We are wheels up to NYC, but not before a little tour around the world of auto. We are looking at how Nissan is setting up for a model release onslaught, Fisker running out of runway, and Starbucks thinking Locally Global.
Show Notes with links:
Nissan announced a sweeping three-year strategy, introducing e-Power hybrid tech in the U.S., launching seven new models in North America, and aiming for a significant sales boost.
CEO Makoto Uchida unveiled ambitious plans to boost global sales by 1 million vehicles, deploy advanced battery technologies, and cut the cost of EVs by 30% to achieve cost parity with internal combustion vehicles by 2030.
The plan, named "The Arc," aims to revitalize Nissan through radical changes, including launching 30 new models globally over the next three years, with a focus on electrification and innovation.
"We must make radical changes to become a sustainable company. Disruption is the new normal. We aim to recover volume and drive profit," says CEO Makoto Uchida, emphasizing the necessity for drastic shifts in Nissan's approach to car manufacturing and sales.
Fisker's negotiations with Nissan have abruptly ended, throwing the electric-vehicle startup into turmoil. With its shares halted and bankruptcy looming, Fisker is frantically seeking strategic solutions.
The company is exploring in- or out-of-court restructurings and capital markets transactions to salvage its situation.
Thomas Hayes of Great Hill Capital warns of the growing likelihood of Fisker filing for bankruptcy protection, potentially marking Henrik Fisker's second failed auto startup.
Amidst fundraising challenges and less than $100 million in market valuation, Fisker struggled with continual supply chain issues, production delays, and a recent poor review of the Ocean from YouTube influencer Marques Brownlee
Fisker's attempt to raise up to $150 million by selling convertible notes has fallen through after missing a crucial interest payment.
"I can't put it if it is next week or next year, but it is inevitable," Thomas Hayes, Chairman at Great Hill Capital, on the chances of Fisker filing for bankruptcy.
Starbucks has promoted Brady Brewer from Global CMO to CEO of its international business, signaling the end of the traditional CMO role within the company. This strategic move is part of a broader trend among major companies reevaluating the role of marketing in their organizational structure.
Starbucks is shifting to a regional CEO model with localized marketing support, emphasizing tailored marketing strategies.
Two new marketing roles are introduced: an EVP, Chief Merchant and Product Officer for global product strategy, and a Global Brand Creative Leader to oversee the brand's global identity.
This change aligns with Starbucks' "Triple Shot Reinvention" plan, aiming to expand its store footprint and double its Starbucks Rewards members by 2030.
Tuesday, March 26. Kyle, you and I get to go to New York City. Today. We're going to be at the JD Power forum in the car show. We're going to be at VaynerMedia headquarters and we're going to be talking to we'll get Dara but today, this morning, talking about Nissan, talking about Fisker talking about Starbucks, and pretty soon we'll be talking about a bagel for you. Ah,
Kyle Mountsier:
see, now you got my whole train of thought I was like,
Paul J Daly:
No. Brain you're gonna pick out when we passed the shop and just a little bit, and you know, you're kind of a Keto guy, but
Kyle Mountsier:
that's a Keto guy. I don't eat a lot of bread or anything like that. Because I low carb like under 50 carbs a day one bagel in New York has got to be at nine carbs. Yeah. If you've never been to New York City, I'm just telling you. The bagels are different. They're so different than the water. They say. It's in the way they prove the stuff whatever it is. They take this bagel that's like as big as dang face just that big. And then half a gallon. Can you ever been to a gelato spot right and seeing like the way that they do the gelato? Yeah. So they do it the same way with cream cheese with cream cheese, and they shuffle that thing and slap it all over the deck and do
Paul J Daly:
it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen and we're going to take a picture and post it. So that's what we're gonna see that hay tomorrow. Tomorrow, very important. More than cars Episode Three premiere don't miss we are going to live premiere at live streaming on LinkedIn, Facebook, and anywhere else we get on YouTube. But an easy way to get to it is to just go to our LinkedIn page, click on Events, and then you can join the event there on LinkedIn. And it's gonna be the Western Auto Group. Can't wait to talk with Matt Lasher the Director of Marketing president of streamline all bunch of other stuff he does there, but it was so much fun doing the show. I think there's a there's a love story in there. There's a carnival in there. There's you and me ordering wings that were too hot in there. All the fun.
Kyle Mountsier:
There's a basketball game a horse in there. I mean, it's it's got everything. It's great. Yeah.
Paul J Daly:
So yeah, that's one o'clock tomorrow, go to LinkedIn. Go to events, click it, you probably get to it from our homepage as well. All right, we got we had news, we're gonna talk about a soda, you know, todo con,
Kyle Mountsier:
we'll talk about it on ASOTU CON,
Paul J Daly:
we'll do more tomorrow. More soda con tomorrow, but we're having a big event if you hadn't heard a soda con.com And we'll do that. Alright, let's talk about some news. So Nissan announced a sweeping three year strategy introducing e power hybrid tech in the US launching seven new models in North America and aiming for a significant sales boost. So CEO Makoto cheetah unveiled ambitious plans to boost global sales by 1 million vehicles that's boosting it by a million vehicles a lot and cutting the cost of EVs by 30%. To achieve parity with combustion engines. By all we can actually hit it right do it hit it hit 20 Because it's a bagel chefs, can you 20 So they're saying he's not saying the year 2030 Is the profit parody between a gas or pricing parody between gas and ice. The plan is named the arc aims to revitalize them through these radical changes, including get this 33 Zero is the 2030 theme 30 new models globally over the next three years with focus obviously on electrification, here's a quote from the CEO, we must make radical changes to become a sustainable company disruption is the new normal, we aim to recover volume and drive profit.
Kyle Mountsier:
So okay, here's the thing, quite a couple of things. One. Okay, I was gonna make a stair step joke. Maybe that's enough. Like all the Nissan dealerships now. Like you just made it you just yeah, just made the stair step joke. The other one is seven models in North America 30 models worldwide in three years. That's so ambitious. And even just like I put my marketers hat on at that moment and go How do you expect to over this timeline get that much net new thought process into consumers brains on like, I need to buy this, especially when Nissan as a as a brand already is one of the like mass market brands that has a very flush product portfolio. It's still just seems like rap Jump in this to me this like weird struggle between EVs and combustion when, again, I am glad there's a lot of hybrid planning this. Yeah. And that's
Paul J Daly:
kind of a lot of hybrid, right it is. I think I saw on LinkedIn our friend Bob Welby, who is
Kyle Mountsier:
what's his well over infinity over infinity I don't know actually has something to do with
Paul J Daly:
service fix something out something he's awesome guy very insightful and he had posted on LinkedIn their their release of the new QX ad, which looks really nice by the way. And it's actually next at the building right next to Hudson Yards. We're going to be later at this platform that's like way up in the air. So also like leaning in the hyperdrive trains. I mean, really taken a page out of the toilet was playbook on that but I mean, I guess we'll see talking about things that Nissan won't be doing. So interesting timing on this Fiskars negotiations with Nissan have abruptly ending Nissan being the major automaker, they were working at working out a possible deal with an acquisition or merger or funding. Throws this Evie startup in the turmoil with its shares have now been halted or halted yesterday. And bankruptcy is looming they are seeking frantically some other solution. So they're missing that both in court and out of court options for restructuring or a capital market transaction something to salvage the situation. Thomas Hayes of great hill capital, warns the growing likelihood of Fisker filing for bankruptcy protest protection potentially marking Henrik Fiskars second failed auto startup out. Now they have less than $100 million market valuation so they've struggled with supply chain issues production delays we've talked about the recent port in a review that YouTube influencer Mark has brown Lee
Kyle Mountsier:
get that hurt him so bad headlines, Oh bad was car I've
Paul J Daly:
ever reviewed, noted a lot of good things about it. But it's hard to recover from that. And Thomas Hayes that who I just referenced said I, I can't put it if it's this week or next week or next year, but he believes bankruptcy is inevitable, but we'll see. See what comes with that.
Kyle Mountsier:
I mean, this is sad to me because they were working on getting the dealership model spun up. And so I was excited about that there was a lot of energy around that. But then we quickly saw the Marques Brownlee posts go up, we quickly saw a tank in the stock. And then you you see these negotiations with Nissan ending, it's just like one after the other, they just keep keep getting hit with the punches. You know, whether or not they can make it out if there's a strategic partnership financially somewhere coming around the pipe. That you know, people have said for a while now the last probably four or five years that we are going to see a ton of net new market entrants similar to when the internal combustion engine actually started right there were hundreds of attempts at becoming mass market brands to see a lot of them fail so because it startup world, remember, they might be raising these millions or billions of dollars, but it's still startup world is still hard. And coming after the legacy automakers is never going to be easy. So sad to see this may be real.
Paul J Daly:
I really want to see it come through. I like car. I like the design. I like the team. I like their approach to things. And I love to see some of these cars like when they get worked out on some dealer lots because I think it would contribute a lot to some some dealer groups offerings for sure. I
Kyle Mountsier:
agree, man, I want to see them all win because I think it's fun seeing these cool cars like they're coming off the line limo cool, especially when they start to adopt the dealer model. Yep. Speaking of adopting a regional bottle segue. So you may not know the name Brady Brewer, but he is the current global cmo and Starbucks is promoting him or moving him to CEO of its international business since the end of the traditional cmo role within the company. They are essentially reevaluating what the role of marketing is within their organizational structure. Their goal is to begin a regional CEO model with localized marketing support. emphasizing a very tailored marketing strategy of this there's two new roles that are being introduced EVP chief merchant and Product Officer for global product strategy and a global brand creative leader to oversee and oversee the brand's global identity. Yep, totally makes sense. The change is all in line with their Starbucks Triple Shot reinvention plan aiming to expand its four footprint and double it Starbucks Rewards members by hit it Paul.
Paul J Daly:
I don't know that we've ever hit this button twice in a story on an automotive story. So here's it here's the reality this like we know that Starbucks is in such a variety of locations, neighborhoods and mindsets and interests and hobbies and the way people hang out at the store, just go through the drive thru this. So to have like product, say like, Hey, this, these are the products. This is what the creative is this is how we want to be perceived and then pushing the actual deployment of the marketing strategy down closer to the front line. I don't think that's why the dealership model works best when the local and regional dealers build local brands to sell the product that was built and marketed at a tier one level. So I love this strategy. I think it's going to crush for them. Yeah. And
Kyle Mountsier:
so you see this operation already happening? Obviously, with OEM and franchise, right? The OEM sets the global brand strategy, at least from the new car marketing perspective, and then the local dealer is able to execute that. But we actually see a lot of auto dealerships as consolidation is happening with groups struggling with the same dynamic like how do we leverage the efficiency of scale, within our marketing, but also make sure that the that the local has the power to market correctly for that locale for the people groups, for the communities that are there. So I love this like thinking about the the roles that that that Starbucks is having this chief merchant and Product Officer and global brand creative leader, getting getting to set the vision, getting the set kind of the global vision for the brand, and then allowing that to sink deep to these regional marketing leaders. I think that there's a real strategy there that especially groups that are consolidating can start to take and assume into their strategy. And
Paul J Daly:
we're seeing more groups adopt the strategy, but when it works well is when a couple of things are present. Number one, you have a brand marketer, like running some strategy close to the ground level, what happens and what we've seen happen a lot are people who manage like logistics, or who manage like, you know, Co Op, or tier two, that just aren't wired to think about brand strategy and how we're going to deploy in order for it to work. Like I'm sure that Starbucks is going to make sure that the CEO model with a localized marketing support is going to be well trained, and well aligned to the fact that like, Okay, this is what the product is. This is how it's supposed to make people feel this is the quality, but this is actually how the product is consumed. Here. Yep. Right this how people buy interact with the product here. So I'm really excited about this. We're gonna be talking about this. And who knows, maybe they maybe they can like spur a little bit more progressive thinking. It's really I mean, Starbucks has had massive control for a long, long time from the top. They're pushing it out. They're no they're no dummies. They've done a couple of things right over
Kyle Mountsier:
the years. Maybe they won't do Christmas stuff in November in Phoenix. That will never happen. Come on now call one
Paul J Daly:
of the most awkward experiences. pumpkin spice lattes in Arizona when it's 85 degrees out just didn't work but we have a bagel to go get to see a JD Power and we'll come to you with an interview coming soon.