Nissan Annual Report 2004 63
some of the eye-popping numbers that we have in the past.
The reality is, of course, that we’re even stronger, but we
must keep up the momentum.
The U.S. market will continue to be strong, but the
competition will be even tougher. There may be some
separation between those companies that approach the
market the right way, and those that are struggling to find
their place. I consider Nissan very definitely one of the
former. We have a direction and a strategy, and we have
confidence that we can successfully implement the
strategy. If we stay focused, we will succeed.
It’s important that we do. The North American market,
and the U.S. in particular, is generally a large contributor to
any foreign manufacturer’s operations. It’s a big and very
dynamic market, and that spells good news for Nissan. Our
growth, and our strength, is in the very areas where the U.S.
market is growing. We’re higher than average in the
Sunbelt states, whose growth in the coming years will
simply magnify ours. We score very well among young
people, a group that is becoming increasingly important.
We also rate highly among the rapidly growing Hispanic
population and the African-American population. Everything
is lining up for us—Nissan has the opportunity to pull away
from other players.” 
outside the company: the U.S. economy, interest rates, oil
prices and competitive actions. Incentives and aggressive
discounting are both disturbing the marketplace. We’ve
reached a level where this is actually confusing customers
about the amount of discount that is available in the
market. These are all things that we can’t directly control.
Looking longer term over the period of NISSAN Value-
Up, I think it’s fair to say that we will return to double-digit
growth, because we’re going to have some terrific new
products that will allow us to enter new segments. The
product will drive growth, but it would be a mistake to
discount the increasing strength of brand recognition.
We’ve spent roughly a billion dollars in upgrading Nissan
dealer facilities up to 2004. This will continue to some
degree in 2005 and 2006, while we’ve begun the same
process for Infiniti. People see exciting change happening
at Nissan and Infiniti. 
Over the long term, one minor risk for us is that we can
no longer catch people by surprise. That was exciting, but
that period is gone, which represents a challenge for us. As
we come off a year with more than 20 percent growth, the
media often ask me why we’re not going to be in double
digits again this year, as if that were the normal thing for
us. The more successful you get, the harder it is to deliver
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