Nissan North America Expands Diversity Commitments.

Nissan North America announced an expansion of its diversity commitments, which extend from the workplace to the marketplace. The expansion includes the selection of a new advertising agency, TRUE Agency Inc., that focuses on multicultural urban advertising; the appointment of Jonathan Cropper for a newly created urban marketing position and an on-going commitment to diversity to its dealer body, suppliers and employees.

“Diversity is what makes our country so unique. Now more than ever, it is important to embrace diversity on all forefronts,” said Jed Connelly, senior vice president of sales and marketing. “If Nissan is to prosper and grow with
our ever-changing nation, all sources for business must be cultivated and nurtured. We seek business partners, as well as employees, that represent the diverse communities we are proud to serve.”

As part of its new commitments, Nissan has hired TRUE, a new agency that will be based in New York to develop ethnic urban advertising and other marketing programs. The agency beat out 24 other agencies to acquire the contract. A new venture founded by Richard Wayner and Claude Grunitzky, TRUE was hired for its ability to create alternative marketing strategies targeting the growing multicultural market.

“TRUE was selected because they were the most enthusiastic team with the deepest understanding of our brand character,” said Steve Wilhite, vice president of marketing. “They not only have an inventive, creative approach to marketing, they also have a keen understanding of the audience we want to address.”

In addition to the new agency, Nissan created the position of senior manager, youth and urban communications within its marketing department to support marketing to the urban audience. Jon Cropper was recently hired for the position and will be responsible for developing new, cutting-edge communications programs to help Nissan and Infiniti brands effectively reach young, multicultural audiences, as well as potential customers living in urban areas.

Along with naming its new advertising agency and the creation of the Youth & Urban Communications position, Nissan has instituted a Diversity Advertising Panel that will oversee all advertising developed for young, multicultural audiences. Nissan also has instituted a Diversity Advertising Review process that selects a diverse group of individuals to insure a balanced perspective in its marketing efforts.

Nissan’s on-going commitment to diversity extends to its dealers, suppliers and employees. In fact in its last fiscal year, Nissan surpassed its diversity objectives set back in 1998. At that time, Nissan committed to increasing its minority owned dealerships and supplier base by 25 percent and doubling its African American owned dealerships by the end of its 2002 fiscal year. Nissan is proud to announce that it has achieved and exceeded these commitments one-year ahead of schedule. “We are very proud of Nissan’s success and more importantly their honest commitment to diversity,” said Sheila Vaden-Williams, president of the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers (NAMAD). “As a responsible corporate citizen, we expect that corporations like Nissan will embrace diversity as a part of their corporate philosophy. As an industry leader, we hope that Nissan will set the example that diversity must not only be embraced, but woven into the fabric of business.”