Lavanya Wadgaonkar, the Global Vice President of Communications and Global DEI Champion at Nissan, is in India for a two-day trip to enhance the communication strategy for the Japanese automaker.

With over 27 years of international experience in strategic communications, public affairs, brand management, marketing, and sustainability, Wadgaonkar’s earlier roles were at Lexmark, Reliance and Eaton.

Despite being present in the Indian market for the last 15 years, Nissan Motor continues to offer one single model “Nissan Magnite” (with a few variants) in the country. Its market share is merely 1.2 per cent. However, the company has mega plans for further investment, $600 million in collaboration with Renault India and an undisclosed sum on its own. “Both investments will be made to expand our Chennai plant to further our market in India. A few more models will be launched in India soon,” Wadgaonkar shared with e4m.

In an exclusive interview, she spoke about the challenges and opportunities in crafting communication strategies, especially in the dynamic automotive industry.

On learnings in India 

Nissan has been in India for over 15 years now. Asked about the company’s learnings so far in terms of communication strategy, Wadgaonkar highlighted how a conventional approach prevailed in the auto industry when she joined Nissan in 2012.

“There was a set pattern for product launches, promotions, and marketing. As products started to become more unique, we needed to address several cohorts of consumers based on their age group, geography, culture and so on. The communication strategy demanded a shift from listing technical specifications to finding compelling stories,” she explained.

Wadgaonkar acknowledges this as a "well-oiled machine" but highlights the shift required as products become more unique. “The challenge lies in identifying and narrating the distinct personality and character of each product, making storytelling a crucial aspect of automotive communication.”

According to her, the automotive industry has experienced significant disruptions, with cars transforming into lifestyle devices seamlessly connected to consumers. The focus has expanded to sustainable transportation, mobility beyond transport, and the importance of electrification.

“The life cycle of a car used to be about 10 years because it's the second most important thing after your home. But today you need an upgrade every year. That means the entire auto industry’s way of working has changed.”

“Now, the biggest challenge before communications people is you're not targeting just one generation. You need to target multiple generations, multiple platforms, multiple channels and tell the stories according to geography, and local cultures among others,” she further shared.

“You need to appeal to every consumer, and marketing and communication lines are blurring. Earlier, we used to see communication strategy as 50% planned and 50% agile. Now I keep telling my team it's 80% agile and 20% planned. Let's not waste our time planning.”

So rather than producing high-quality videos, can we produce a meaningful, shorter and manageable quality video? Having said that, it doesn't mean that long formats are disappearing. They have their own shelf life, but they have their purpose, she further stated.

On crisis management 

“We are very good at crisis communication. Our DNA is very strong being a Japanese company. Crisis communication has become a priority especially since we successfully managed the biggest crisis in the auto industry involving our chairman a few years back,” she said.

Notably, Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO, Nissan was arrested in Japan and then ousted from the company in 2018 for allegedly under-reporting his pay to regulators and personal use of company assets, among a long list of alleged misdeeds.

Sharing Nissan's approach, the preparation and immediate availability for communication, Wadgaonkar said: “Crisis communication involves sensitivity and awareness, considering the diverse customer base across generations, platforms, and channels. Yet, you can never say that you know everything about crisis management because every case is different. The first thing is to be willing to be available to the media first, even if you don’t have the answer. You can’t get away by merely saying ‘not available for comment’.”

She noted that there must be an internal mechanism of information flow. “Speed of internal communication helps communication personnel to manage the crisis effectively. Just pick up the phone of media persons and tell them ‘We are aware, we are looking at it’,” she explained.

Focus on Indian market 

India is a very important market, not only for Nissan, but for everyone, Wadgaonkar noted. “India, a crucial market for Nissan, presents unique challenges. It is important to sustain interest and credibility in the market, especially during periods before new product launches. Our primary objectives revolve around trust and pride. We need our employees and consumers to see the pride we have in our products. These two core objectives are further divided into five strategies - Corporate Strategy, Empowering Journeys, Solution and Digital Strategy, Social Strategy and Digital Strategy. Overall, our strategy is digital first as we are audience-centric. There is more focus on precise communication rather than mass communication,” she quipped.

No surprises here that 40-50% of the company’s media mix in India is digital.

Emerging trends in storytelling 

“Disruptions have become the norm in the auto industry. Everything started getting disrupted because the industry lines are blurry. The car is no longer a transport machine from A to B point, but it's become more like a lifestyle device and it's connected with you through and through.”

“And the more software-defined vehicles come into existence, the more they are getting integrated into things like our phones. Similarly, the auto industry has changed. We are talking a lot more about sustainable modes of transportation, mobility goes beyond transport. We're also talking about electrification, which is very important for us,” she stated.

On the emerging trends in story-telling, Wadgaonkar shared, “There's a notable shift from traditional ads focused on big actions to emotionally engaging content. An example that left an impact on me was an ad featuring a pregnant woman attending a job interview. The CEO, realizing her condition, smartly refrains from asking, showing sensitivity to pregnancy-related bias. This ad, though not massive, resonated due to its emotional connection.”

The trend is gaining momentum in India where advertisers are prioritizing emotional engagement over direct product selling. The emphasis has shifted from showcasing products to tapping into human emotions. While this approach is prevalent globally, its widespread adoption in Indian advertising is noteworthy, she added.

However, the full impact of this shift is yet to be seen in the Indian advertising landscape.

No EV targets for India 

Nissan released the ‘Ambition 2030’ document a couple of years ago that talked a lot about increasing the proportion of EV cars in global markets. It underlines EV targets in each country. What is the target for India?

Wadgaonkar insisted that the firm hasn't given targets to every market. "The reason is the pace of electrification is different market by market. It's easy for everyone to say they will be 100% electric by this or that year. But it's the consumer that makes that decision, right? It's not the government’s or carmakers' call. Europe wants to go off 100% EV by 2035. You need to meet IATA targets in the US."

“Technology needs to be developed. It's just the key to bringing down the cost. Infrastructure also needs to be developed which is the government’s responsibility. We have a range of products on all segments for EVs. Those products can be introduced at the right time to the right market,” she underlined.