automotive

Nissan Elevates Witherspoon To CMO

As part of a realignment of its senior leadership team, Nissan has elevated Allyson Witherspoon to U.S. chief marketing officer.

She was previously vice president, marketing communications and media. She has also served as general manager for global brand engagement for Nissan in Japan and as director of marketing communications for Infiniti.

Witherspoon’s duties will expand with the elevation, effective Nov. 1.

In this expanded role, Witherspoon assumes responsibility for the customer journey, data innovation and lead management functions, in addition to her current role leading marketing communications and media. This will enable Nissan to identify and connect with consumers through all points of the customer journey leveraging data, insights and impactful communications, according to the automaker. 

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She continues to report to Michael Colleran, senior vice president, Nissan U.S. marketing and sales.

The realignment comes as the automaker continues to execute the global Nissan NEXT transformation plan, focusing on the importance of the U.S. market to deliver sustainable business performance and customer value.

“At Nissan we are changing our product, changing our business and changing our culture and that is all driven by our people and our challenging spirit,” Colleran says in a release.

Other executive moves include David Kershaw, division vice president, dealer network development and customer quality for the U.S. and Canada;  Judy Wheeler, division vice president, Nissan sales and regional operations for the U.S. and  Dan Mohnke, vice president, ecommerce, leading a team focused on online commerce efforts to help prepare the business to respond to changing industry and consumer behaviors. 

Nissan’s overall U.S. sales were down 32% in the third quarter versus the same period in 2019. However, sales of the Nissan Versa were up 24%, GT-R sales rose 14% and Kicks sales were up 9%.

“From an industry perspective, consumer confidence in the market is rising and the tools that Nissan has put into place to assist customers to shop and purchase remotely have been paying off,” Kershaw said in a release. “Retail sales continued to improve in the third quarter as we decrease rental fleet volume and focus on steadily building a quality, sustainable business.”

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