AutoTalk.com was given a chance to speak with Nissan/Infiniti EVP Brain Palmer during the 2012 NYIAS. Here is a transcription of our meeting. Brain is a quick witted and genial Brit with a sharp mind and pleasant disposition.
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Andy Palmer is Executive Vice President and Executive Committee member at Nissan Motor Company Limited, with specific responsibilities for Nissan’s Corporate Planning, Product Planning and Program Management, Global Marketing Communications, Market Intelligence, Global IS/IT and Global Infiniti Business Unit.
For more information about Andy Palmer can be found here.
AutoTalk: Good afternoon, Sir. Thanks for taking the time to meet with me.
Andy: Please, don’t call me sir. I haven’t yet been knighted, and it is my pleasure.
AutoTalk: Let us get started then.
Andy: Let’s.
AutoTalk: The new JX is a very important vehicle for Infiniti. How did this vehicle come to be, and what market is being targeted?
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Andy: Product planning is always looking at the white paper and all of the axis, and you look at what your customers are doing. Where the opportunities lie, where the competition is, and the trick with the product planning is to always look where there is the white space. In the case of Infiniti, the demographics of our brand are generally younger than the majority of mainstream luxury. That holds true in the US but it is also especially true outside the US. So often an Infiniti customer is in a life stage where they have a family. So kind of the natural conclusion is that rather than losing them from the brand, why not put something there that is very much a luxury family vehicle. Maybe their first entrance into the brand is a G, or perhaps in the future it will be the entry-level Infiniti from the Etherea Concpet. Then as they get kids and go through that life stage, they could move into the JX, and then you would expect them to move back into an FX or maybe an M depending on their life stage. SO it was basically that thought that steered the opportunity, and clearly for us it is completely incremental. We don’t have anything in that space today, there is no cannibalization, so it is purely conquest, and initial reaction is very very positive.
AutoTalk: In reference to Infiniti having younger buyers. Infiniti makes a dynamic and good-looking vehicle, whereas many of the older luxury marques stick to very staid and bland designs that, while handsome, are very safe.
Andy: I think you are going to see more of that. I took responsibility for Infiniti two and a half years ago. It has been 22 years in existence as a brand in the United States, and it has been through many many transformations. Some good, some bad, so you have a checkered history. When we decided to go outside the United States and make it a global brand, we needed to fix what we stand for. So inspired performance and hospitality is where we go. If I explain that, the inspired performance, it has to drive better than the rest. I’d guess you’d say the reference today in the luxury segment is probably BMW. So BMW is usually the reference from an inspired performance point of view, but inspired performance needs something else, and we call it hospitality. Hospitality comes in many forms. BMW for example, by their own slogan says that their car is a machine.The natural, as the market leaders, the Germanic design is all machine-like. It’s all straight lines, it’s all beautifully executed, but if I was being controversial, I’d say soulless. You could look at the other Japanese competitors and you can say that they looked at the space and they followed suit, and in many cases they have created better cars. What we have done, is we said we want to be different. We want curved lines. We want the cars to be seductive, sexy erotic. We want them to be humanistic. We want them to have this welcoming atmosphere. They also should be animal like and that by nature means the styling tends to be more fluid, more aggressive and in consequence, appeals to a younger customer.
AutoTalk: Being younger, I am a fan of Infiniti design. When I see a German make, I don’t feel drawn to it.
Andy: Wait until you see the next G. The next G, which is not that far away, I can’t tell you when it is, but it does define the characteristic of the brand. You can get hints of it by looking at the Essence and the Etherea, and I don’t know if you saw the Emerg-E that was shown in Geneva, but that is the design language we are talking about. You should see that flavor come out more and more as we introduce the cadence of new vehicles. That is what will define the brand. Then the point is that it’s Marmite, do you have Marmite in the US? Anyway, you either love it, or you hate it. It is supposed to be controversial. We ar not looking at the Mercedes-Benz customer, we are looking at a much younger audience, much sportier, and our intention is to catch the customer as the move up from the mass market and into the luxury, and bring them into the brand.
AutoTalk: We know that Infiniti is looking to bring in a smaller market segment item. Where would that be positioned, and is Infiniti looking to attack the market of the Volvo C30 or perhaps Acura’s new ILX?
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Andy: Well the segment… actually I will be more specific, we are attacking BMW 1 and Audi A3. That’s globally where the mass is. Clearly it is the core of the market in Europe, but it is an emerging market around the world, but if you just do it is the same way what is compelling over an Audi A3? So the Etherea gives you some concept of where we are going with our play there. It is an interesting point because, as you know, we borrow many components and platform parts from Mercedes-Benz. So it comes with all the credibility of an A-class, B-Class architecture, but with a very different tune and a very very different style and feel.
Andy Palmer is Executive Vice President and Executive Committee member at Nissan Motor Company Limited, with specific responsibilities for Nissan’s Corporate Planning, Product Planning and Program Management, Global Marketing Communications, Market Intelligence, Global IS/IT and Global Infiniti Business Unit.
For more information about Andy Palmer can be found here.
AutoTalk: Good afternoon, Sir. Thanks for taking the time to meet with me.
Andy: Please, don’t call me sir. I haven’t yet been knighted, and it is my pleasure.
AutoTalk: Let us get started then.
Andy: Let’s.
AutoTalk: The new JX is a very important vehicle for Infiniti. How did this vehicle come to be, and what market is being targeted?
Andy: Product planning is always looking at the white paper and all of the axis, and you look at what your customers are doing. Where the opportunities lie, where the competition is, and the trick with the product planning is to always look where there is the white space. In the case of Infiniti, the demographics of our brand are generally younger than the majority of mainstream luxury. That holds true in the US but it is also especially true outside the US. So often an Infiniti customer is in a life stage where they have a family. So kind of the natural conclusion is that rather than losing them from the brand, why not put something there that is very much a luxury family vehicle. Maybe their first entrance into the brand is a G, or perhaps in the future it will be the entry-level Infiniti from the Etherea Concpet. Then as they get kids and go through that life stage, they could move into the JX, and then you would expect them to move back into an FX or maybe an M depending on their life stage. SO it was basically that thought that steered the opportunity, and clearly for us it is completely incremental. We don’t have anything in that space today, there is no cannibalization, so it is purely conquest, and initial reaction is very very positive.
AutoTalk: In reference to Infiniti having younger buyers. Infiniti makes a dynamic and good-looking vehicle, whereas many of the older luxury marques stick to very staid and bland designs that, while handsome, are very safe.
Andy: I think you are going to see more of that. I took responsibility for Infiniti two and a half years ago. It has been 22 years in existence as a brand in the United States, and it has been through many many transformations. Some good, some bad, so you have a checkered history. When we decided to go outside the United States and make it a global brand, we needed to fix what we stand for. So inspired performance and hospitality is where we go. If I explain that, the inspired performance, it has to drive better than the rest. I’d guess you’d say the reference today in the luxury segment is probably BMW. So BMW is usually the reference from an inspired performance point of view, but inspired performance needs something else, and we call it hospitality. Hospitality comes in many forms. BMW for example, by their own slogan says that their car is a machine.The natural, as the market leaders, the Germanic design is all machine-like. It’s all straight lines, it’s all beautifully executed, but if I was being controversial, I’d say soulless. You could look at the other Japanese competitors and you can say that they looked at the space and they followed suit, and in many cases they have created better cars. What we have done, is we said we want to be different. We want curved lines. We want the cars to be seductive, sexy erotic. We want them to be humanistic. We want them to have this welcoming atmosphere. They also should be animal like and that by nature means the styling tends to be more fluid, more aggressive and in consequence, appeals to a younger customer.
AutoTalk: Being younger, I am a fan of Infiniti design. When I see a German make, I don’t feel drawn to it.
Andy: Wait until you see the next G. The next G, which is not that far away, I can’t tell you when it is, but it does define the characteristic of the brand. You can get hints of it by looking at the Essence and the Etherea, and I don’t know if you saw the Emerg-E that was shown in Geneva, but that is the design language we are talking about. You should see that flavor come out more and more as we introduce the cadence of new vehicles. That is what will define the brand. Then the point is that it’s Marmite, do you have Marmite in the US? Anyway, you either love it, or you hate it. It is supposed to be controversial. We ar not looking at the Mercedes-Benz customer, we are looking at a much younger audience, much sportier, and our intention is to catch the customer as the move up from the mass market and into the luxury, and bring them into the brand.
AutoTalk: We know that Infiniti is looking to bring in a smaller market segment item. Where would that be positioned, and is Infiniti looking to attack the market of the Volvo C30 or perhaps Acura’s new ILX?
Andy: Well the segment… actually I will be more specific, we are attacking BMW 1 and Audi A3. That’s globally where the mass is. Clearly it is the core of the market in Europe, but it is an emerging market around the world, but if you just do it is the same way what is compelling over an Audi A3? So the Etherea gives you some concept of where we are going with our play there. It is an interesting point because, as you know, we borrow many components and platform parts from Mercedes-Benz. So it comes with all the credibility of an A-class, B-Class architecture, but with a very different tune and a very very different style and feel.
