behind price and reliability) when buying a car (Mason, 2014).
The functional attributes chosen for the axes could include functional, physiological-emotional, and
personality characteristics (Johansson and Carlson, 2013). In Nissan’s case ‘Overall Satisfaction’ and
‘Trust’ will be used. ‘Trust’ gives a good indication of brand integrity and stature and ‘Differentiation’
gives an insight into the perceived energy and vitality of the brand (Mason, 2015), something that
Nissan is looking to communicate in its positioning.
The data in Figure 2.1, which has been plotted in Figure 2.2 was gained from Mintel’s report, UK Car
Review (Mason, 2015)
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% % % %
Trust 35 30 12 20
Differentiation 28 42 18 19
Figure 1.1 Perceived levels of trust, perceived levels of differentiation gained from Mintel (Mason,
2015)
The distance in between brands indicates similarities in the minds of consumers ( Lilien, Rangaswamy
and De Bruyn, 2013). From Figure 2.2 it is clear that customers perceive Nissan to be alike to Fiat in
terms of trustworthiness and differentiation. Volkswagen holds a unique position in on the
perceptual map. They are perceived to be more differentiated in comparison to its competitors; this
could be due to its premium positioning that gives them a point of difference (Keller, 2013). Ford are
perceived to be more trustworthy than Nissan (and the other competitors) possibly due to their long
history and many years leading the automobile industry (Mason, 2015). Ideally Nissan would like to
position themselves where the green dot is placed. Their ‘innovative and exciting’ position suggests
that they want to be seen as energetic and differentiated.
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Figure 3.1: Hedging, Knudtzen and Bjerre (2009) state that Brand Identity is a bridging facet to
induce a relationship between the corporation and consumer.
Nissan’s brand identity can be categorised into five components, highlighted by Keller (2013) shown
in Fig 3.2 below.
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There are several facets of the prism that Nissan use more than the others, for example the
‘personality’ facet. Nissan aims to be exciting, urban, innovative and stylish. They do this firstly
through the products they create; Nissan is one of the UK’s leading brands in, in-car technology with
an 83% score for their innovation within their vehicles (Auto Express Driver Power, 2014). This is also
conveyed in their 2014 television adverts for the Nissan Juke for example (Youtube, 2014), where
the in-car technology is used in different and exciting ways in order to overcome certain obstacles,
usually within an urban environment. It is also possible to personalise a new Nissan Juke (Nissan,
2015). You can do this by choosing the vibrant colour you wish for interior and exterior features of
the car. This is all aimed at building a personality to the brand. These features are incorporated
within the brand and help define who the ‘sender’ is (Kapferer, 2005).
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The ‘self-image’ facet is also prominent in the case of Nissan. Nissan’s communications are focused
on projecting the emotions you feel when driving your Nissan. They do this by centring the
campaigns around the word (or feeling) ‘thrill’, for example ‘Built to Thrill’, ‘Tested to Thrill’ and
‘Personalise your Thrill’ (See appendix 3.0) (Nissan, 2015). The communications aim to encourage
the viewer to visualise themselves driving the Nissan and build an image of what this might be like.
This form on brand communication builds a recipient, who belongs to the brands identity (Kapferer,
2015).
The ‘culture’ facet of the prism can also be applied to Nissan, this form of communication builds the
gap between the sender and receiver. Each product should derive from the brands culture, be a
representation of their culture and a means of communicating this too (Kapferer, 2005). Nissan
draws heavily on their Japanese heritage, not just with the brand name ‘Nissan’ (which is a
combination of its Japanese parent company’s abbreviated name, NiSan (Nissan, 2015)), but with its
innovation and business vision, a pillar of Japanese business culture; Nissan has partnered with
NASA in order to create a driverless car by 2016 (Mason, 2014). This is reinforcing their identity as
innovation leaders, which is one of the pillars within Nissan that gui de its outward signs (Kapferer,
2015).
The Image Congruence Hypothesis postulates that “an evaluation of a product will be influenced by
the degree of congruence between brand image and self-image (Harris, 2009) .This can be achieved
by either creating an image that consumers can identify with (actual self-image) or one that
consumers can aspire to (ideal self-image) (Lantos, 2011).
The Nissan Qashqai brand for example, is said to be economical, classy and refined (What Car, 2015)
and was voted WhatCar? Car of the Year 2014. It achieved 5 stars for ‘quality and reliability’ and a
top 20 place, with an 80% score in JD Powers customer satisfaction survey (Auto Car, 2013). The
combination of the above ratings demonstrate the achievement of Nissan in the crafting of a close
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relationship between the Nissan Qashqai brand and the consumer which has led to a positive brand
evaluation; this is depicted in Fig 3.5 below.
Fig 3.5 – Image Congruence Hypotheses – Adapted from Heath and Scott (1988)
Fig 3.6 – Brandt and Johnson (1997) “Brand equity is the unique set of real or perceived
distinctions attached to a brand by consumers”
3.3.2 Nissan’s Brand Equity and The Customer-Based Brand Equity Pyramid
Full line automotive car brands have been benefitting from an improved economy, pent-up demand,
attractive loan rates and easing credit restrictions, and as a result, brand equity is at an all-time high
for the industry (Chadsey, 2015). Nissan placed in 5th in the Equitrend Brand Equity Index for all full
line automotive brands (Harris Interactive, 2014), shown in Fig 3.7 They have shown sustained and
improving brand equity and have ranked above the category average for nine of the last ten years
(Harris Interactive, 2014). This could be as a result of marketing activities such as their LinkedIn
Sponsored Updates campaign, which aimed to reach a high-value audience by appearing in
members’ news feeds alongside organic content. The campaign reached a senior-level audience
across the globe, gained instant feedback on which content gained the most engagement and
created broad global impact for brand messages. It drove engagement and built relationships with a
key audience (Nissan Case Study, 2015) which is a vital part of building positive customer-based
brand equity (Keller, 2013).
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Nissan is currently ranked 56th biggest (revenue) brand in the world and over 2014 has earned the
title of a ‘top riser’, increasing profit by 23% (Global Brands, 2014). This coupled with Nissan’s brand
equity ranking (Harris Interactive, 2014) places them at the ‘customer brand resonance’ stage of
Keller’s (2001) customer-based brand equity pyramid, shown in Fig 3.8. At this stage Nissan are
achieving loyalty, attachment, community and engagement also (Keller, 2001).
Plotted on the model is Nissan 1 and Nissan 2. Nissan 1 represents the majority of Nissan customers
(approx. 65%, shown in the larger bubble) and Nissan 2 represents the minority of Nissan customers
(approx. 35%).
This has been approximated based on the research conducted in the UK Car Review (Mason, 2015)
states that 72% of customers who have ever used a Nissan automobile would recommend it. It also
found that 63 % of Nissan owners rated their satisfaction with the products from ‘good’ to ‘excellent’
(Mason, 2015). Due to the price paid for a car, the perceived risk in switching is naturally going to be
higher (Rosenbaum-Elliott and Percy, 2007). It is for these reasons that ‘Nissan 1’ (Fig 3.9) has been
plotted as ‘Loyal’. For these customers Nissan have to do very little other than maintain a positive
brand attitude. Nissan must be alert to shifts in positive brand attitude to competitor brands that
could lead to a change in brand attitude towards Nissan (Rosenbaum-Elliott and Percy, 2007).
In another survey, Mason (2015) found that 30% of respondents rated their satisfaction towards
Nissan as ‘average’, along with another 75% of respondents stating they have no preference for
Nissan over other brands (Mintel, 2015). In this situation, it could be assumed that although they are
not dissatisfied with Nissan, perceived risk in switching is lower as they show little preference
between brands. These customers are classed as ‘vulnerable’ (Rosenbaum-Elliott, Percy and Pervan
2011) and represented by Nissan 2 (Fig 3.9). For this group it is important to reinforce the already
positive brand attitude, this should strengthen brand equity, reducing the likelihood of switching to
other brands (Rosenbaum-Elliott and Percy, 2007).
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Fig 3.9 – Percy and Elliott Brand Loyalty Model (Rosenbaum-Elliott and Percy, 2007) applied to
Nissan. Plotted using Mintel (2015).
Aaker’s Brand Loyalty Pyramid can also be used to asses Nissans customer base, however identifies
five levels of brand loyalty. This is shown below in Fig 3.9.1, highlighting where Nissan 1 and 2 are
positioned currently.
Fig 3.9.2 – Rosenbaum-Elliot, Percy and Pervan (2011) Steps to Brand Loyalty Model.
Nissan begin building their brand with products that have ‘attributes’ such as being technologically
advanced, or eco-friendly. They convey this firstly through the products they produce and also
through their advertising they use for example, demonstrating the various different types of
technology within the car (See Appendix 4.0). However, customers are less concerned with the
attributes, than the benefits. As they experience the brand, the benefits the customer is
experiencing (as a result of the attributes) lead to emotional rewards (Baker, 2003). Applied to
Nissan, customers may be ‘safe’, as a result of some of the safety technology within th e car
(Appendix 5.0), which then lead to a feeling of ‘confidence’. Nissan’s aim is that this eventually may
lead to a feeling of being ‘tech- savvy’ for example (See Fig 3.9.3).
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The field of corporate branding involves concepts of morality, ethics and social responsibility
(Podnar, 2015). These issues are becoming increasingly prominent for organisations to address due
to relative prosperity in developed countries, affording the consumers the luxury of worrying about
these such issues, coupled with the ease of communicating their approval or disapproval to a wide
audience (Proctor, 2008). Their ‘corporate reputation’ being a primary concern (Keller, 2013).
As a result of corporate branding, a corporate brand image, personality and reputation is built
(Keller, 2013).
This is shown firstly and most obviously in their product offering, for example the Nissan LEAF 0%
emissions electric car (Nissan, 2015). According to Keller’s (2013) corporate image associations,
Nissan is achieving ‘common product attributes or benefits’ such as innovativeness through
promoting their Safety Shield technologies and their vision of bringing the first autonomous
automobile to market (Nissan, 2015). They achieve “values and programs” (Keller, 2013) such as
concern with the environment by prioritising ‘the environment’ as 1st in their three sustainability
strategies (Nissan CSR Report, 2014), the other two being ‘safety’ and ‘philanthropy’, both aimed at
achieving “corporate credibility” (Keller, 2013).
Fig 4.1 – Nissans Eight Sustainability Strategies aimed at achieving the CSR vision (Nissan CSR
Report, 2014)
Fig 4.2 – Carroll’s (1991) CSR Pyramid (Madu and Kuei, 2012)
4.4.2 Schwartz and Carroll’s (2003) Intersecting Circles Model vs Nissan’s CSR Model
The Intersecting Circles model of CSR (Fig 4.3) would agree with Nissan’s CSR approach in a sense, as
it rejects the hierarchical structure of importance that Carroll’s (1991) model emphasises, and
highlights that the different CSR domains are interrelated (Zu, 2009). Nissan agree and place
importance on these interrelationships by stating that the separate strategies they employ need to
be pursued together in order to achieve maximum efficiency (Nissan CSR Report, 2014).
Fig 4.3 - Schwartz and Carroll’s (2003) Intersecting Circles Model of CSR
as its primary goal (Zu, 2009). It could be argued that Nissan on the other hand takes a ‘modern
view’ to CSR, as it holds society at the heart of its operations and focus largely on the benefits of CSR
action rather than the cost (Zu, 2009).
5.0 Recommendation
It is recommended that Nissan create an online, impartial customer review platform
in order to improve customer service quality, to in turn build brand trust.
5.1 Rationale
It has been highlighted in this report that Nissan’s brand trust is low in comparison to some
competitors. Clarke and Flaterly (2005) state that improving customer satisfaction is an effective way
of building brand trust. Currently Nissan’s customer service ratings are very poor, with only 3.9% of
overall comments being positive (Customer Service Scoreboard, 2015), see appendix 6.0 for full
report. This could be a reason that Nissan’s brand trust is lower than its key competitors (20% of
customers trusted Nissan – See appendix 7.0). Davies (2015) found that customer reviews have been
shown to be extremely important when looking at purchasing products, for example, 30% of
consumers write online product reviews while 50% read them regularly before making a purchase
decision (Mintel, 2015).
Through the platform, a customer service team should be available to respond to customers with
problems regarding Nissan’s products which should improve customer service ratings. Studies show
good quality customer service leads to favourable customer responses such as repurchase
intentions, positive word of mouth, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, brand trust, and price
insensitivity (Zhang, 2009). These responses would be extremely desirable to Nissan.
Dues to Nissan’s products being classed as large ticket items, an ‘Ask An Owner’ section will be
included where potential customers can ask current Nissan owners questions about their car. Since
88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations (Bright Local
Consumer Review Survey, 2014), this will be an effective way of alleviating some of the insecurities
associated with the purchase decision and encourage sales (Clarke and Flatherly, 2005).
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A disadvantage to uncensored customer reviews is that Nissan have little control over the ratings, or
what is being posted. However, Kia Motors implemented a similar activity in 2013 where they
created a platform that aimed to provide verified and authentic customer reviews via a platform on
the Kia website (The Drum, 2015). It gained 10,000 independent reviews within the first 12 months,
monthly visits to the Kia website exceed 1 million and car sales rise 8% year-on-year (E3, 2015).
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Appendices
1.0
Nissan emphasise style and fashion through their colour personalisation of the new Nissan Juke
2.0
Nissan uses innovative and exciting imagery in their communications such as the Nissan Juke advert
3.0
The majority of Nissans communications are centred around the word the word ‘thrill’.
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4.0
Nissan’s communications highlight the different technology contained within the cars.
5.0
Communications demonstrate different types of safety technology within the cars, aimed at making
the user feel safe.
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6.0
Nissan’s customer service scores (The Customer Service Scoreboard, 2015)