The 39-year-old Christian Blank is the new “Director for Central Europe” at the Renault-Nissan luxury brand Infiniti. During the IAA in Frankfurt I was able to use the time for an interview with the sales professional.
How does Christian Blank want to lead the INFINITI brand forward?
my-auto-blog: Station wagon, automatic and diesel. If an automobile manufacturer in Germany wants to be successful, then they need these three ingredients to sell decent quantities on the market. You want to generate more sales in the future, especially in the fleet business. What is your strategy
Christian Blank: We are convinced that we are with the new Q50 which is offered with a powerful diesel engine and a modern automatic system has great potential in the field of small and medium-sized fleets. For example with the classic leasing customer and the so-called "User Chooser", In fact, we still lack a station wagon in this segment, but we think that we still cover a significant size of the segment with our products.
my-auto-blog: What makes an Infiniti so special? Why do you think that more and more customers will choose an Infiniti in the future? The Q50 for example will get an engine from the collaboration with Mercedes - what suggests that customers would rather buy the Q50 instead of the Mercedes C-Class?
Christian Blank: The keyword is: “Driving Dynamics” and a unique selling point are advanced technical features such as: “Drive by Wire". We will bring the first vehicle into series production equipped with this modern technology.
However, there are other points; And one of the most important is the design. You will probably agree with me that, for example, at FX the design is exceptional. That the design may be a bit provocative, that it is different. The same applies to the Q50.
If you place a Q50 next to the competition, the design is striking. So, I think design is a very important point. That takes me to the next point. That is the topic of individuality. This is defined on the one hand by the design, but also by the brand. The brand is still a relatively young brand and the customer can stand out from the crowd.
We have seen vehicles that are more and more similar in recent years and we are already deviating from them. And I think there are more and more customers who say that I no longer want to drive what my neighbor is driving, I want to drive something else.
And the third point is performance. I mentioned the keyword: “Driving Dynamics”. I think that's a very important point. Part of the Infiniti brand message is the theme: Performance. And it is ultimately reflected by our involvement in Formula 1 and the “technical development director”: Sebastian Vettel!
my-auto-blog: With the Q50 you want to hunt for new customers in the company car segment and in the area of classic limousine drivers. But will that be enough? What about private customers and those who don't want to drive a limousine because it's too big?
Christian Blank: We have here on the IAA the Q30 concept presented.
my-auto-blog: A model that will be created on the platform of their cooperation partner Mercedes-Benz.
Christian Blank: Yeah right. And we've already talked about the diesel engine in the Q50. And it will be a long-term cooperation with Daimler. And Daimler benefits from it and we benefit from it. Daimler has synergy effects that will certainly help you too. And such collaborations are relatively normal.
With the Q30, of course, we can reduce the price threshold again quite well and can thus address other customers again. Customers who are a tad younger and those who are young at heart. To use our English word: “young minded”, which is a nice description. These are the customers who are also seen for the Q30.
my-auto-blog: But will the upcoming Q50 and the now introduced concept of the Q30 be enough to place the brand where you want it in the next few years?
Christian Blank: We will have the entire product portfolio processed over the next five years. Every product on the market today will be renewed in five years. Of course, not all come at the same time, but then, in principle, we have a complete renewal
Many thanks for the interview!
The conversation took place during the IAA 2013 and besides the topics that have now made their way into the blog, it was very interesting to see how much euphoria the brand has had in Germany. The first five years in Germany were not easy and coincided with an economic crisis in Europe.
I am convinced that INFINITI will step on the gas in Germany over the next five years. The colleagues from Lexus (Toyota subsidiary) have already demonstrated that the concept of the “premium vehicle” from Japan works. The fact that you rub yourself against the established ones in the market (e.g. Mercedes-Benz) does not make the task any easier.
