Nissan North America has “captured” Hyundai America’s top marketing man. Joel Ewanick, who was vice president of marketing at the Korean company, is credited with the effective Hyundai Assurance Program, where Hyundai buys back cars from customers who lose their jobs. While at Hyundai, he earned accolades including Chief Marketing Officer of the Year (2009) from Forbes, Grand Marketer of the Year (2009) from Brandweek and Marketer of the Year (2009) from Advertising Age.
Ewanick has been named vice president, Marketing, Nissan Division, effective March 22. He succeeds Christian Meunier, whose appointment as president, Nissan Brazil, was announced Feb. 5. In his new role, Ewanick will be responsible for all facets of marketing activities for Nissan brand products in the US, including marketing communications, C&I, pricing and product management.
Before joining Hyundai, Ewanick held executive positions at the Hinckley Company – Monitor Clipper, Boston; Palmer Johnson LLC in Wisconsin; and Porsche Cars North America in Atlanta. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from California State University, Northridge.
To sell well one needs good products, but skilled marketing people can draw in seemingly uninterested people, just like Hyundai did in a troubled 2009 where it was one of only three brands to record growth. Surely, this is a coup for Nissan.
As far as I know there have been three auto-related projects with the name ‘Phoenix’ so far. First and most important to us Malaysians is of course, Proton’s new engine range which will include a turbocharged variant. And then we have Mitsubishi’s Project Phoenix which was supposed to be a detailed plan to close Mitsubishi’s last plant in Australia. And then of course we have Chrysler’s Phoenix engine, now officially known as the Pentastar V6. Quite a popular name isn’t it? But none of these auto projects have anything to do with each other, especially Proton’s and Chrysler’s.
