Marketing Woes
21 July 2004
Daniel Howes in the Detroit News has an interesting perspective—if slightly defensive of the Detroit Big 3—on the marketing trouncing Toyota is handing its rivals.
Because the confusion strengthens Toyota’s carefully crafted green marketing message. And it buttresses the image of Detroit’s Big Three-are-environmental-morons, a rap that GM, Ford and Chrysler partly fuel by their slow response to the budding hybrid movement and their devotion to big trucks and SUVs.
Look, there’s no denying Toyota’s leadership in the hybrid race, considering that its second-generation Prius is in high demand and more hybrids are headed for showrooms. But it’s a race that has just begun, so to declare it over and anoint Toyota the victor is akin to saying the Pistons will win the NBA title the next 10 years because they did this year.
It’s not that simple. Give Toyota credit for setting the pace on hybrids and forcing Detroit’s automakers to recognize their legitimate place in the market. But don’t credit Toyota for developing Ford’s hybrid because it didn’t.
There’s some other interesting material in there, worth a read, especially if you ever followed the flap around the source of Ford’s hybrid technology. To me, though, the primary point reinforces the need for the Detroit automakers to change the way they develop, market and sell their cars. Toyota has grasped that, and is executing brilliantly.
Let me provide an example from the Los Angeles Auto Show earlier this year.
The Prius was the highlight of the entire Toyota area. Toyota had designed an entire display around the advanced technology of the car, gave regular presentations on it, and had technical staff in the crowd to be able to answer whatever geeky questions might come up as well as simple questions such as: “Do I have to plug the car in at night to make it go in the morning?”
I lingered in the area for several presentations; each attracted a healthy and diverse crowd. Toyota staff were outgoing, knowledgeable about their products, and treated their customers with respect. When people left the Toyota area, they had learned something about the technology, the car, and the company. Moving over to the Ford area resulted in the opposite experience.
A few people chatted among themselves in the information booth. There was some vague recognition of the term hybrid, but that was about the extent of it. A few minutes of rummaging produced a scrap of paper on which someone wrote my name and said I’d get a mailing. (I still haven’t, by the way.) Keep in mind that Ford announced the Escape Hybrid in 2000. Four years later, mere months before the actual production launch, and there’s no emphasis, no info, and no one to deliver a persistent, substantive message at a major event in one of the largest auto markets in the country.
Which vendor would you think had a clue?
Toyota is building a new market, and its brand with it. If that linkage lies uncontested for too long, the brand becomes synonymous with the market. Other automakers have the technical and product wherewithal to do it; they need to make the marketing and business changes necessary.
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