People are coming from around the world to Mexico City to meet Mayra Gonzalez.
Gonzalez, head of sales and marketing for Nissan Mexicana, has the unenviable task of trying to move the needle for Nissan in a market where it is already off the charts. Nissan captured 26 percent of the Mexican light-vehicle market in 2015 — No. 1 in the country and the highest Nissan group penetration of any market in the world.
To keep growing, Gonzalez, 39, says she has zeroed in on the market’s toughest competitor — Nissan itself.
“We’re competing with ourselves now,” she says. “We need to tackle the one who is in the mirror.”
One goal is to boost Nissan’s market-leading customer satisfaction results. Gonzalez wants dealers to focus on making customers happier.
“Not just satisfied,” she says, “but delighted.”
Gonzalez also wants to help Nissan export its Mexican results to other markets. That’s why Nissan marketers from around the world are stopping by Mexico City these days.
She has a track record for that. Before her current assignment, Gonzalez worked out of Nissan North America headquarters in Nashville as head of Customer Quality and Dealer Network Development Strategy. She set strategies for improving customer satisfaction, sales results and service performance for North and South America.
Her “Dealers Standards Improvement” plan was adopted first in Mexico, then the U.S. market, China, Indonesia and the Middle East. The basic idea: Give Nissan “the right facility in the right location with the right partner.”
She also wants to step up Nissan’s advertising in Mexico.
“As we launch more innovative products here,” she says, “I want to communicate the excitement not just of the product — but that emotion that comes from buying it.”
— Lindsay Chappell
