India: Nissan to tap B-school for brand promotion

It may be a late entrant in the Indian market, but that has not stopped Japanese car maker Nissan from adopting innovative ideas to promote its brand here, including tapping the students from business schools.

As the company gears up for selling its made-in-India car Micra by July this year, the auto major has started an initiative to tap B-school students from Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai for brand promotion activities.

As part of the programme that has been taken up as a brand awareness building initiative, the firm is inviting students to showcase their 'business acumen, skills and creative thinking ability' as part of the innovative strategy.

"The students are always full of unconventional ideas and unrestricted in their thoughts. We believe that the programme is an ideal platform for these students to put these skills to test in the corporate world and play an integral role in building the Nissan brand," Nissan Motor India managing director Kiminobu Tokuyama said.

Under the initiative -- 'Nissan Student Brand Manager Programme' -- selected students will be provided training and will work along with company officials on projects, which could involve setting up auto-clubs or test-drive days at universities, spreading word through the internet and other kinds of brand building activities.

"The idea of this programme is to fuel the creativity among the students and promote Nissan in the best possible way.

It also presents a perfect platform (for students) to gain experience working alongside one of the world's great car brands," Hover Automotive India vice-president (operations) Abhijeet Pandit said.

He said the organisers have received good response from the student community so far. HAI is Nissan's partner for marketing, sales and dealer development in India.

A total of 12 students from the four cities will be selected and recruited for a one year period with monthly remuneration and other benefits.

The new initiative comes less than a fortnight after the Franco-Japanese auto alliance Renault-Nissan inaugurated its Rs 4,500-crore (Rs 45-billion) facility in Chennai.

Nissan will be starting commercial production of the Micra from the facility in May and will start selling the car in July.

The Japanese car maker also plans to have nine models in the country by 2012 and is aiming to sell 100,000 units in India by 2013.