23 March 2015

Six years after Infiniti entered the UK market, it’s just opened its 12^th retail outlet. However, retail figures for the make remain at what can be kindly described as extremely modest: a market share of 0.02% in the UK and sales for 2013/14 just topping 1000 vehicles.

The arrival within the next year or new product – the Q30 hatchback and the QX30 crossover – will help things along, the more so because they’ll be British-built. Building brand awareness around these newcomers will be crucial. It will be so important to make every £ spent on marketing and advertising count. But I wonder whether Infiniti is ready for the challenge.

Compared to where its brand support is most visible just now, it will certainly need a rethink. Ask most folk with a moderate interest in cars about Infiniti and I’d bet that the make’s involvement with motorsport will get a mention. And most will doubtless also reference its F! sponsorship.

 Now, F1 racing is very, very expensive. Figures from 2012 suggest that the Red Bull team raised $91m (£61m) from its 34 sponsors, of which Forbes.com names Infiniti as the biggest payer. One of the benefits of such a deal is, of course, that it is global: you’ll find motorsport fans in every part of the world. In the UK, 300,000 attended the British Grand Prix last year.

But whether their interest in the sport will inform their future car buying decisions much is a moot point. And I wonder whether anyone at Infiniti has hard data on how many purchases in the UK can be directly attributed to its support for F1.

If I were trying to sell Infinitis for a living, I’d want also (or instead) serious money spent at grassroots, directly to attract customers. Location-specific press and poster campaigns, money to host business events at my dealership, funds to provide extra demonstrators.

Ads sited on bus shelters mayn’t be as glamorous as F1. But when it comes to moving metal, I reckon they’d be far more effective.

Ray Castle

Tags: brand support, Infiniti, Sponsorship