New head committed to Infiniti roadmap

Gaby-Luise Wuest is preparing to brush up her Chinese language skills after she was appointed head of Dongfeng Infiniti Motor Co on a chilly afternoon last week in Beijing.

Wuest said she can understand some spoken words but does not speak the language. Before her appointment, she served as Infiniti's chief operations officer in Hong Kong and before that worked for BMW's joint venture on the mainland.

Rather than starting out with the Chinese words nihao and xiexie, meaning "hello" and "thank you", some industry insiders joked she had better start with the phrase gan ai, which literally means "dare to love", and is the catchphrase and subsequent campaign her Mandarin-speaking predecessor Daniel Kirchert initiated in January 2014 to promote Infiniti in the local market.

It was announced on Friday that Kirchert will remain in China as the chief operations officer for a newly formed electric carmaker under the umbrella of Harmony Futeng.

The gan ai campaign Kirchert created and nurtured has worked well so far, turning the once obscure brand into the fastestgrowing marque in China's premium car segment for two consecutive years.

In 2015, Infiniti sold 40,188 cars on the Chinese mainland, a 33.8 percent surge year-on-year and six times the overall growth rate of the premium car segment in China.

Infiniti's president Roland Krueger credited that performance, at least partly, to the strategy, and plans to incorporate it into the brand's global positioning. He said the slogan, especially the "dare to" aspect, is true to the image of the brand worldwide.

Despite Kirchert's resignation, Krueger said Infiniti's roadmap would not change in China, its most important market worldwide.

In addition to the gan ai strategy, other elements of the roadmap include a sound partnership with Dongfeng, a portfolio of appropriate localized models and good relations with its dealers.

Krueger told China Daily, "We have set out a very clear direction for Infiniti in China, and this strategy will be continued at the same pace, with the same backup and support from global Infiniti."

He stressed that "dealerships are an integral part of our business", saying they are "what is important for our continued success". On the evening of her first day on the job, Wuest made a point of meeting key dealers in Beijing.

Krueger's emphasis on good relations with the dealership network assures those dealers of what the future holds, and the timing, on the day of Wuest's appointment, demonstrated the importance they hold to the new boss.

Building on the relationships Kirchert forged with the brand's dealers might further inspire Wuest to learn Chinese as they are accustomed to working with a president fluent in the language.

Kirchert will be a hard act to follow, as he was so successful, but Krueger expressed his confidence in Wuest.

"Ms Wuest has extensive experience in China, with living here for eight years and working for premium brands.

"She has been managing and coordinating global sales and marketing operations for Infiniti. She has a deep background in the market and a deep understanding of how to run a company in China and the dealerships in China."

The road ahead will definitely bring challenges for Wuest but "challenge is also opportunity", Krueger said, as the new head brings her own strengths to the brand and steers her own course.

Wuest affirmed her own commitment to the Infiniti roadmap, and said her task is to ensure disciplined implementation of that strategy.

"We all know the Chinese market is a very dynamic market, a volatile market," she said.

"I have a deep, professional interest in the Chinese market and I have a close, emotional tie to the Chinese market, having worked and lived here in my previous job for eight years."

Opportunities abound for Wuest to seize. Infiniti has set an annual sales goal of 100,000 units per year by 2018 in China and is attempting to make itself an alternative to the German brands that dominate the local market.

Dongfeng Infiniti, the marque's only joint venture in China, has a plant in Xiangyang, Hubei province, and its localized models - the Q50 L and QX50 - accounted for 60 percent of the brand's total sales in China in 2015.

lifusheng@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 02/01/2016 page19)