Chapter 111\ Saudis do not buy blue cars

Saudi Arabia has always been the largest Arab market for Nissan. The ordering period for new models was worked out based on a reverse day count; that being the number of days needed for the ordered cars to be completed at the factory, plus the time required for the shipping company to move them from Japan to the Gulf and clear them through local customs. Nissan always urged Al Hamrani & Suleiman, its Saudi national sales company (NSC), to confirm its orders ahead of all other NSCs. The Saudi orders – in term of models, color, and other specs – always influenced how the orders from other markets were amended before being confirmed.

At Al Hamrani & Suleiman, there was an age-old belief that no one bought blue cars in the kingdom, so Nissan never shipped blue cars, either to Saudi Arabia or to any other Gulf market.

In 2003, Ahmad Al Hamrani, general manager of the Nissan dealership in Saudi Arabia, decided to go on a skiing holiday to Aspen, Colorado, which he had been missing since his university days in the US. His extended holiday overlapped with the ordering period for the 2004 models, and Nissan made it clear that it was not willing to delay the process any longer. Young Salem Al Hamrani, who was the Jeddah showroom manager, unhappily sensed that the Japanese principals were beginning to make sarcastic comments about his family, so he presented himself to the visiting Japanese team as the person who could place the order. Being a member of Al Hamrani family led the Japanese to accept his word. Obviously, the Japanese had come prepared with past Saudi orders, so Salem’s role was made easy, as he had only to confirm their assumptions. However, when the choice of colors was discussed, Salem wanted to include blue versions of every model ordered. The Japanese tried to challenge him, but he presented a confident defense based on the changing taste of Saudi youth, which he claimed to know better than them.

When Ahmad returned from his skiing holiday tanned and energized, he was angered by Salem’s involvement in the ordering process and made a real fuss about the blue cars, threatening to make Salem pay for every blue car that remained in stock. Then, when the new cars arrived, all the blue ones were snapped up like hot cakes. Buyers who couldn’t find any blue cars in the model they wanted, upgraded to more expensive models, or bought smaller and cheaper ones. Salem Al Hamrani proved to Nissan and all its GCC dealers that the myth of Gulf people hating blue color, was wrong.