Nissan puts muscle behind its upscale brand

Brad Bradshaw calls it "Lexus envy" and he confesses there was a time when Infiniti, the luxury arm of Nissan, had it, and had it badly.

Infiniti is over it for good, and a raft of new models arriving in Infiniti showrooms is proof of it, says Bradshaw, former Nissan Canada president who now, as senior vice-president of sales and marketing, is the top Nissan and Infiniti executive in North America. Infiniti has found its way, he says.

In the early- to mid-1990s, it was a different story. That was when Lexus, Toyota's luxury division, began seriously pushing ahead of Infiniti using a business plan that essentially called for Lexus to out-Mercedes Mercedes.

Both Japanese luxury brands, Lexus and Infiniti, had arrived in North America in 1989, but Lexus quickly became the dominant player with a conservative and incredibly reliable array of vehicles.

The Lexus plan was to emulate Mercedes-Benz in terms of the design and feel of its vehicles — while offering better customer service, lower prices and superior quality. The LS 400 sedan perfectly embodied this strategy.

Infiniti, for its part, tried to carve out space in the premium segment with far sportier offerings, led by the Q45 sedan. Infiniti's model in the marketplace was BMW.

Lexus thrived with its plan and some very savvy marketing that put heavy emphasis on playing up the brand's strengths.

Meanwhile, Infiniti struggled to gain traction and among other things suffered from a vague launch campaign that emphasized rocks and streams over the vehicles themselves.

By 1993-1994, Infiniti, says Bradshaw, compared itself to Lexus and was found wanting. Thus, Infiniti set out to remake itself in Lexus's image. The poster child for this failed strategy was a very dull, very conservative new version of the Q45.

"Well, I guess you could say we suffered from a little bit of Lexus envy, and it showed up in the product," Bradshaw says.

While there have been small blips of success along the way since — the radically shaped J30 sedan comes to mind — for the most part Infiniti has been a fantastic disappointment for Nissan.

Through the 1990s and into this decade, while sales of luxury vehicles were exploding, Infiniti has barely registered as a blip on the automotive radar screen.@@page@@

Bradshaw denies that Nissan ever considered killing Infiniti entirely, not even when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1999 when France's Renault SA purchased a controlling interest. "There was just too much potential there," he says.

Still, the low point arguably came in 2001, when Infiniti sold just 71,365 vehicles in North America.

Sales have been on a steady rise since, although even last year Infiniti sold just 121,146 vehicles in North America.

Lexus sold nearly three times that in 2006, making it the No. 1 selling premium brand in North America.

Bradshaw and his colleagues, however, are optimistic about Infiniti's future. The brand finally knows what it wants to be when it grows up. While that is not exactly BMW — "I get asked that a lot," says Bradshaw of the BMW question — the Infiniti ideal is not all that far away from BMW, either.

"If you go all the way back to the beginning of Infiniti and the original Q45, it was created as an aggressive performance vehicle," he says. "The difference now, perhaps, is that we have more of an emphasis on design. We remain true to the original heritage of the brand.

"There was a middle period where we lost our focus and didn't have so good a handle on the heart of the brand. But you can really see the original character in each vehicle we bring out now."

At April's New York International Auto Show, Nissan put its muscle behind the Infiniti brand, using the last major auto show of the season to showcase the G37 coupe, which goes on sale this summer.

Infiniti also showed a new crossover concept that was nothing more than a thinly designed production model called the EX. "We wanted to make the point that there is a lot happening at Infiniti," Bradshaw says.

"I heard a lot of good comments about Infiniti, and the new G37 coupe and the EX crossover [in New York]. The next couple of years at Infiniti should be pretty strong."

In addition to the G37 and EX, Infiniti is giving the QX56 large SUV a significant makeover for 2008, including a richer cabin and a fancy Bose sound system. Infiniti is also expected to launch a replacement for the defunct Q45 flagship sedan. These new models and upgrades come on the heels of last fall's successful launch of the new G35 sedan, both in front- and all-wheel-drive versions.@@page@@

By year-end, Infiniti will have six models in its lineup: G37, G35, M45 sedan, QX SUV, FX 35/45 crossover and the EX crossover.

The new models will also see the arrival of two major new technologies: AVM or Around View Monitor, which Infiniti says is a significant improvement over current backup cameras, and LDP, or Lane Departure Prevention, which is a new system to keep drivers from straying from their lanes when drowsy or distracted.

As all these new models and technologies roll out, Infiniti is also making plans to expand to Europe, Asia and other emerging markets. In Western Europe, Infiniti is expected to open dealerships by 2008.

In fact, intense global competition is fuelling the desire of Carlos Ghosn, chief executive officer of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., to take Infiniti outside Canada and the United States. Analysts at J.D. Power and Associates have forecast a declining U.S. market share for Infiniti over the next five years.

If Infiniti wants to grow, it must look to new markets.

Bradshaw and Nissan's chief creative officer, Shiro Nakamura, both insist that if Infiniti is to succeed on a large scale, design will be the key.

In New York this past April, Nakamura said Infiniti's styling will continue to grow more sensuous with a new generation of cars and SUVs over the next several years. Nakamura says his designers found their inspiration for where to take Infiniti in the bold FX crossover, which still looks fresh and unique after more than three years on the road.

"The FX is the core expression of the Infiniti brand," said Nakamura, who added that the next-generation FX "is evolving to become more sensuous and attractive." That next FX, he says, "will be the halo model. Infiniti SUVs will be totally different in two or three years."

In fact, all of Infiniti will be different by the end of this decade. By then, the days of Lexus envy should be totally gone and forgotten.