Automotive News - May 6, 2019 - Retail - 24

24 * MAY 6, 2019

MARKETING

As shown in this video promoting Nissan's ProPilot Assist
system, the company is adamant about marketing the
semi-autonomous driving technology as hands-on.

"You can show the individual's feet slide back and off the pedals, but showing
the person completely take their hands off the wheel is not something that we do."
Andy Christensen, senior manager of technology planning and research, Nissan

How Nissan's ProPilot
marketing stays in lane
The challenge: Selling the technology without overselling it
Urvaksh Karkaria
ukarkaria@crain.com

esla infamously pushes the
envelope with the promotion
of its semi-autonomous technology. Even the brand name, Autopilot, has sparked controversy because
it suggests an aviation-standard level
of autonomy, of which it's incapable.
In the early days, Tesla CEO Elon
Musk even demonstrated handsfree driving during media interviews. That led to some irresponsible behavior, including Tesla drivers getting into the passenger or back seat while
their vehicles cruised at highway speed. A
high-profile fatality in Florida that allegedly involved distracted driving while
Autopilot mode was on led Musk and Tesla to walk back some of their claims and
tone down the marketing.
It's a walk that Nissan, that other pioneer of electric vehicles, never wants to
take.
Nissan has been adamant from the beginning about marketing its semi-autonomous driving technology, ProPilot Assist,
as hands-on.
"We had a fundamental viewpoint that if
we were going to bring this technology to
market, it was about describing it as a
hands-on driver assistant system," said
Andy Christensen, Nissan senior manager
of technology planning and research.
The more measured strategy has meant
less consumer confusion over what the
technology can, and cannot, do.

Show vs. tell
For Nissan, the challenge is marketing
driver-assist technologies in a way that
convinces consumers that the functionality and convenience are worth a premi-

Nissan's ProPilot Assist warns the driver against removing hands from the steering wheel.

per Cruise. ProPilot Assist is a lane-cenum, while also not creating expectations
tering, adaptive cruise control system that
that can't be met.
uses a monovision camera and a radar
"It's a little bit more of a challenge to desensor. Unlike Autopilot, it cannot change
scribe what the system is doing, how the
lanes, and unlike Super Cruise, it lacks a
system is assisting," Christensen said.
camera-based driver monitoring system.
"You can show the individual's feet slide
When it comes to selling ProPiback and off the pedals, but
lot Assist, Nissan takes a show,
showing the person completely
rather than tell, approach that betake their hands off the wheel is
gins at the dealership. Salespeople
not something that we do."
are encouraged to demonstrate
As driver-assist systems get
the technology and include highmore advanced, automakers must
way driving on the test drive route.
strike a balance in promoting the
"You need to experience [the
capabilities so customers can use
technology] to really see the beneand find value from them, without
fit," Christensen said. "When you
abusing them.
Christensen:
drive for an extended period of
"The better these systems get, Experience the
time, you start to realize, 'Oh, I do
the greater the risk that consum- technology.
feel better after the drive. I didn't
ers will become too comfortable
have to sit there for four hours tweaking
with it and expect it to take control, when
the wheel back and forth keeping the car
it can't," said Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst
in the center of the lane.' "
with Navigant Research.
Nissan's conservative approach with
ProPilot Assist is warranted. The system is
'We can't do that'
not as advanced as driver-assist technoloThe ProPilot Assist marketing strategy took
gies such as Autopilot and Cadillac's Sushape at a two-day workshop about six

months before the technology rolled out in
2017. It involved multiple departments, including marketing, sales, product planning,
product safety and legal. Nissan's external ad
agencies were also brought in. Day One involved explaining the technology and its capabilities - and limitations. Then the group
went on drives to experience the system.
"That was really about laying the foundation, making sure that the people understood what the technology was and
wasn't, and how we were going to approach" the marketing, Christensen said.
"That process did much for us in terms of
avoiding a lot of battles, or misunderstanding, during the creation of a marketing strategy."
Day Two was about brainstorming
ideas. Marketing put together crude storyboard ideas and they were critiqued. Early
proposals aggressively marketed the tech,
making claims for which the technology
was not intended.
"I pushed back at the time and said, 'No,
that's not what it's about,' " Christensen
said. "We said, 'No, we can't do that. That's
sending the wrong message about the
technology.' It was really about trying to
nip things in the bud."

Accurate branding
Even the branding of the technology, referred to as just ProPilot in Europe and Japan, became an issue. Nissan was concerned ProPilot might overstate the system's autonomous driving capabilities in
the mind of some U.S. consumers.
In the U.S., Nissan changed the name to
ProPilot Assist to reinforce that the system
was intended to assist the driver, not take
over for the driver as in a commercial airliner.
"Fundamentally, the car is still at the
level that it requires the driver to intervene
at any moment," Christensen said. "When
the driver still has that role, to lead them to
think that the car is really driving itself,
that's where we think you can run into
some pretty serious issues."
Christensen concedes Nissan's marketing approach is more conservative than
see NISSAN, Page 34

Automotive News - May 6, 2019 - Retail

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