Datsun's Revival Won't Be a Nostaglia Play

Brand is foreign to the countries it's entering next

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Nostalgia won’t play a role in the marketing behind Datsun’s 2014 comeback.

That’s because parent company Nissan hasn’t sold Datsuns before in the countries it will target first: India, Russia and Indonesia. In short, people in such emerging markets just don’t know the mark. Accordingly, Datsun lead agency TBWA is treating the revival of Datsun—which disappeared in 1981, when Ronald Reagan was president—like the launch of a new brand.

“My strategic challenge is, how do I make people love it for the first time?” explained Adam Stagliano, TBWA’s chief international strategy officer.

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