Aftermarket

Began sales activities in the markets closest to general consumers.

The rotary drum type electric washing machine that Nippondenso developed was superior in quality to the agitation type electric washing machines that had been the mainstream up to that point. It was also greeted favorably because it was sold at a price that consumers could easily afford. The washing machines temporarily took the top share of the market and the recognition of the name "DENSO" quickly increased.

To respond to the increase in sales, the company created new sales bases, such as with the opening of the Nagoya washing machine sales office, and worked to develop a nationwide sales organization.

In July 1958, the rights to manufacture and sell electric washing machines were transferred to Aichi Kogyo (now Aisin).

The "enhancement of the sales and service network" was also set forth as an important measure in the five-year plan for the company that was formulated in 1954. In addition to further advancing the preparation of a system within the company, 24 stores were designated as SS in August of the same year and the company began the full-scale development of a nationwide sales and service network.

In 1953, the company launched the original square-shaped car heater it had developed. (The product name at that time was "Room Heater".) Rather than the delivery of the product directly to the car manufacturers, the company began commercial sales activities to sell the heaters to the transportation industry and others as an optional accessory. The Bosch type round heater that was launched in 1954 had improved performance and gained unexpected popularity, with all 2,128 units selling out.

The production of spark plugs was started through additional technical cooperation with Bosch. Full-scale nationwide sales began as the DENSO spark plug.

Nippondenso developed a dash type cooler that was less expensive than the trunk type and used the catchphrase, "Inject cold air from the Alps with the DENSO car cooler" to conduct promotional activities to popularize its use in general passenger cars.

In the aftermarket, Nippondenso created a system of sub-regional supply bases for aftermarket sales and further expanded its sales offices and service dealers. The purpose of this was not only to expand sales of commercially available items, but also to be able to conduct quick and meticulous service activities for products that were out in the market after being delivered directly as OEM products and assembled on automobiles. For the SS, the company promoted a shift to larger-scale stores and a greater number of stores, and also positioned SSSs under their umbrella.

Nippondenso developed a refrigeration unit for small trucks in 1970 and a transport refrigerator vehicle equipped with this unit was launched by Toyota Motor Corporation in April 1971. This led to the creation of the TECS (TOYOTA Easy Carry System), which was a system that contributed to labor-saving in logistics, and the refrigeration unit was put on sale in 1972 as the TECS refrigerated vehicle. Later, in 1987, Nippondenso also developed a refrigeration system for Yamato Transport and it was installed in the vehicles used exclusively for Yamato’s Cool Takkyubin parcel deliveries.

In 1972, the company applied air conditioning technology to develop a cooler for businesses. In 1973, sales of these coolers were started in earnest through Toyota Motor Sales and Toyota industrial vehicle dealers, with the product names INPAC and INSPAC.

Sales had started from cordless phones for automobiles in 1989, but the Two Finger phone launched for IDO cellular in 1994 took the market by storm after a TV commercial starring the wrestler Giant Baba promoted it as the smallest and most lightweight in the world. It made DENSO a household name in the cellular phone market.

In 1997, a policy of "strengthening aftermarket sales overseas" was formulated for the whole company. DENSO performed benchmarking against the major commercial manufacturers in Europe and America and then formulated and deployed an original strategy for global aftermarket sales. The two-pillar strategy adopted was to maintain the win-win relationships in the carmaker route whilst also making an effort to develop DENSO’s own sales channels. The company also started to hold global aftermarket meetings to ensure that the strategy was deployed and became established at group company bases overseas.

To revise the network structure for the aftermarket in Japan and increase the sales capabilities, the DENSO Sales Divisions and Sales Offices, some of the functional sales companies and the DENSO-funded service dealers, etc., were merged and made into sales companies.

Accidents involving drivers stepping on the wrong pedal were becoming a major problem, especially among elderly drivers, so DENSO developed and released this product jointly with Toyota Motor Corporation.

Also simultaneously released communication-type drive recorders and telematics terminals