The Datsun brand dates back to 1931, when DAT Motorcar Co. first used Datson to highlight its low-end products, since “son” referred to small in Japanese. When DAT was taken over by Nissan, in 1933, the name was maintained, and the irony come with the fact that “son” also meant ”loss” which will prove true a few years later. Datsun became more and more famous, being Japan’s second-largest automaker until 1982, when Nissan began phasing Datsun out and getting its own badge separately.
According to various reports from the 1980’s, Nissan spent more than $200 million, a large amount for the company at that time in order to advertise the the name change from Datsun to Nissan in the US. It was a controversial and challenging move, as many analysts were skeptical and were sure that it will lead to a consumer confusion, which will bring years of decline for Nissan. However, this proved not to be the case.
The Japanese manufacturer already “protects” the Datsun brand by keeping it active .Nissan came out with a statement saying that, ”as a normal business practice to manage our brand-related activities, Nissan regularly applies for registration of trademarks in certain countries”. Overall, the arrival of Datsun on the auto market seems to be just in time, since there is a growing request for economic vehicles worldwide.
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