Infiniti hires new marketing chief to help achieve lofty sales goals

5787 Views 11 Replies 6 Participants Last post by foreverJX, Sep 3, 2013

mr.smith

Discussion Starter · Aug 16, 2013

As Infiniti pushes hard to move its brand upmarket, it has plucked a new marketing chief from Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Vincent Gillet will move from his native France to Infiniti's new HQ in Hong Kong next month.

He will have a lot of work to do in order to reach Infiniti's goal of moving 500,000 units each year by mid-2017. That would give Infiniti a 10 percent market share of the global luxury market. That is a tall order for a brand that sold 170,000 vehicles in the last fiscal year.

Are these goals realistic???

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InfinitiFan

· #2 · Aug 16, 2013

Thats a lot of vehicles to move, not sure how they will do it but they will need a lot of creative marketing especially the type that gets people really involved.

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mr.smith

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 16, 2013

InfinitiFan said:
Thats a lot of vehicles to move, not sure how they will do it but they will need a lot of creative marketing especially the type that gets people really involved.

You mean all this social media marketing stuff that car companies are trying now?

I feel like Infiniti's brand reputation is improving. They are having success at moving the brand upmarket. I am just not sure that they can move upmarket quite that fast.

With plenty of new models on the horizon, if the models are successful, Infiniti should see huge sales growth. I will be very impressed if they reach their goal though. It is not impossible, but Infiniti is aiming high.

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SameButDifferent

· #4 · Aug 19, 2013

Is the whole of the strategy to improve sales just releasing more and more models? I am no expert on auto industry sales strategies; I'm just wondering what else Infiniti can do to increase sales besides putting a lot of work into its new models. I guess advertising, but is that it? Advertising and new models?

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mr.smith

Discussion Starter · #5 · Aug 20, 2013

SameButDifferent said:
Is the whole of the strategy to improve sales just releasing more and more models? I am no expert on auto industry sales strategies; I'm just wondering what else Infiniti can do to increase sales besides putting a lot of work into its new models. I guess advertising, but is that it? Advertising and new models?

I think Infiniti has also been trying to train its sales staff better at dealerships. They always rank lower than BMW for shopping experience when JD Power does its little studies.

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SameButDifferent

· #6 · Aug 26, 2013

mr.smith said:
I think Infiniti has also been trying to train its sales staff better at dealerships. They always rank lower than BMW for shopping experience when JD Power does its little studies.

The new models and the sales experience are both lack luster. This does not bode well for Lincoln. I really hope that the brand does something to change my mind soon. i want to like Lincoln, it just doesn't make it very easy to do so.

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AndrewC

· #7 · Aug 26, 2013

SameButDifferent said:
The new models and the sales experience are both lack luster. This does not bode well for Lincoln. I really hope that the brand does something to change my mind soon. i want to like Lincoln, it just doesn't make it very easy to do so.

apparently the next Lincoln MKS will look like this...

i'll be really impressed if Lincoln can actually do that. The side profile alone reminds me of an Audi A8

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mr.smith

Discussion Starter · #8 · Aug 28, 2013

AndrewC said:
apparently the next Lincoln MKS will look like this...

i'll be really impressed if Lincoln can actually do that. The side profile alone reminds me of an Audi A8

That is looking better than the MKZ. Wishing the best to Lincoln all the time. It would be great if they could make a comeback, but even their own execs say that a comeback is a good 10 years off minimum. Infiniti is doing a much better job at lifting up their brand than Lincoln is.

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AndrewC

· #9 · Aug 28, 2013

mr.smith said:
That is looking better than the MKZ. Wishing the best to Lincoln all the time. It would be great if they could make a comeback, but even their own execs say that a comeback is a good 10 years off minimum. Infiniti is doing a much better job at lifting up their brand than Lincoln is.

it sure does the one thing killing the MKZ are it's headlights, having squared headlights as seen on the MKS is the way to go. not sure what they were thinking with these lights....

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mr.smith

Discussion Starter · #10 · Aug 30, 2013

AndrewC said:
it sure does the one thing killing the MKZ are it's headlights, having squared headlights as seen on the MKS is the way to go. not sure what they were thinking with these lights....

The whole front grille headlight combination doesn't do it for me. I am not liking the whale tail / wings grille design. It amazes me that some cars turn out so ugly. Don't they have focus groups to prevent this sort of thing from happening?

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QxSixty

· #11 · Aug 30, 2013

mr.smith said:
The whole front grille headlight combination doesn't do it for me. I am not liking the whale tail / wings grille design. It amazes me that some cars turn out so ugly. Don't they have focus groups to prevent this sort of thing from happening?

meanwhile the rear end is a whole different story, it's shocking to see how this car goes from really ugly in the front to flawless in the rear:

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foreverJX

· #12 · Sep 3, 2013

they hired a marketing director from the hotel industry? erhm..

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