Nissan Hints at the Death of Historic Datsun Brand
Nissan is retiring the historic Datsun brand again after 2012 relaunch in emerging markets failed to meet expectations.
Written by Allison Stone
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
Table of Contents
Datsun, or the compact, affordable subsidiary brand of Japanese automaker
Nissan
, appears to be on its way out—again. The Datsun name has been with the brand in one way or another since 1913, was originally phased out in the 1980s, but made a brief return in 2012 as Nissan attempted to revive the brand name to target emerging markets in countries like India and Indonesia. It appears however that the relaunch did not meet brand expectations, and now Nissan is once more phasing out the sub-brand.
Nissan Spokesperson Azura Momose confirmed to
BBC news
that the film would continue to sell stock of Datsun cars and provide service to Datsun owners. "We can reassure all existing and future Datsun owners that customer satisfaction remains our priority," Momose said.Datsun’s origins
The Datsun legacy goes way back to 1914 when its precursor, the DAT car, was first produced by the Kaishinsha Motorcar Works in Tokyo, Japan. The DAT car, which was an acronym of its three earliest investors, Den, Aoyama and Takeuchi.
DAT also translated literally to “lightning fast” in Japanese, or "dash off like a startled rabbit". It was fitting imagery for the small car, but in English-speaking countries, it was sold abroad as “Durable, Attractive and Trustworthy”.
The popular DAT car established Japanese automakers as a force to contend with globally, and was taken over by Nissan in 1933. A more lightweight and affordable version of the DAT car was soon launched, dubbed “DAT-son” or “son of DAT,” eventually becoming Datsun.
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Nissan goes global
In postwar Europe, U.S. and Asia, the Datsun brand was one of Nissan’s strongest products, offering a fuel-efficient, compact alternative to gas-guzzlers of the time. In the 1970s alone, approximately 20 million Datsun cars were sold in 190 countries.
The first Nissan branch in the U.S. was established in California in 1960, but the compact cars exported to the U.S. were still made under the Datsun name. When trying to reach a U.S. market, the Datsun name was favored in part due to Nissan’s substantial association with the Japanese military.
By the 1960s, many Americans who had been military personnell during the Second World War had now aged into Nissan’s primary market target, and the brand had to tread carefully, but the company now faced a global branding issue.
While the Datsun brand fared well abroad, it was somewhat unpopular in Nissan’s origin country of Japan. In the 1980s, Nissan was more interested in unifying its global brand presence, and began to phase out the Datsun name.
Phasing out Datsun
The decision to change the name was first announced in 1981, but the name change campaign took three years—1981 to 1984—to fully transition. The rebrand cost Nissan somewhere around $500 million USD in operational costs, advertising and more.
With how much work went into erasing that Datsun name, it came as a shock when Nissan revived it in 2012 with a low-cost car brand for markets in Indonesia, Nepal, South Africa, India, and Russia. Nissan’s intent was to target emerging markets with a reliable, affordable car, but sales lagged in spite of its best efforts.
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