Automotive News - June 2, 2008 - (Page 14)

14 • JUNE 2, 2008 Nice HQ, Nissan, but where’s Nobe? Automaker should honor a man who second-guessed it Lindsay Chappell Here is something Nissan North America needs to consider for its soon-to-be opened headquarters outside Nashville: a statue of “Crazy Nobe.” There should be a life-sized statue of Nobushige Wakatsuki — marble, granite, bronze or whatever — standing humbly somewhere on the premises. It could be out in the new campus green space, overlooking the parking lot or even gazing pensively out a window of one of the boardrooms of the $100 million headquarters building known as Nissan Americas. It is an unpaid debt that Nissan owes him — not a monetary debt, but a spiritual one. Wakatsuki is an 84-year-old man who never worked for Nissan Motor Co. He lives in Tokyo now, long retired from his job with Japan’s Marubeni Corp., a trading company. But without Wakatsuki, the building site where Nissan Americas is receiving its final architectural touches would be a vacant lot. Carlos Ghosn would be an unknown name. There would be no Altima; no Xterra; no Rogue; no Infinifi brand; no Smyrna, Tenn., auto plant; and, it’s safe to argue, no Nissan Americas. EDITORIAL STAFF 313-446-0361 E-mail autonews@crain.com Web site www.autonews.com Keith E. Crain Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Peter Brown Associate Publisher and Editorial Director DETROIT 313-446-0361 Fax: 313-446-0383 1155 Gratiot Ave. Detroit, MI 48207-2997 David Sedgwick Editor dsedgwick@crain.com comment Lindsay Chappell is Automotive News’ mid-South bureau chief. It’s about putting more horsepower in a small car than you were expecting. It’s about beating Porsche with a sports car that cost half as much. It’s about seizing an unlikely opportunity — competing with General Motors with a respectable big pickup or marketing electric cars when the rest of the industry isn’t so sure. Edward Lapham Executive Editor elapham@crain.com Richard Johnson Managing Editor rjohnson@crain.com John K. Teahen Jr. Senior Editor Mary Beth Vander Schaaf Deputy Managing Editor Charles Child International Editor David Kushma Retail Editor Dave Guilford News Editor Philip Nussel Special Projects Editor James B. Treece Industry Editor Karen Faust O’Rourke Insight Editor COPY EDITORS: Bob Allen, Tom Fetters, Patricia C. Foley, Kenn Jones, Gregory Skwira Susan Zavela Bamford/Graphics Editor Rick Kranz/Product Editor REPORTERS: Leslie J. Allen, David Barkholz, Mary Connelly, Ralph Kisiel, Jamie LaReau, Arlena Sawyers, Robert Sherefkin, Richard Truett, Bradford Wernle, Amy Wilson Mary Raetz Director, Automotive News Data Center Debi Domby, Camille Pippen Research Assistants Dan Jones Office Manager Robertta Savage Editorial Assistant Corinne M. Price, Michael Garrison Information Center LOS ANGELES Mark Rechtin/Bureau Chief 310-739-8009 Fax: 310-832-6362 Kathy Jackson/Reporter 323-370-2481 Fax: 323-655-8157 6500 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90048-4947 NEW YORK Diana T. Kurylko/Reporter Phone/fax: 908-273-6059 dkurylko@crain.com WASHINGTON Donna Harris/Reporter 540-668-7295 Fax: 540-668-7296 Harry Stoffer/Reporter 202-662-7212 Fax: 202-638-3155 814 National Press Building Washington, DC 20045-1801 MID-SOUTH Lindsay Chappell/Bureau Chief 615-371-6654 Fax: 615-371-6655 April Wortham/Reporter 615-371-6617 104 East Park Drive, Suite 315, Brentwood, TN 37027 TOKYO Hans Greimel/Asia Editor +81-3-3828-9060 Fax: +81-3-3828-9061 hgreimel@crain.com Yurakucho Denki Bldg., 20th Floor 1-7-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0006, Japan SHANGHAI Alysha Webb/Bureau Chief +86-21-6226-9485 Fax: +86-21-6226-9483 alyshawebb@yahoo.com TURIN Luca Ciferri/Reporter lciferri@craincom.de +39-011 961 0194 Fax: +39-011 961 0113 Viale Cavaglia, 8 10029 Villastellone (TO) Italy STAFF CORRESPONDENT: Eric Freedman/Legal file, 517-337-0269 www.autonews.com DETROIT Victor Galvan/Web Editor vgalvan@crain.com 313-446-0345 Scott Kennedy/Multimedia Editor Bucking the status quo Nissan’s 50 years in America have been a celebration of gutsy risk-taking, with a pantheon of executives and managers and retailers who bucked the status quo and gave it a try. More than that, it’s a 50-year story of a scrappy group of Americans and Japanese who overcame doubters and thrived. Didn’t this all begin with Crazy Nobe? Nissan has officially forgotten Wakatsuki’s history. That’s a mistake. Great auto brands are those that embrace their history. Somebody somewhere in the now vast and global organization is sure to wince in embarrassment at the thought of a statue that commemorates Nissan’s own wisdom being second-guessed and shot down and improved upon. But that’s exactly what drives Nissan today. Ask the CEO. Nissan owes it to itself — not just to a maligned 84-year-old retired guy — to erect a permanent reminder of this in full view of its young American staff. You may e-mail Lindsay Chappell at lchappell @crain.com Workers move the final letter into place atop the Nissan Americas building near Nashville. A nice finishing touch, the writer says, would be a statue of Nobushige Wakatsuki, who urged the automaker to sell cars in America. ed and untrue. The Japanese needed to try selling in America. They could sell in America. And if he used his leverage as a trading promoter, Nissan would sell in America. But not if Nissan had anything to say about it. The Nissan managers of the day told Wakatsuki he was crazy. He was uninformed, they said. He was a nuisance. He was dangerous. He was a pest. fool by the Nissan power guard. In fact, his results at sales were meager. He was laughed at by people on both sides of the Pacific Ocean for trying. They called him “Crazy Nobe.” But he could see the path forward, and he urged Nissan to step in, take over and carry on, which it did. Today, 50 years later, Nissan Motor Co. is selling more than 1 million cars and trucks a year in the United States, earns two-thirds of its global profits from North America and has factories humming in Tennessee, Mississippi and Mexico. Yet today, Wakatsuki is forgotten within Nissan. This is a lost brand opportunity. The Nissan brand is about surprise. What a pest Once upon a time, Wakatsuki was a pain in the neck to Nissan. And that’s something he will freely tell you in the crisp English he perfected while living in Los Angeles in the 1950s. There was no Japanese auto industry in America in the 1950s. There were no Japanese cars here. The Japanese automakers lived in awe and fear and envy of the American market in the 1950s. But from where he lived in L.A. at the time, Wakatsuki realized that the notions held by the “experts” back in Japan were untest- Peristence pays off Yet he persisted. Turned down in his requests for even a U.S. sales experiment, Wakatsuki resorted to trickery to get Nissan vehicles into California. Even then, with Nissan cars that he paid for himself in his possession, he was denounced as a continued from Page 12 BMW are extending downward while Volkswagen tries to move upscale. Who’s kidding whom? RAY TRUBY Materials Manager Forest City Technologies Wellington, Ohio The writer works for a Tier 2 automotive supplier. Brand perceptions change slowly To the Editor: Dave Guilford was right on in his discussion of brands. As a student of the role of brand in customer decision-making and its measurement for the various automakers, I know that brand perceptions change very slowly. They are connected to deeply held emotional needs that are often impossible for marketers to affect quickly, particularly if the brand has violated some of those needs in the past or is just not known and trusted. Unlike laundry detergent, automobiles are constantly creating a public image that is considerably more persuasive than any ad. The 70year-old DeVille buyer seen constantly at the grocery store unfortunately says more about Cadillac than an attractive, younger CTS driver appearing in an ad. The real image constantly challenges the ideal self-perceptions of many buyers; i.e., do I want to be seen like the DeVille buyer? That kind of legacy takes a long time to erase. Jim Farley’s populist view of the Ford brand’s mission is a right first step. He must go further to leverage the brand’s positive emotional legacy — democratizing technology that can deliver owner pride and, if priced reasonably, a sense of value that creates a feeling of being smart. On the other hand, technology does not address the lack of trust caused by past sins or just a lack of familiarity. Few will buy technology from a brand they do not trust. With better products such as the Ford Edge and Flex, Farley will find that model perceptions improve as sales increase, but it will take several cycles of winners along with a consistent, persuasive message to move the brand needle permanently. Let’s hope that Ford will invest in the U.S. market for the long term to make this happen. DANIEL GORRELL Tustin, Calif. The writer is president of AutoStratagem, a research and consulting company. Bloggers are journalists, too To the Editor: The May 26 article “Orbiting the blogosphere” said “GM invites bloggers, automotive and nonautomotive, to global auto shows and on press trips once reserved for journalists.” Having attended social media events on GM’s behalf, I’ve had many discussions with other attendees about the negative perceptions of the new media — especially the perceptions held by the traditional media. Among those perceptions is one apparently held by Automotive News that bloggers aren’t journalists. Bloggers may not have strict deadlines, editors other than themselves and a mission statement printed in a corporate handbook, but I’ve never found a book on journalism that listed those as criteria for being a journalist. Journalism is gathering news and sharing it with the public, no matter the medium. Not all blogs and blog posts have journalistic intent, but it was surprising to see such a generalization in an article on embracing social media strategy. BRIAN DOOLEY Owner/Editor HummerGuy.net Dalla http://www.autonews.com http://HummerGuy.net http://www.autonews.com

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Automotive News - June 2, 2008 Gas prices fuel industry's new era Chrysler faces tricky dealer mergers Honda may crank out more Civics in N.A. Mercedes will move into Chrysler Pacifica studio Ford to offer hatchback version of Fiesta Prestige Automotive sells stores but keeps Black Enterprise top spot Dealership marketers take to text messaging Senate to hear personal pleas on roof crush rule Magazine: Chrysler, Fiat are talking Former Fla. dealer gets jail for bilking bank That guy Alfred had possibilities Ford will make next Mustang look smaller Pontiac subcompact may come to U.S. GM: Battery glitch cuts hybrid sales Porsche exec: CAFE 'will not change our nature' Japanese rivals race for lithium batteries Jatco boosts CVT capacity in Mexico for N.A. vehicles Mercury deserves a better chance Rising gas prices have changed the U.S. market Marketing and sales: Context and content Mexico's Nemak grows beyond North America Buyers didn't quit GM; GM quit on its buyers Brand perceptions change slowly Bloggers are journalists, too Nice HQ, Nissan, but where's Nobe? Chrysler's Chernoby: Growing up gearhead Picture this Mitsubishi hopes new gearbox widens Evo's appeal Openlane gets funds Obituaries Survey: Going green can get your auto ad noticed Inrix: Router can reduce traffic delays Mazda6 gets own platform for U.S. ... sort of Mazda6 set to take on mid-sized sedan heavyweights Troubled or not, the United States still beckons What's next? More transplant models headed this way Exports help as Mitsubishi sorts things out Irma Elder: 'This is one of the toughest times we have had' Fitzgerald: Dealers, consumers need alliance Can Bertone design a comeback? Family-owned business struggles for survival Some design houses fall on tough times Hughes: Not a subscriber? No problem American Axle lines up new non-U.S. business GM think tank works to boost service business Toyota offers gas card as tire incentive VW turns to common software to develop products Continental's Calif. office targets Asian carmakers ZF sees chassis, axle opportunities in N.A. Flex: A new Ford image ... or just over the top? Ford targeted Flex interior quiet, ride Ex-dealership managers say firings were over religion Dealers Genesis in Toledo: It's a long story Back woes sideline Nardelli GM: 19,000 take buyouts Panama to head Nissan Mexicana Wilhite jumps to Jumpstart Dauch sons move up, out Kozyra leaves Continental Ford to lay off salaried staff More small cars to arrive in 2009-10 Even on used market, big trucks go begging Auto advertisers adopt mpg mantra Industry to motorists: We're here to help Diesel prices hit suppliers' Mexico sites Can Camry catch F series? Leno's words of wisdom for automakers Nissan's carbon credits ease global warming guilt Automotive CEOs' pay pales next to peers' Year of the Small Car can't come too soon Foreign suppliers adding capacity in Southeast From cows to kimchi: Making Alabama sweet home for Koreans After light-truck push, cars are king again Mexican suppliers expect sales record in '08

Automotive News - June 2, 2008

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