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.