The B2B marketing when it comes to the Nissan Leaf is being directed mostly towards rental car companies.
The first company that came into their marketing circle was Zip Car. The appeal of the car was immediate due to the fact of the great milage and of the actual cost of maintaining the car when in their fleet.
Another important client in the US have been corporations looking to add benefits to their employees in the form of tax deductible incentives towards the purchase of a Clean Air car. For example in California, Evernote is offering $250 towards such a vehicle. For californians, the advantage of having an electric car derives from being able to use the HOV lane and significantly cutting down your commute time.

In New York, Mayor Bloomberg and Nissan have joined together in creating the taxi of tomorrow. Based on the concept of the Leaf but adapted for the street of NYC. Here are some videos presenting the new B2B concept especially developed for the city of NY.

According to Nissan, the average Nissan Leaf owner is a young Baby Boomer, at around 45 years old.

His average income is 125.000 dollars a year and he owns his own home and has at least one garage space reserved for recharging their electric car at night. He has a college education and his daily comute is around 50 miles a day.

When it comes to the customization that they preffer, the model that most customers preffer is around 35.000 dollars and includes an all electric panel on top to provide electricity for when the car is parked and using the ac or the radio.

The Nissan Leaf`s biggest target segment is among the Baby Boomers who already own an electric or hybrid vehicle and are looking for a more eco friendly version then their Toyota Prius or Honda Insight. Nissan Leaf is the car that best appeals to a client that feels the need to become even more greener.

The process of developing the Nissan Leaf was presented in the form of the Nissan Altra in 1997. The Altra EV was produced for four years, time in which only 200 vehicles were produced and their main customer was companies that needed fleet vehicles such as electric utilities.
After the Altra, the Hypermini was another vehicle produced by Nissan. It was sold only to government agencies.
After that in 2009, the EV 11 was the first prototype created by Nissan based on the Nissan Versa.
It featured a all electric drive train and it had a 100 miles range. After its successful test marketing the Nissan EV 11 started to be produced and sold as the Nissan Leaf.
On the introductory stage, the Nissan Leaf had a hard time coming to become a success. In the first two years sales of the Nissan Leaf barely topped 50.000 units sold. The years to come, due to aggressive marketing and strategic partnerships, the Nissan Leaf started to reach is growth stage. The car is now in its maturity and the idea of the electric car and the Nissan Leaf is very closely related.

For the marketing communications, Nissan uses all elements as part of their promotional mix:

Advertising : Being that is a new product, the Nissan Leaf has been very strongly advertised by Nissan. The advertising campaigns included magazine, bilboards and TV ads, being the nature of the product.
Here are some examples of it :

When it comes to the Nissan Leaf the car is the product of my blog.
The Nissan Leaf fits in the category of speciality product. In the buying part of this product: research and habit are two important elements. When it comes to advertising , Nissan uses precise advertising to keep a product image.

For the Nissan Leaf, the product line is limited due to the fact that is a speciality product. The options that are available are related to the consumer preference profile and include color and interior specifications.
The Nissan Leaf`s product line extension includes applications and web designated games.

The Nissan Leaf is an example of co-branding . It benefits from two names : Nissan and Leaf. These two names form a trademark.
Included with the Nissan Leaf there is a included warranty of 100.000 miles or 10 years as well as  a 5 year warranty for the battery.

Example of the branding:

For sampling, "The Test and Drive" is one of the examples that Nissan as a corporation uses to promote their cars in general. The Nissan Leaf was also offered at college campuses as part of their sampling campaign. Being that is such a novelty product for their entire category of cars by sampling the Nissan executives are trying to attract the focus of environmentally friendly persons towards the electric alternative.

Point of purchase is being used by Nissan by promotional materials supplied to the car dealers that feature the Nissan Leaf. They include everything from billboards to brochures and magazines.


For their personal selling, Nissan uses the seven steps in the following manner:

Nissan uses newspaper and online advertising to generate their leads. The qualifying leads are represented by individual sales persons that approach you and are starting to find out their specific needs and see if the Nissan Leaf is a good fit. The solution are developed and proposed at the time of the initial sales meeting as well as the objections being handled. The closing of the sale is made usually at the same time after the negatiation is completed. The following up is done mostly via emails and letters trough the post office.

Nissan Leaf advertising and public relations are based on the major idea of green driving and the advantage that an electric car will bring to its owner and the environment as well.

The commercials that Nissan is bringing to us are directed to the person that already has or is considering moving to an alternative source of energy vehicle.
As seen in my previous post, "hugging the environment" is the main theme throughout the campaign that they have in 2013.
The Nissan Leaf`s advertising is now between the pioneering and the competitive stage of the ad. They are promoting the advantages of this new product as well as presenting the difference to their main competitor the Toyota Prius.

As far as PR, the Nissan as an corporation is sponsoring races in the Formula 1 and Formula 3000 and being a part of other sports. They are structured per regions being that their business is multi national.