• by Tanya Gazdik , February 12, 2017

CHICAGO — Nissan Motor Corp. is expanding its Midnight Edition packages to six models, the automaker announced at the Chicago Auto Show.

Previously only offered on the Maxima SR, the equipment package — which includes black wheels, black spoiler, black mirror caps and available special floor mats — will now be offered on the Sentra, Altima, Rogue, Murano and Pathfinder. Additional equipment will be added by model.

The editions will continue the automaker’s growth momentum, says Eric Ledieu, director, chief marketing — sedans, sports cars and Nissan Motorsport at Nissan Motor Corp.

The automaker will market the editions via digital assets to “urban intenders,” Ledieu tells Marketing Daily.  “We have a separate landing page on the Nissan website. Social media will also continue to be used prominently.”

The six models offering Midnight Edition packages account for more than 75% of Nissan’s  U.S. sales.

The original Midnight Edition package was offered on the 2016 Maxima SR and now accounts for 85% of Maxima SR sales. While first offered exclusively with black exterior paint, the color palette for Midnight Editions now includes a choice of black, white, gray and red colors for all six models.

All Midnight Edition models are offered with high-optimized pricing, with the packages’ MSRPs offering discounts up to $1,300 on select models (versus similar equipment priced separately).

Nissan also revealed the new 2017 Titan and Titan XD King Cab pickup truck models.

"The launch of the new King Cab body is the last step in a journey that began in December 2015 with the debut of the breakthrough TIitan XD, which continues to carve out a unique white space between competitors' heavy-duty and half-ton trucks," said Fred Diaz, division vice president and general manager, North America trucks and light commercial vehicles, Nissan North America, Inc. 

With the addition of a half-ton Titan, the new Endurance V8, three body configurations, three bed lengths and a range of grade levels and equipment packages, Nissan is covering nearly every segment in the personal and commercial full-size truck markets.

Nissan was a non-player in truck segment as recent as a year ago, Diaz told reporters in Chicago. “We had less a half a point of market share,” he says.

The addition of the Titan King Cab is Nissan’s fifth truck and gives the automaker a presence in 85% of the truck segment. 

Diaz says he is “very happy to see the percentage of customers coming from Ram, GM and Toyota.” The automaker purposely had a slow ramp-up of the truck to insure there would be no recalls. “If you mess up the quality, you are done,” Diaz says. “You are just not a contender.”

As for marketing the truck, the digital spend will increase from last year. 

“We are getting more and more creative with digital and social media,” he told an exclusive group of reporters at a private Nissan event. “We never feel like we have enough marketing dollars we need to create awareness.”

One struggle has been communicating to potential buyers that the truck’s warranty is bumper to bumper and not just the powertrain. A full 50% of customers don’t realize the extent of the warranty. 

“We are working to get that awareness up,” Diaz said.