text: “If you think about the inherent value of a great 
  
  business, brand is enormous—often more valuable 
  
  than the company’s tangible fixed assets. In the 
  
  minds of consumers, the brand*is*the company. 
  
  So everything we do to define and position our brand, 
  
  to make it more powerful and compelling, yields 
  
  immense value for our employees, our dealers and 
  
  suppliers, and most importantly for our shareholders 
  
  and other stakeholders. That in turn manifests itself in 
  
  higher sales, better margins and lower marketing 
  
  costs, elevated levels of customer trust, better word- 
  
  of-mouth communication, and better advocacy in 
  
  the marketplace. 
  
  After the Alliance was created, the new 
  
  management team came in and made several critical 
  
  decisions. One was a call to clearly define Nissan as 
  
  a global brand. The message was clear. Nissan was 
  
  not going to be a supplier of commodity automotive 
  
  appliances. We are building cars that capture people’s 
  
  imaginations. Cars that are fun to drive, that people 
  
  want to drive. Cars that might not be for everyone— 
  
  that could even prove polarizing in their design and 
  
  performance characteristics—but cars impossible to 
  
  ignore, cars that quicken the pulse. 
  
  Well, our team got the product right, and it’s up to 