The relationship with the new Nissan client kicked off at its Middle East dealers’ convention in Barcelona. Nissan Motor Company called for this meeting in Spain since it was about to launch a new 4×4 model under the Terrano badge, which was manufactured in Spain. The meeting was a classical regional meeting for our markets, but at the same time it was an opportunity to present the dealers with the new model, to inspect and test drive. Norio Osawa planned to have the agency participate and introduce itself to all the dealers and to meet with them.
This was my very first visit to Spain and I was so excited about the dual prospects. Visiting a new European destination that had its glamorous image in my mind; and meeting my new client. Nissan had asked us all to book at a beach hotel called Hesperia Del Mar, and since my long flight landed late at night, I fell asleep in the taxi and was awakened by the driver when we arrived at the hotel. In my room, I found a welcome note from Osawa-San and the conference agenda, which explained that breakfast was served as of 8am, while the meeting that was supposed to be held in the Toledo room was to start at 9am sharp.
At breakfast, I was introduced to Nambu-San, who showed me around the dealers and introduced me to a young Saudi in a white thawb and a red checkered ghutra, whose name was Ahmad Al Hamrani. As the Japanese dialect introduction was completed, I found out that the Saudi Nissan dealers were called Al Hamrani and Al Suleiman, so I concluded that this young marketing manager should be related to one of the partners. Then I was introduced to Saleh Al Babtain, the dealership general manager in Kuwait, who also sounded as though he was a family member of the Abdel Mohsen Abdul Aziz Al Babtain Company, the Nissan dealers there.
Nambu-San introduced me to David Radcliff, an exception to the rest of the pack, being the only Englishman in the group, who represented Al Masaood Automobiles of Abu Dhabi. This was followed by an introduction to a Palestinian by the name of Moussa Al Arouri, the general manager of Al Hashar & Company in Oman. While still chatting with Al Arouri, we were called to the meeting, so I had to skip breakfast and join all the people who were going downstairs to where the meeting room was located.
To everybody’s disappointment, the conference room at this beachfront hotel was located on the lower ground floor, hence underground. It had no windows, and it was there that we were buried for the first five hours. We broke to have lunch and for a change this was served on the mezzanine floor, so we had the first sight of the sea.
The morning meeting was totally different to what I had expected. It started with a welcome note from Norio Osawa, which included a quick introduction to the newcomers, starting with Abdo Souidan, the newly appointed CEO at Rasamny Motor Company (RYMCO), the Nissan dealers in Lebanon, and Khalid Al Rostamani, son of the Dubai and Northern Emirates dealer, Arabian Automobile Company who was accompanied by their General Manager, a Lebanese by the name of Michel Ayat.
Then Osawa announced his pleasure to introduce Nissan’s new advertising agency and I prepared myself to stand up and wave at the dealers when the name of Intermarkets get mentioned. To my surprise, he introduced Standard Advertising, referring to it as Nissan’s global agency, which the company had been using for many years in other regions and had recently invited to become involved in the Middle East. At that stage my neighbor, whose table sign showed the name Ichirou Osada, stood up and bowed towards the dealers in the Japanese way.
Then came my turn to introduce Intermarkets, and here Osawa was generous in telling the story of how we had met, our Toyota experience, and the fact that we had our agencies next to most of its dealers. At that instant, I stood up and, in typical Gulf tradition, waved my right hand to my forehead and then to my chest, smiling to them all. The moment the introduction was completed, and the two-day agenda was announced, Ahmad Al Hamrani raised his hand seeking permission to speak on behalf of his colleague and the meeting turned into a revolution. The revolution of Nissan Middle East dealers against their principals. Al Hamrani made a comparison between the Toyota model offering, which was four times larger than the number of models offered by Nissan locally. As he elaborated on this comparison, I wondered if we had made a mistake dropping the Abdel Latif Jameel Toyota account for Nissan.
Ahmad Al Hamrani continued to complain about Nissan’s model ageing strategy, citing the example of the Nissan Patrol, whose boxed model had not changed in 10 years; comparing it with the Toyota Land Cruiser, which had recently been re-introduced with a modular, streamlined body shape and loaded with novel interior trimmings. The team of Japanese executives accompanying Osawa jumped to present a shot-gun defense, which was not well received by the dealers; to the extent that the atmosphere seemed to be approaching breaking point and probably would have done had it not been for the appearance of the Nissan Spain team, which had come to escort us to the test track. There we were introduced to the new Terrano and the dealers took turns at test driving.
The agenda allowed “a free evening in town” on the second and last day of the meeting. Hisham Al Mana, the Nissan dealer in Qatar, who seemed to know Barcelona best, led our Sangria tasting and tapas munching tour, which ended at a place called Ultramarinos, where we stayed until midnight, after which we split amongst the city’s many bars and nightclubs.
I had a side meeting with Osawa and Osada during the morning coffee break of the second day. This made sure that the proper introduction was done between the two agencies and the split in responsibilities was defined. Osada explained to me that Standard Advertising had always been like an in-house advertising agency for Nissan, since the agency was founded, owned, and managed by a gentleman named Ken Oki. Oki-san was a graduate of one of the best-known American business universities. Ichirou Osada referred to his boss as one of the best English speakers amongst all Japanese.
During the same meeting it was agreed that the Nissan account had to be managed out of Intermarkets Kuwait and a plan was penciled for Osawa and Osada to join me in Kuwait, where the comprehensive briefing to Intermarkets would be completed.