Question

:  Infiniti decided to use Formula One car racing (F1) sponsorship to increase their brand awareness.  Top management at Infinity knew upfront that increasing market share in a global market would not be easy, especially in a highly competitive market segment such as luxury cars.  Infiniti decided to embark on an aggressive global growth strategy driven by new products, market expansion and a globally consistent brand image.  It created a marketing strategy aimed to improve awareness of the brand and highlight the superiority of its products.

Infinity was originally set up in the U.S. in 1989 by its Japanese parent, Nissan Motor Company, to produce luxury performance cars, coupes, crossovers and SUVs.  It’s brand promise became “Inspired Performance”.  The brand promise represents the benefits a consumer can expect from a particular brand.  For Infinity, the ethos of ‘modern luxury’ is at the heart of everything it does.

The luxury car market is highly competitive.  As Infiniti was a relatively new entrant into this market, it required an innovative and creative leadership strategy to create global awareness of the brand and its promise.  (International marketing is the process of identifying and anticipating customer wants and needs – across different national markets – each with unique national cultures.)  For Infiniti, Formula One (F1) became a key element of this creative strategy to build global brand awareness. Infiniti’s leadership selected the (Infiniti) Red Bull Racing F1 team and World F1 Champion driver Sebastian Vettel to be the face of Infiniti’s branding campaign.

Leading the Effort to Build the Brand: Infiniti’s senior management team decided to use a combination of ‘Above the Line’ and ‘Below the Line’ marketing tactics to help globalize the brand.  The above the line promotions included printed advertisements in magazines and newspapers – both trade and consumer, TV, radio, cinema advertising; as well as online advertising and websites (management directed that the websites be tailored for each geographical market).  They also used; billboards by roadsides and in airports.  

This form of promotion reaches a wide audience and is an effective way of creating brand awareness. Infiniti’s senior leadership used global TV ads to highlight the superiority of its products.  However, this form of promotion proved very costly, and it was difficult to target likely customers precisely as the messages are pushed to a mass audience.  It was also difficult to measure the results of their mass media promotion, since the increasing popularity of TV formats such as Sky enables many TV views to fast forward through, and skip, the TV ads.  They decided to use two different types of ads. One, Informative Advertising – designed to increase brand awareness; and two, Persuasive Advertising designed to convince consumers to purchase their products by highlighting the features that made it more desirable than other cars.  For example, Infiniti’s website and TV ads highlighted the vehicles’ key differentiators of design and performance.  

Prior to each F1 Grand Prix (GP), Infiniti ran promotional ad campaigns designed to create maximum exposure and brand recognition amongst consumers.  For example, management decided to use vintage F1 posters in a campaign to highlight the attributes of each particular race track and how Infiniti’s technologies and design would benefit the driver.   

To further expose the brand, Infiniti also used a series of ‘below-the-line’ promotions.  These were narrower and more targeted approaches.  Infiniti management decided these methods would allow for more control and could be tailored to create deeper engagement with their target audiences through specific initiatives.  They used; Public Relations, Sponsorship, Hospitality, Merchandising and Social Media (Facebook and YouTube).  Infiniti used this to support its sponsorship of Red Bull Racing, and underpinned it by using three-time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel’s work as Infiniti’s global brand ambassador, (his personal car is an Infinity FX50).  He used his experience and passion for cars, working with Infiniti to design the Infiniti FX Vettel Edition, which was unveiled at the Frankfurt, Germany Motor Show – directly attacking in Audi and BMW in their home country.   Management also employed the use of; press conferences, media events, and company visits.  This included a journalist hosting a program throughout the year at Grand Prix races and a Sebastian Vettel media driving day in China.  They also ran a test-drive campaign and gave consumers a chance to drive the cars and ran incentives for salesmen and dealers to win Grand Prix race tickets.  

Conclusion:  It is important for Infiniti senior management to find the right balance for its marketing and communications mix. By integrating these elements, they ensured brand linkage with their target markets.  Never satisfied, senior management at Infiniti decided to perform a ‘post-mortem’, after the fact review of how much success their actions had.  They reviewed press cuttings, evaluated their exposure from their TV ads, and evaluated the exposure that their partnership with Red Bull Racing had created.  They had an independent survey conducted which gave a report on the exposure created on a race-by-race basis. They found out that since the partnership first started the visibility of the brand in Formula One had risen from zero to fourth in 2011, and second in 2012, with Red Bull being consistently the most visible brand.  They then reviewed exposure at each different race.  For example, at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Infinity had a 7.9% market share of exposure among all sponsors, and in this race, it was measured at the top car with 43.1%, which yielded the greatest TV coverage of the brand’s logo.  Management then reviewed this data to try to increase exposure in the following race.  

Finally, to ensure the impartiality, Infiniti senior management contracted for independent surveys from OMD Global Snapshots which demonstrated; a 30% uplift in consumer perception over just one racing season, and increased consideration to visit an Infiniti dealership 27% globally.

Case Study Questions:

(NOTE: If you need more space, use the other side of this page.)

1. Discuss and evaluate the global branding leadership decisions that Infiniti made.  Backup your answer with facts and/or examples from the case study.

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2. What else, if anything, do you believe Infiniti senior management could have made to improve their global brand awareness initiative

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3. Discuss some of the PLANNING actions senior management took during this process, give specific examples to support your arguments.

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4. Discuss some of the ORGANIZING actions senior management took during this process, give specific examples to support your arguments.

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5. Discuss some of the LEADING actions senior management took during this process, give specific examples to support your arguments.

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Answer 1

QUESTION 1 ) Discuss and evaluate the global branding leadership decisions that Infiniti made.  Backup your answer with facts and/or examples from the case study.

ANS : Infiniti decided to use Formula One car racing (F1) sponsorship to increase their brand awareness.  Top management at Infinity knew upfront that increasing market share in a global market would not be easy, especially in a highly competitive market segment such as luxury cars.  Infiniti decided to embark on an aggressive global growth strategy driven by new products, market expansion and a globally consistent brand image. Infinity was originally set up in the U.S. in 1989 by its Japanese parent, Nissan Motor Company, to produce luxury performance car .The luxury car market is highly competitive.  As Infiniti was a relatively new entrant into this market, it required an innovative and creative leadership strategy to create global awareness of the brand and its promise.

Infiniti’s leadership selected the (Infiniti) Red Bull Racing F1 team and World F1 Champion driver Sebastian Vettel to be the face of Infiniti’s branding campaign. To Build the Brand: Infiniti’s senior management team decided to use a combination of ‘Above the Line’ and ‘Below the Line’ marketing tactics to help globalize the brand.  The above the line promotions included printed advertisements in magazines and newspapers – both trade and consumer, TV, radio, cinema advertising; as well as online advertising and websites (management directed that the websites be tailored for each geographical market).  They also used; billboards by roadsides and in airports.Infiniti also used a series of ‘below-the-line’ promotions.  These were narrower and more targeted approaches.  They used; Public Relations, Sponsorship, Hospitality, Merchandising and Social Media (Facebook and YouTube).

QUESTION 2 ) What else, if anything, do you believe Infiniti senior management could have made to improve their global brand awareness initiative

ANS : Infinity senior management could have Reach their brand's target audience within the world's largest professional community like Professional conversations thrive on LinkedIn.Place their brand at the center of the action & a professional environment. Now these days companies are under the spotlight like never before as they struggle for competitive advantage in the context of this reality. Their customers aren’t just making decisions based on the stalwarts of product selection or price. They’re now assessing what a brand says. What it does. What it stands for.

Consumers’ expectations that brands align with their personal values is a challenge for companies that underestimated the bottom-line impact of neglecting to stand for something bigger than what they sell. Or falsely believed they could avoid taking a position on hot-button issues.But these expectations for brand alignment also present an opening for companies to demonstrate their competitive agility. The opportunity lies in building more authentic and profitable relationships with customers. Meaningful relationships that shift the customer dialogue from “give ME what I want” to “support the ideals WE believe in.” Long-lasting relationships grounded in a common purpose and built around a collective sense of brand belonging. Authentic relationships based on an affinity to brands that do more than just make money.

QUESTION 3 ) Discuss some of the PLANNING actions senior management took during this process, give specific examples to support your arguments.

ANS : Infiniti’s senior leadership used global TV ads to highlight the superiority of its products.  However, this form of promotion proved very costly, and it was difficult to target likely customers precisely as the messages are pushed to a mass audience.  It was also difficult to measure the results of their mass media promotion, since the increasing popularity of TV formats such as Sky enables many TV views to fast forward through, and skip, the TV ads.  They decided to use two different types of ads. One, Informative Advertising – designed to increase brand awareness; and two, Persuasive Advertising designed to convince consumers to purchase their products by highlighting the features that made it more desirable than other cars.  For example, Infiniti’s website and TV ads highlighted the vehicles’ key differentiators of design and performance. Prior to each F1 Grand Prix (GP), Infiniti ran promotional ad campaigns designed to create maximum exposure and brand recognition amongst consumers.  For example, management decided to use vintage F1 posters in a campaign to highlight the attributes of each particular race track and how Infiniti’s technologies and design would benefit the driver.

QUESTION 4 ) Discuss some of the ORGANIZING actions senior management took during this process, give specific examples to support your arguments.

ANS : Prior to each F1 Grand Prix (GP), Infiniti ran promotional ad campaigns designed to create maximum exposure and brand recognition amongst consumers.  For example, management decided to use vintage F1 posters in a campaign to highlight the attributes of each particular race track and how Infiniti’s technologies and design would benefit the driver. Further to promote they organized & used Public Relations, Sponsorship, Hospitality, Merchandising and Social Media (Facebook and YouTube).  Infiniti used this to support its sponsorship of Red Bull Racing, and underpinned it by using three-time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel’s work as Infiniti’s global brand ambassador, (his personal car is an Infinity FX50).  He used his experience and passion for cars, working with Infiniti to design the Infiniti FX Vettel Edition, which was unveiled at the Frankfurt, Germany Motor Show – directly attacking in Audi and BMW in their home country.  

Management also employed the use of; press conferences, media events, and company visits.  This included a journalist hosting a program throughout the year at Grand Prix races and a Sebastian Vettel media driving day in China.  They also ran a test-drive campaign and gave consumers a chance to drive the cars and ran incentives for salesmen and dealers to win Grand Prix race tickets.  

QUESTION 5 ) Discuss some of the LEADING actions senior management took during this process, give specific examples to support your arguments.

ANS :

It is important for Infiniti senior management to find the right balance for its marketing and communications mix. By integrating these elements, they ensured brand linkage with their target markets.  Never satisfied, senior management at Infiniti decided to perform a ‘post-mortem’, after the fact review of how much success their actions had. They reviewed press cuttings, evaluated their exposure from their TV ads, and evaluated the exposure that their partnership with Red Bull Racing had created.  They had an independent survey conducted which gave a report on the exposure created on a race-by-race basis.

They found out that since the partnership first started the visibility of the brand in Formula One had risen from zero to fourth in 2011, and second in 2012, with Red Bull being consistently the most visible brand.  They then reviewed exposure at each different race. For example, at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Infinity had a 7.9% market share of exposure among all sponsors, and in this race, it was measured at the top car with 43.1%, which yielded the greatest TV coverage of the brand’s logo.  Management then reviewed this data to try to increase exposure in the following race.  Finally, to ensure the impartiality, Infiniti senior management contracted for independent surveys from OMD Global Snapshots which demonstrated; a 30% uplift in consumer perception over just one racing season, and increased consideration to visit an Infiniti dealership 27% globally.