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Credit for Qashqai
New name for Dualis may revive memories of Tiida gambit, but Nissan claims market acceptance is in the bagNissan says its decision to adopt the global name 'Qashqai' for the successor to its steady-selling Dualis SUV will not cause any ripples in the local market.
Chris Jordan, the Corporate Communications Supervisor at Nissan Australia, told motoring.com.au earlier this month that market research favours the Qashqai name for Australia.
"With the last car – Dualis – we were one of the few markets in the world – one of only a handful – to use that name. Everyone else had 'Qashqai'," Jordan explained.
"So this time around, going to the all-new model in quarter three of next year, we've had the opportunity to discuss the nameplate, and also discuss with markets such as New Zealand and also the UK, where the car is made – both English speaking markets – and get their feedback on the 'Qashqai' nameplate; how it resonated with consumers and dealers..."
The "really positive feedback" from the market research has encouraged Nissan Australia to get "on the same page as everyone else," as Jordan explained it.
According to the Nissan spokesman, the decision to migrate to the Qashqai name was made before former Nissan Australia MD, Bill Peffer, left the company to pursue interests back in the USA. Peffer, Jordan says, was right behind the name change.
Australia has been out of step with the UK and New Zealand; the current model has been marketed as 'Qashqai' in both those countries since the model's inception.
"Of all the major markets around the world... the only two to use 'Dualis' were Japan and Australia," said Jordan, who couldn't confirm, however, that the 'Dualis' name is being retired for good. But over a number of years Nissan and other Japanese manufacturers have been embarked on a program to reduce model names to just a few with global reach, so it seems possible the Japanese market model may be renamed 'Qashqai' also.
Jordan says that the existence of the Internet has been a motivating force for global branding and model names.
"Each market has got its own specification and its own tastes and trends, but something as massive as the Internet – it does help for everyone to be calling the car the same thing. It does help in global group buying activity, in terms of [web] search and ranking...
"It also gives us the opportunity to tap in a lot more to some of the global assets available – be it advertising, point-of-sale [marketing], and even makes it a lot neater for us to collaborate with other regions for things as simple as events...
"It doesn't have to be a steadfast rule to be a global nameplate all the time, but where it makes sense, it does get everyone on the same page and allow each market to leverage off the other, in terms of the nameplate."
Ready acceptance of the new name will be important for Nissan Australia. As a completely new model in 2008, the Dualis was slow to pick up sales. For the first full year on sale it notched up fewer than 2600 cars, but last year the Dualis sold over 13,000 examples.
Changing to a new name is tantamount to introducing an altogether new model – which the Qashgai effectively is anyway, being a successor to the car it replaces. It's often the name carried over that's the only way to ensure sales won't suffer during the interim period as the importer runs out one model and introduces the next. The last time Nissan tried to switch buyers from one generation of car with an evocative name to a follow-up model with an exotic name, it ended in tears. When Tiida replaced the N16 Pulsar in 2006, it was replacing a car that had sold just short of 20,000 units in 2004 and nearly 18,000 in its runout year, 2005. Even now, more people recognise and remember 'Pulsar' than 'Tiida'.
Last year sales of the Tiida had dwindled to just over 3000 units for the full 12 months. From the moment the Tiida was launched, sales of Nissan's small car campaigner began to slide from the Pulsar's previous levels.
Throughout its six-year history the Tiida was dogged by issues with its styling, its driveability, its infamous TV commercial campaign at launch and its quirky name. Those issues – and new rivals entering the market – had flattened Tiida sales like an avalanche.
For the 10 months of the year to date, Tiida's replacement (named Pulsar once more) has sold 11,703 units. By the end of the year the Pulsar will have sold more than four times as many cars as the Tiida did last year.
So if, similarly, Qashqai fails to ignite the public's imagination in Australia, what's the chance we'll see Nissan return to the Dualis name for the third-generation model?
Not much, it seems. Jordan says that the situation for Qashqai is markedly different from the Tiida story.
"Two key differences from that [Tiida] scenario to this one: Firstly, we've been able to speak to everyone all around the world – particularly those two markets mentioned, New Zealand and the UK, both English-speaking markets [with] similar trends to us in a lot of ways.
"We've been able to get a lot of learnings from them, in terms of how they've ceded that name plate out – communications with dealers, communications above the line in advertising. So we're already armed with a lot of information for this nameplate in markets that are English-speaking like ours.
"The second thing too – with this one – is that if you've got a really good product, a really strong product, that's a great starting point. And we really believe in this product. That gives us a lot of confidence as well."
The clear implication is that global market research conducted at the time for the Tiida nameplate was irrelevant to the Australian market – and local research wasn't convincing enough to persuade Nissan's head office to accept the prevailing view at Nissan Australia, and allow the Pulsar nameplate to remain the model name for the locally-delivered cars. Furthermore, Jordan's comments also hint that the Tiida wasn't a sufficiently strong product, in contrast with the last of the N16 Pulsars.
So could the Tiida name have worked if affixed to a better car?
"I think it's a combination of factors in the sale of any car. I don't think that one factor's always going to override the other; you need to be ticking three or four boxes – in terms of any launch.
"I couldn't speak directly to the Tiida nameplate scenario, given it was so long ago – it was eight years ago. But I guess they're the two differences; I guess you can read into that what you will."
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Written byKen Gratton
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