達特桑更名日產（1981年）

????在美國，日產汽車公司生產的卡車以日產（Nissan）的品牌銷售，但是小轎車一直到1981年都是以達特桑（Datsun）的品牌在銷售。這家公司在190個國家的小轎車銷售量突破2000萬輛后作出了一個艱難的決定，放棄在美國投放的達特桑品牌（該品牌在日本已有近一個世紀的歷史，名字源于日語“Dat”，意思是“快如脫兔”），以便統一全球品牌。品牌關聯在汽車業中至關重要，這招“頗具爭議”的險棋招來不少非議，汽車研究公司Edmunds公司高級編輯比爾?維斯尼克指出。這個決定代價很高，大約要六年時間才最終完成。

????維斯尼克說：“大家可以看到同一品牌沿用數十年，甚至幾代人時間，因為這對讓人們了解這款車的出處至關重要。”

????頗具諷刺意義的是，日產公司目前又決定讓達特桑品牌復活，并于2014年在印度、印度尼西亞、俄羅斯和南非等國家推出“21世紀的第一款新達特桑汽車”。維斯尼克指出，日產公司此舉背后原因在于，公司其他副牌都很“成功”，公司用這些副牌來推廣與日產原有品牌無關的車型。（財富中文網）

????譯者：鄧婕

Datsun to Nissan (1981)

????In the U.S., trucks made by the Japanese automaker now known as Nissan were marketed under the Nissan brand -- but small cars were branded as Datsun until 1981. After selling 20 million cars in 190 countries, the company made the difficult decision to drop the Datsun name (which originated in Japan almost a century ago, and comes from the Japanese word 'DAT' for lightning fast) from its U.S. operations to unify its global brand. The "controversial" move was highly criticized, given the importance of brand association in the car industry, said Bill Visnic, a senior editor for car research company Edmunds. The endeavor was also expensive and took roughly six years to complete.

????"You see cars using the same name for decades and generations because it is critical to make it clear to people where the car came from," Visnic said.

????Ironically, Nissan has decided to resurrect the brand and will unveil the "first new Datsun car for the 21st century" in 2014 in countries like India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa. The company made the move because sub-brands are largely "in style" now and car companies are using them to promote vehicles they don't necessarily want to be associated with their original brand, Visnic said.