The company is a major sponsor of next year's African Nations Cup soccer tournament being held in Morocco. SA has four points from two games in its qualifying group after playing Sudan and Nigeria.
Nissan SA's Managing Director Mike Whitfield said Africa's passion for soccer would allow Nissan to get its brand message to consumers who might otherwise not consider the brand.
Nissan launched its Nations Cup sponsorship at last year's event in SA but because it signed up shortly before the finals - after SA agreed at the last minute to take over from the war-torn original host, Libya - the motor company had little opportunity to leverage its support.
Whitfield said shortly before last week's 0-0 draw with Nigeria in Cape Town: "Even then, it opened channels of communication to people we would not normally talk to. This time around, we are already seeing a big difference."
The African Nations Cup is not Nissan's only soccer involvement. It is also a sponsor of Europe's top club competition, the Uefa Champions League, and of English Premier League champions Manchester City.
All the sponsorships are by the global Nissan group. But Jim Dando, Nissan SA's General Manager for Export Sales into Africa, said the Nations Cup sponsorship was particularly exciting.
"Vehicle ownership among Africa's estimated 1.2bn population was well below that of other regions and the potential for long-term growth was huge," he said.
Africa was home to many of the world's fastest-growing economies. Nissan SA has a vehicle assembly plant at Rosslyn, Pretoria, and exports to much of sub-Saharan Africa.
Dando said Nissan was the market leader in some countries, but overall second to Toyota in the region. Nissan SA was on a market drive to entrench and grow the brand.
In some countries, where it had relied on local partners to distribute vehicles, Nissan SA was now taking direct control.
"Traditionally, the business model required us to ship vehicles to the national distributor, who would then get them to dealers. Now we have taken on that role," said Dando.
It was also creating new retailing partnerships in some markets, notably with a SA-based joint venture between Imperial Holdings and Bidvest. The two firms, whose automotive retail arms are competitors in SA, cooperate in other countries.
Whitfield said Nissan SA's growing involvement in Africa included the supply of vehicle components to a new group assembly operation in Nigeria, where former trade and industry minister Alec Irwin is advising that government on creating its own motor industry.
Some see the potential Nigerian industry as a direct competitor to SA's, but Whitfield said that in Nissan's case, the two operations complemented each other by building vehicles for different markets.
"In Nissan's pursuit of African market growth the Nations Cup sponsorship made sense. There is a big group focus on Africa. If we want to raise our presence here, what better way? Soccer has always been the number one sport in Africa," Whitfield said
Source: Business Day via I-Net Bridge
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