• Automotive News, Tuesday, July 20, 2010 8:47 AM

Ever since its launch with images of rocks and trees 21 years ago, Lindsay Chappell writes, brand Infiniti has been swathed in mystery. Imagery aside, more than a decade of sharing vehicles and marketing resources with its larger sibling, Nissan, has left the image even fuzzier image in consumer's minds.

Ben Poore, who has been vp of Nissan North America's Infiniti Business Unit for a year and a half, is out to sharpen the image with a new campaign, "The Way of Infiniti," that's burnishing its heritage as a "performance luxury" line. It's scheduled to run for five years to foster a consistent image.

"The ads open with a brush stroke, and that's how we design our cars," Poore says. "We don't start with an engineering spec. We start with an emotion we want to create. We want people to see that we are an inspired, emotional brand."

Poore also will unveil a product initiative next month during the Concours d'Elegance auto show in Pebble Beach, Calif., that is expected to include a new Infiniti Performance Line targeting BMW's M performance models, Mercedes' AMG options and the Audi S line, Chappell reports.

Read the whole story at Automotive News »