Nissan Leaf Essay

1. Introduction According to Nissan Global (2011), â€Å"The Nissan Leaf is the world’s first 100-percent electric, zero-emission car designed for the mass market. With its advanced powertrain, Nissan Leaf provides a totally new driving experience, with its smooth and responsive acceleration, stable handling, and quietness. Incorporating the latest IT systems, Nissan Leaf is always connected to driving support functions for a secure and convenient ownership experience. Nissan Leaf was launched in December 2010 in Japan and the United States and in 2011 in Europe and other markets. The Leaf has won numerous international accolades, including the prestigious 2011 European Car of the Year, 2011 World Car of the Year and 2011-12 Cars of the Year Japan awards†. The continuous success of the Nissan Leaf electric car in the Japan and United States market is considered the developmental platform to expand into the Asian market, especially in the Vietnam market. As the Global Advertising Director on behalf of Nissan Cars announces that the Nissan Leaf electric car will be launched in January 2013 and other launched events relevant to the Nissan Leaf lasting within 3 months. It is expected to create a green trend for the transportation. 2. Vietnamese market analysis 2.1 Current market analysis The car market in Vietnam is tending to grow strongly by three impacts. Firstly, the customers consider car as the main vehicle for the transportation increasingly more. Especially, as reported on Tienphong (2012), the individual-car segmentation raised up to 15% in 2012. This indicates that an increase in the customers’ interest in purchasing cars. Furthermore, DanTri (2011) reported that the economic crisis has changed in the automobile market leading that the consumer tastes have changed, and they tend to purchase small cars with the good operation, facilities, affordable price and ability to save fuel. Finally, Trends (2010) article indicated that: â€Å"There is a tendency towards electric cars, supported by the emission legislation†. Based on these current situations, the Nissan Leaf car’s design and operation are one of the advantages likely to gain the attention in the Vietnamese customers’ mind and the automotive market. 2.2 Target audience Customers of the Nissan Leaf electric car will be focused on 2 age groups: 25-35 and 36-49 years old with an income monthly of 25 million VND and above. The gender is mostly for women because they support green activities such as buying an eco-friendly car more than men. Besides, customers are noticed by 2 main type of personality: Thinker and Innovator. Thinkers often have an educated orientation and good environmental awareness. Innovators tend to grasp new technology and set trends. Additionally, there is a possible prediction for families that parent might purchase electric car for their children. Therefore, parent will be in 45-55 years old with the modern lifestyle. 3. Advertising Objectives In the first 3 months of the launch period, there are 3 advertising objectives are identified obviously: 1. Within 2 months of the launch period, building 70 % awareness of the target audience about the Nissan Leaf that is not a hybrid car, it’s completely electric, it has no gasoline or diesel powered engine to supplement for power; that is an environmental brand with the good operations and friendly features as other diesel powered cars 2. Achieve 30% of the remaining target audience to understand the basic information of the Nissan Leaf 3. Convince two-thirds of the prospective customers to visit a retailer for a test drive 3.1 Target audience evaluation â€Å"Green life† is becoming the most compelling term to Vietnamese consumers. The benefit of green activities is socially approved since numerous undertaken researches. Therefore, the strengths of Nissan Leaf electric car that are utilizing no fossil fuels, there are no emissions; will be the great attention of the social because of its positive eco-impacts. These evidences will efficiently support our advertising objectives which use green-conscious lifestyle as a key to influences their target audiences. 4. The creative strategy 4.1 Creative platform 4.2 Advertising Appeal As indicated by V.K.Reddy on Scribd (2012), â€Å"Advertising appeals aim to influence the way consumers view themselves and how buying certain products  can prove to be beneficial for them. The message conveyed through advertising appeals influences the purchasing decisions of consumers†. Therefore, by identifying the advertising appeals, the specific wants or needs of customers will be reached effectively. The advertisement is blended between Rational appeals accorded to William.F.A, Michael.F.W and Christian Arens’s the broad category of appeals (2011, p.342), and Music appeals is mentioned by V.K.Reddy on Scribd (2012) Rational Appeals Music Appeals â€Å"Rational appeals are directed at customer’s practical, functional need for the product or service†. (William.F.A, Michael.F.W and Christian Arens, 2012, p.432). It means that the rational appeals emphasize the features and characteristics of the product or service to highlight the benefits of using the specific brand. When applying Rational appeals into the Nissan Leaf advertising, there is an increase in customers’ product understanding and credibility because they have a clear view and proper information as the ads might show the product’s operations and outstanding facilities to have a lively product-picture for customers. Besides, it offers an explanation of how it runs or other information such as the contact number, websites so that customers can evaluate quickly the product benefits According to V.K.Reddy on Scribd (2012), music has a certain intrinsic value and can help to increase the persuasiveness of the advertisement. It also helps to cap ture the attention and retention of customers. When Music appeals are used in the ads, customers can base on the melody as the product identification to recall the product. Music appeals in the ads should be gentle and emotional. 4.3 Advertising Executional Styles The advertising styles identification is an important work because it has a great influence on the customers’ perception. How do you convince customers to believe in the product during a few seconds of the advertisement? Therefore, the advertising styles are the impacted key to your success. In the Nissan Leaf advertisement, there are 2 advertising styles applied in to  express the product’s features: Lifestyle Demonstration As presented about Advertising and Execution Styles by Brandon Schuster on Slideshare (2011), â€Å"Lifestyle shows how well the product will fit in the customer’s lifestyle†. Based on the features of Lifestyle style, the Nissan Leaf ads create 2 conflicting worlds to makes customers imagine how the product is useful for them in their normal life, how it can impact on their driving habits. Thereby, customers can filter the product benefits leading to the decision Demonstration style is interactive way to advertise the product because customers will have opportunities to find out additional information after seeing the advertisement, thereby, the expected benefits are shown to customers. Applied in the Nissan Leaf, the demonstration style helps to show how the operating system runs, how to use the facilities and to charge safety the battery. 4.4 TV Commercial Storyboard The story starts with the scene of the up-down world space: The Down-World’s life is dark, has many dust and smoke, the citizens have to wear masks whereas; the Up-world is bright, peaceful and has lots of trees. The Down citizens always ask themselves: â€Å"Why can the Up create the beautiful world like that?† shown by the scene that the down citizens often look their face up. The music in this section is gentle and sophisticated. One day, a Down citizen find out a pipe to climb to the Up, he decides to find the answer. This scene is presented by his eye motions showing the seconds he was making decision with the faster beat music. After climbing, he is surprised by the wonderful Up world, especially, when he sees a car. He sits into the car and drives it. In these scenes, the character will perform how to use the car’s operating systems and other functions. The driving car speed is performed by the scene: when the car crosses a tree, it creates a gust of wind blew a leaf following to the car. At the end, he stops and charges the battery. The leaf falls in the Nissan symbol and the logo/ slogan of Nissan occurs. 4.5 Overview of Media There are varied media vehicles to advertise the product; however, each product needs to identify the specific media vehicles to maximize their advantages for the product features. The Nissan Leaf Advertisement uses 3 main media vehicles including print, electric media and social media. Firstly, magazines are used as the first consideration in terms of print media because it is the best medium to narrow down to selected markets and allows an advertiser to reach a particular target audience with a high-quality presentation. It is strategically placed to appeal the different interests. Secondly, TV as electric media has a mass power to cover and reach huge audiences quickly and frequently. Especially, Nissan Leaf is a new product for the Vietnam market, the TV impacts is the key to reach the customer’s attention. Therefore, it brings more opportunities to express the brand with personality and image. Finally, social media is a highly interactive vehicle to evaluate easily the cu stomer response. 5. Media plan The media plan of the campaign will spread over 3 months: February-March-April in 2013. In the first month of the launch period, the core media vehicles are used frequently to build the Nissan Leaf awareness and the customer’s retention. The third month will focus more on direct marketing activities to recall the Nissan Leaf. 5. Evaluation â€Å"Advertising is one of the largest costs in a company’s marketing budget. No wonder its effectiveness is a major concern!† (William.F.A, Michael.F.W and Christian Arens, 2011, p.234). In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the plan, testing is the important tool used to measure the advertising dollars is sent worthily. The evaluation is divided into 2 testing: pretesting and post-testing. Pretesting Post-testing Purpose: Estimate the reaction level of the target customers in the marketplace Time: January-2012 Method: Use a process called â€Å"Benefit testing†. As explained by William.F.A, Michael.F.W and Christian Arens (2011, p.235), The process is presenting the core product benefits to a group of customers in a focus group. Thereby, the  most persuasive or compelling benefits the group considers will be identified. Time: May-2013 Method: For electric media: Use â€Å"Advertising Tracking measurement† Collect Feedback from Feedback devices: toll-free numbers and Web addresses provided in ads so that the responses or redemptions can be made to estimate the impact of advertising media. Examine the rating of programmes For prints: base on â€Å"Tear-sheets†- Copy of the ads for verification purposes as indicated on Admedia (2007) 6. PR Tactics PR Tactics Description Supported aspect Press Releases The tool of publicity for the launch period. It is important to write effective news releases and submit them to editors so that they may publish in their publication. Serve to build the product awareness in the first days, increase the visibility of the brand, and may be an excellent way to find new potential customers for the Nissan Leaf Trade show Be organized before the media plan and interacts with it by inviting journalists to interview about the Nissan Leaf and write articles. By using press relationships, it can often lead to press coverage that money cannot buy. It is a highly visible action for participants and observers and helpful when needing to speak louder than words and to attract news media audiences Invite international organizations FFI (Fauna and Flora International) IUCN (International Union for Conversation of Nature) to support the Nissan Leaf image and cooperate during the launch period. Based on the reputation and credibility of these organizations, it helps to improve consumer perception of EVs as a whole  could be the most effective strategy given the perception positioning goals Sponsorship Be a sponsor of Go Green Club. Members of Go Green, will cycle in the third moth of the launch period This will attract other eco-friendly supporters. All of which fit into a good consumer niche for the Nissan Leaf. 7. Advertising’s role in Marketing Mix Advertising is one of the most important factors affecting directly for the success, therefore, the advertising plan plays a mass role in the marketing mix elements for the Nissan Leaf. 4P’s element Advertising Role in Product Product is the core element in the marketing mix because the market demand bases on the product’s utility and popularity. According to William.F.A, Michael.F.W and Christian Arens (2011, p.66), â€Å"An ad may not address a product’s quality directly, the positive image conveyed by advertising implies quality†. It means that advertising creates the added value for the Nissan Leaf. Especially, Nissan Leaf is a new product in the Vietnam car-market, advertising and PR activities as Trade Show are used to introduce and educate customers about it. Thereby, Advertising ensures the survival and success of the Nissan Leaf. Besides, Advertising and PR create demand for the Nissan Leaf because they spread information about the product and increases customers’ positive awareness through technological advances of the media and the power of press release. Price Buyers are always sensitive about the market price, therefore, â€Å"advertising has the effect of keeping prices down. That again serves the consumer’s self-interest†. (William.F.A, Michael.F.W and Christian Arens, 2011, p.66) Besides, according to William.F.A, Michael.F.W and Christian Arens, advertising and PR may attract many manufacturers to engage in mass production. Thereby, the unit cost for unit product may decrease leading the lower price. Place There are various channels of distribution including direct and indirect channels to deliver the Nissan Leaf to more markets. Especially in the large-scale distribution, advertising plays an important part in distributing process. It will maximize the areas where distribution is not to reach, ensure that smooth distribution of goods and keep customers well-informed. Promotion When implementing the marketing mix, the Nissan Leaf will introduce sales promotion campaign to capture the target audience and potential customers. PR and advertising are instruments of Sales promotions so that customers may update, be informed on the sales promotions. 8. Conclusion Nissan Leaf provides electric cars which are targeted to the Vietnamese women market with purpose of building the Nissan Leaf awareness for Vietnamese customers and convincing them to change their driving habits by purchasing them. The goal of advertising plan in 3 months is promoting the Vietnamese car market for Nissan Leaf and aiming to persuade women consumers by an advertising image for Nissan Leaf as a zero-emission product that can bring many significant health benefits as well as fine state. References: 1. Nissan Global (2011). Nissan Leaf. [Online] 2011. Available from: http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/NISSAN/LEAF/ [Accessed: November, 17th, 2011] 2. Tienphong (2012). Thá »â€¹ trÆ °Ã¡ » ng à ´ tà ´ Ä‘ang là ª lá º ¿t leo dá »â€˜c. [Online] October, 9th, 2012. Available from: http://www.tienphong.vn/xe/594690/Thi-truong-o-to-dang-le-let-leo-doc-tpov.html [Accessed: November, 17th, 2011] Translation: Tienphong (2012). The automotive market is increasing uphill. [Online] October, 9th, 2012. Available from: http://www.tienphong.vn/xe/594690/Thi-truong-o-to-dang-le-let-leo-doc-tpov.html [Accessed: November, 17th, 2011] 3. Dantri (2011). Thá »â€¹ trÆ °Ã¡ » ng à ´ tà ´ Má » ¹ nÄÆ'm 2011: Xe nhá »  là ªn ngà ´i. [Online] December, 26th, 2011.