Nissan Teams up with a Fashion Mag!

Everyone in the fashion world knows the magazine ELLE and everyone has probably heard of Nissan, the car maker. What do they have in common? Nothing really, except they are coming out with a partnership! You read that right, Nissan is teaming up with ELLE to come up with Nisan Micra ELLE. Whether this is a smart move or a dumb move, only time will tell. This is really interesting, nonetheless.

Nissan isn’t Ferrari and definitely has to define and carve out a brand and a nice for itself, and teaming up with one of the most popular fashion magazines just might do it. On the surface, Nissan and ELLE would target a similar kind of a person. Would also be interesting how certain dealers feel about it, like S. Florida’s Pompano Nissan dealer.

Whatever the marketing material says, I for one am interested to see how this evolves, because it means that bigger and bigger brands that seemingly have nothing to do with fashion are seeing its utility. Fashion isn’t just about clothes or makeup, it is about a psyche. Brands are beginning to realize that what’s most important to their customers is the story they tell, and by associating with well known fashion entities, they can reinforce a belief about their product that traditional marketing just cannot.

By the way, the partnership is serious – you’ll see ELLE all over, from the tailgate to the floor mats. It shows that Nissan is serious about branding itself to its target audience as something affordable that will change their life for the good through trusted company.

Of course the partnership can be seen to be two ways – ELLE should also benefit by being seen to be associated with Nissan. It is free publicity after all, as more of these cars populate our streets. It will also improve awareness of the brand among people who are not particularly fashion enthusiasts but would be curious now. I think it is a smart move for ELLE as well, because they can now tap into a demographic that was closed for them before – an interested urban readership that doesn’t care so much about reading fashion magazines but definitely their cars.

How do you think this will pan out for Nissan? Do you think it will make a difference for ELLE and its image as well?