RE: Nissan Takes Aim At German Sports Cars

[a11y_m]

That's just really poor advertising IMO.

This is much better advertising IMO, from a couple of years ago: http://www.bmwblog.com/2009/04/13/billboards-war-b...

[TheOrangePeril]

Johnny Drama said:

This type of campaign is hardly new, car manufacturers have been doing it for decades. Look beneath the attention grabbing straplines and you will find the claims are always based on fact (however trivial they may be).
Anybody remember the 80's billboard campaign for the MG Maestro claiming 'The Golf GTI will be along in a second'? I suspect there weren't many potential Golf buyers that were won over by the fact that the Maestro was a second quicker to 60 as it was inferior in all other respects.
Now, I'm not comparing the 370Z or GTR to the MG Maestro but I wonder what prospective buyers of German marques will make of the Nissan campaign

Apart from the fact that the MG was more spacious, better equipped, with more comfortable seats and better visibility... Sounds like the modern Golf GTI ethos to me!

[Dave_ST220]

TheOrangePeril said:

Johnny Drama said:

This type of campaign is hardly new, car manufacturers have been doing it for decades. Look beneath the attention grabbing straplines and you will find the claims are always based on fact (however trivial they may be).
Anybody remember the 80's billboard campaign for the MG Maestro claiming 'The Golf GTI will be along in a second'? I suspect there weren't many potential Golf buyers that were won over by the fact that the Maestro was a second quicker to 60 as it was inferior in all other respects.
Now, I'm not comparing the 370Z or GTR to the MG Maestro but I wonder what prospective buyers of German marques will make of the Nissan campaign

Apart from the fact that the MG was more spacious, better equipped, with more comfortable seats and better visibility... Sounds like the modern Golf GTI ethos to me!

My first car was a Meastro, an utter turd of a car, to this day I do not know what came over me buying such a stbox. Thankfully I only had the thing for 6 months, the final straw was one freezing cold winters morning where I spent half an hour chipping ice of it, I proceeded to use the wipers to clear the screen and it fking blew its fuse. I biked to work.

[jamcam23]

I doubt anyone at Nissan Japan actually came up with this, most of the advertising is done by a couple of London based agencies, who probably have the accounts for BMW, Audi and Porsche. At the end of the day, it's marketing for all of the companies involved. As they say, there's no such thing as bad press..

[Skylinecrazy]

VWNutta1985 said:

. As a VAG owner, all I can say nothing else compares to the design of german cars

[Dave200]

jamcam23 said:

I doubt anyone at Nissan Japan actually came up with this, most of the advertising is done by a couple of London based agencies, who probably have the accounts for BMW, Audi and Porsche. At the end of the day, it's marketing for all of the companies involved. As they say, there's no such thing as bad press..

Exactly this. However, it would have been signed off by someone senior (Marketing Director or MD) at Nissan GB.
It is this agency's job to get people talking about the campaign and the brand, and it has succeeded. For me, it's a bit of a no-brainer campaign - hit the affluent types who have £30-something-thousand to spend on a new coupe, and challenge their brand sector preconceptions. It's certainly nothing new, that's for sure.
The bigger campaign itself is old news:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/05/porsch...

For those claiming any kind of anti-marque defamation, can you please point out which bit is either untrue, or directly offensive to Porsche or Audi?

[300bhp/ton]

Dave_ST220 said:

TheOrangePeril said:

Johnny Drama said:

This type of campaign is hardly new, car manufacturers have been doing it for decades. Look beneath the attention grabbing straplines and you will find the claims are always based on fact (however trivial they may be).
Anybody remember the 80's billboard campaign for the MG Maestro claiming 'The Golf GTI will be along in a second'? I suspect there weren't many potential Golf buyers that were won over by the fact that the Maestro was a second quicker to 60 as it was inferior in all other respects.
Now, I'm not comparing the 370Z or GTR to the MG Maestro but I wonder what prospective buyers of German marques will make of the Nissan campaign

Apart from the fact that the MG was more spacious, better equipped, with more comfortable seats and better visibility... Sounds like the modern Golf GTI ethos to me!

My first car was a Meastro, an utter turd of a car, to this day I do not know what came over me buying such a stbox. Thankfully I only had the thing for 6 months, the final straw was one freezing cold winters morning where I spent half an hour chipping ice of it, I proceeded to use the wipers to clear the screen and it fking blew its fuse. I biked to work.

A fuse going was enough to get rid?

I can't comment on your car. My cheapy used 2.0 EFI Maestro was fab. Only the leccy fan packing up (£10-15 to replace from scrappy) was the only issue and it was used and heavily abused. It went off road, would carry 5, had a good boot, was comfy and still able to out drag a modded 2.9 litre V6 XR4x4.

[collateral]

Johnny Drama said:

rallyman77 said:

Imo, this absolutely unecessary. Simply if you have a better car (or build in our case) there is no need for the aggro.

Can you imagine if everyone started advertising their cars like this:

'Our car is better than a Yugo, Moskvich, Lada and a Dacia?'

Exactly. Marketing straight from the school playground and I'd be amazed if the German marques sunk to Nissan's level in retaliation.

If I were a marketer at Nissan I'd slash the agency spend (they deserve it coming up with st like this anyway) and try to persuade the men at the top to use the savings to knock several grand off the 370Z RRP. A greater price differentiation would lure many of the badge snobs away IF the cars are so dynamically similar.

As something of a niche product, the GTR already represents stupendously good value and I can't see why Nissan feel the need to 'promote' it in this way.

I like the Nissan approach more than BMW - just loaded up their site to see "JOY WANTS YOU TO HAVE IT ALL THE NEW BMW X3." What?

Maybe Nissan should just increase their prices to German levels, thus making it okay to like them and vacuous knobs could boast about owning a 'nisser' to their ilk at cocktail parties

eta I'd rather car ads quoted actual performance data than fluffy lifestyle dross/music videos with a price at the end

Edited by collateral on Thursday 22 July 15:16

[kbf1981]

The Cayman is a better car.

It's more expensive, but you're buying a luxury item. If you need to save money on it, it's not a luxury.

[soad]

Saw "The Germans Came Off Worst" billboard poster this morning

Red GT-R looks immense in it.

[kambites]

soad said:

Red GT-R looks immense in it.

They are immense. Somehow pictures can't convey quite how big the GTR looks when you see one on the road.

[Dagnut]

THe 370z for all its merits is not doing very well..I doubt this campaign will endear it to many buyers.
I love Nissans always have, don't want to get into a Jap V german debate it's a pointless waste of energy, but this campaign is just a complete waste of money.

[Frimley111R]

hardmouse1 said:

Well I’m sure in this country you can’t slag off other named companies, unless it factual data.....

My personal opinion, The build quality of Audi, BMW or Porsche etc.. is allot better than any Nissan!!! (and yes i do own an Audi lol)

Its all in the wording. What is 'better' meant to mean exactly? You can slag off other cars but there's a gentlemen's agreement that no-one does. However every so often someone does. Remember Daewoo and their tables on the back of mags showing the equipment list of their cars compared to the Escort, Astra, etc.?

[sanctum]

I personally hate this kind of negative marketing and it makes me significantly less likely to buy a 370z or GT-R in the future. I must be in a minority though or the marketing gurus wouldn't propose it...

[collateral]

As it happens, Evo recently did a roadster comparison of the z4 35, TTSwhatever and 370z. Guess which one they said was the best drive (despite it even being slushmatic)?

[Animal]

ctallchris said:

kambites said:

Really? I'd be interested to see if reliability statistics back that up.

WhatCar said:

What Car? reliability survey

Nissan 7th out of 32
Porsche 15th out of 32
Volkswagen 19th out of 32
BMW 23rd out of 32
Audi 25th out of 32

The 350Z coupé was Nissan’s most reliable model, with just 12 faults per 100 cars.
Audi RS6 71 Faults per 100 cars

German cars aren't reliable this is no longer the 80's

Edited by ctallchris on Thursday 22 July 13:51

Utter cobblers. My 350Z has at least 13 identifiable faults!

[300bhp/ton]

sanctum said:

I personally hate this kind of negative marketing and it makes me significantly less likely to buy a 370z or GT-R in the future. I must be in a minority though or the marketing gurus wouldn't propose it...

Maybe, maybe not. But if you weren't ever likely to buy one anyway, then have they lost anything?

[Galsia]

Its just a shame that the 370Z is so damn ugly...

[peterpeter]

seems a bit silly really from Nissan UK.

The car is good enough not to need negative campaigning

[collateral]

I guess it depends on your definition of negative.

You could see it as a cheeky slogan and some statements of fact