Scion's dilemma: Be hip -- but avoid the mainstream
05-23-06, 07:28 AM
#1
Speaks French in Russian
Thread Starter
Scion's dilemma: Be hip -- but avoid the mainstream
Scion's dilemma
Be hip -- but avoid the mainstream
By MARK RECHTIN | AUTOMOTIVE NEWS
AutoWeek | Published 05/23/06, 10:00 am et
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../60522015/1041
Be hip -- but avoid the mainstream
By MARK RECHTIN | AUTOMOTIVE NEWS
AutoWeek | Published 05/23/06, 10:00 am et
LOS ANGELES -- By the time you hear the DaKAH Hip-Hop Orchestra on your local radio station, Scion won't be promoting them anymore.
Toyota's youth brand will be seeking out the next underground sensation. That's the essence of Scion's marketing strategy: If you've heard of someone, chances are Scion is long gone from the picture.
Toyota's youth brand has targeted Gen Y buyers -- fast, hip and allergic to traditional advertising -- since it was launched in 2003. While other auto brands attach themselves to cultural icons such as Tiger Woods, Scion sought the obscure but hip.
That strategy has worked so far. Last year Scion U.S. sales totaled 156,485 units, well ahead of its internal target of 125,000 units.
But success has brought a fresh dilemma: In an effort to hit sales targets, would Scion go mainstream? Today, the brand's answer is clearly no. Scion executives say they have no plans to break the 160,000-unit barrier, for fear of oversaturating the brand.
Scion leaves itself just one loophole: If customers are left waiting too long for their customized cars, Toyota will increase production rather than lose sales.
In its early days, Scion needed to build brand awareness, which meant the occasional foray into ESPN college football broadcasts. Now that Scion has a toehold among young hipsters, its marketers will go even further underground into music, art, fashion and film.
"We are becoming more offbeat," says Scion Vice President Mark Templin. "We want to pull people into the brand. We will never push the brand onto them."
Controlling the brand
With 15 years of sales and marketing experience at Lexus, the 45-year-old Templin fits the role of corporate executive rather than edgy adolescent.
In the car, Templin will listen to the music his teenage son plays, but he admits to being a radio "button pusher." His role, he says, is to bring his Lexus finely tuned sense of customer satisfaction to the low-margin world of selling $15,000 Scions.
To ferret out the artists, music, events and causes that might attract a potential Scion buyer, Templin depends on his marketing team.
Because Scion is a splinter group of Toyota, it is sparsely staffed. Many Toyota managers split time between Toyota and Scion chores. There are only seven dedicated employees in Scion's marketing department, located in a building formerly occupied by Toyota's dry cleaner.
With Punjabi hip-hop swirling in the background, the genesis of many new ideas comes from sessions between Scion staff and third-party marketing firms. "Our partners need to get what we are about," Templin said. "If the creative group gets it, they'll take us down the right path and tell us how we can be relevant."
Scion research states that the average age of its drivers is 31, the youngest of any car brand in the United States. But Templin concedes that Scion also attracts its share of boomers and retirees who like the well-packaged, low-priced hatchbacks.
Not that Templin has a problem with that. He compares Scion to Red Bull, which means different things to different audiences. The cough-syrup-flavored beverage appeals to athletes who want quick carbohydrates, nightclubbers who mix it with vodka, and students who like the caffeine rush for studying. Because these groups likely will never encounter each other, it's OK for all those groups to enjoy the product, Templin says.
"Everyone works so hard to control and define what their brand stands for, when they ought to just let the consumer do it," he says.
Hip-hop golfers
Scion is a laboratory for new ideas. Its latest experiment: golf clothes. That's not a misprint.
Golf is normally the bastion for older brands such as Buick and Lincoln. But young urbanites were taking up the sport, so Scion jumped in.
The automaker is using cutting-edge designers Blue Davis and Jupiter Destiny III to create clothes that will appeal to young urbanites. They want to make a fashion statement on the links without being kicked out of the pro shop.
"People are shocked to hear Scion is associated with golf, but Scion owners aren't just about baggy shirts and jeans," says Dawn Ahmed, Scion's former national manager for sales promotion, now marketing Toyota's trucks. "This is a community that aspires to luxury goods. Scion is mixing golf with the street."
On the music front, Scion launched its own record label to help promote aspiring hip-hop artists. So far the company has backed 18 musicians, with vinyl runs of 100 to 250 albums each.
That doesn't include the hundreds of hip-hop artists Scion has hyped through compilation CDs it gives away by the thousands to auto show and club attendees. Scion also hosts 75 nightclub events each month for rising musicians.
Fame is the kiss of death
"The secret is that we are involved when people aren't yet famous," Templin says. "If they even have a hint of becoming famous, then we are on to the next unknown, because there is always an unknown you can support."
Scion's backing of budding filmmakers includes sponsoring X-Dance, an unauthorized splinter of Robert Redford's famed Sundance Film Festival. Whereas Sundance focuses on art-house dramas, X-Dance movies deal with snowboarding steep glaciers or surfing the thunderous waves off Maui.
Scion's print advertising buy is restricted to such underground magazines as Complex, Elemental and the ironically named Mass Appeal.
Scion is even reaching for those who can't drive yet. It is co-sponsoring an exhibit at a Los Angeles science museum with Marvel Comics. In it, young visitors can fit into the exoskeleton of superhero Iron Man and physically lift with pulleys and levers, a Scion xB hatchback off the ground. Scion is aiming even younger by collaborating with the educational Web site Whyville, whose average viewers are between 8 and 15 years of age.
Peyote hallucinations
Not everything works, however. Although its xPress Fest brought student filmmakers together with indie-rock bands to make music videos, Scion found that rock music didn't resonate well with its core hip-hop music base.
Sometimes Scion goes too far, such as the backlash it incurred when an online cartoon character had peyote-induced hallucinations. Some ideas -- such as buying breakfast at Denny's for hungover spring breakers -- never get off the drawing board.
But Templin is willing to put Scion's money behind long shots, because that's where new trends come from.
"We'll make mistakes, whether it's getting into indie rock or techno (dance music) or whatever," he says. "And when hip-hop is part of the mainstream, rather than just permeating it, then we'll get out of that, too."
Not that Scion ignores more traditional marketing styles. In April, the company began a second round of ride-and-drive events. The first time around, the cool factor of the locale, such as Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, was as important as making the cars available to drive. This time, Scion will concentrate on getting butts in seats.
The company even is working the old racing favorite of "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday," but with a twist. Scion launched a three-driver team in the burgeoning world of sport compact drag racing. Last season, Brad Personett won the 51st U.S. Nationals in a heavily modified Scion tC.
The three- to five-year planning cycles for most cars and trucks poses a difficult challenge for Scion, a brand whose fickle customers are quick to abandon any product that seems stale.
The solution: aftermarket accessories. At launch, customers could choose from about 40 accessories backed by the Toyota warranty.
Scion's ad spending
Scion emphasizes sponsorships and underground marketing, but it’s still spending on mainstream media. Here’s what it spent in 2005.
Cable TV $18.7 million
Magazines $5.7 million
Network TV $5.4 million
Spot TV $5.4 million
Internet $2.5 million
Local radio $2.3 million
Outdoor $2.0 million
National spot radio $604,000
Business-to-business magazines $149,000
Newspapers $65,000
Total $42.8 million
Source: TNS Media Intelligence
This month, Scion rolled out "Optimize." It's a program that offers 150 accessories, many from third-party tuner brands that resonate with young buyers.
The accessories help fatten profits for dealers. All three Scions sticker for under $17,000 and carry the typically narrow margins of economy cars. Dealers make considerable profits on accessories, which often add between $1,000 and $2,000 to the transaction price.
Scion customizes its vehicles at the port before they are shipped to dealers. But the Optimize program allows for dealer-installed parts as well.
Scion also is creating a stripped-down "tC Spec" edition at a cut-rate price, going on sale this summer. Templin's message to dealers: Only sell this car to tuner kids who were going to rip out the seats, change the wheels and put in scissor doors anyway.
Says Templin, "I don't want to see any tCs with steel wheels driving around."Maturing buyers
One of Templin's goals is to move Scion's maturing owners up the retail ladder into Toyota or Lexus vehicles.
Two years on the market is too short a time to measure the success of that strategy, but executives say they are seeing Scions traded in for the new Toyota FJ Cruiser SUV and the Lexus IS 250.
Youth-marketing experts applaud Scion's guts, especially given that it is a division of buttoned-down Toyota.
"The key element for Scion is they have to stay relevant with Gen Y," says Bill Stephenson, head of the automotive practice at Nielsen BuzzMetrics in Irvine, Calif.
"Most of what they do is under the radar. But if Scion starts doing traditional stuff, Gen Y will look for another alternative. Remember, this is the audience that defected from the Honda Civic."
Toyota's youth brand will be seeking out the next underground sensation. That's the essence of Scion's marketing strategy: If you've heard of someone, chances are Scion is long gone from the picture.
Toyota's youth brand has targeted Gen Y buyers -- fast, hip and allergic to traditional advertising -- since it was launched in 2003. While other auto brands attach themselves to cultural icons such as Tiger Woods, Scion sought the obscure but hip.
That strategy has worked so far. Last year Scion U.S. sales totaled 156,485 units, well ahead of its internal target of 125,000 units.
But success has brought a fresh dilemma: In an effort to hit sales targets, would Scion go mainstream? Today, the brand's answer is clearly no. Scion executives say they have no plans to break the 160,000-unit barrier, for fear of oversaturating the brand.
Scion leaves itself just one loophole: If customers are left waiting too long for their customized cars, Toyota will increase production rather than lose sales.
In its early days, Scion needed to build brand awareness, which meant the occasional foray into ESPN college football broadcasts. Now that Scion has a toehold among young hipsters, its marketers will go even further underground into music, art, fashion and film.
"We are becoming more offbeat," says Scion Vice President Mark Templin. "We want to pull people into the brand. We will never push the brand onto them."
Controlling the brand
With 15 years of sales and marketing experience at Lexus, the 45-year-old Templin fits the role of corporate executive rather than edgy adolescent.
In the car, Templin will listen to the music his teenage son plays, but he admits to being a radio "button pusher." His role, he says, is to bring his Lexus finely tuned sense of customer satisfaction to the low-margin world of selling $15,000 Scions.
To ferret out the artists, music, events and causes that might attract a potential Scion buyer, Templin depends on his marketing team.
Because Scion is a splinter group of Toyota, it is sparsely staffed. Many Toyota managers split time between Toyota and Scion chores. There are only seven dedicated employees in Scion's marketing department, located in a building formerly occupied by Toyota's dry cleaner.
With Punjabi hip-hop swirling in the background, the genesis of many new ideas comes from sessions between Scion staff and third-party marketing firms. "Our partners need to get what we are about," Templin said. "If the creative group gets it, they'll take us down the right path and tell us how we can be relevant."
Scion research states that the average age of its drivers is 31, the youngest of any car brand in the United States. But Templin concedes that Scion also attracts its share of boomers and retirees who like the well-packaged, low-priced hatchbacks.
Not that Templin has a problem with that. He compares Scion to Red Bull, which means different things to different audiences. The cough-syrup-flavored beverage appeals to athletes who want quick carbohydrates, nightclubbers who mix it with vodka, and students who like the caffeine rush for studying. Because these groups likely will never encounter each other, it's OK for all those groups to enjoy the product, Templin says.
"Everyone works so hard to control and define what their brand stands for, when they ought to just let the consumer do it," he says.
Hip-hop golfers
Scion is a laboratory for new ideas. Its latest experiment: golf clothes. That's not a misprint.
Golf is normally the bastion for older brands such as Buick and Lincoln. But young urbanites were taking up the sport, so Scion jumped in.
The automaker is using cutting-edge designers Blue Davis and Jupiter Destiny III to create clothes that will appeal to young urbanites. They want to make a fashion statement on the links without being kicked out of the pro shop.
"People are shocked to hear Scion is associated with golf, but Scion owners aren't just about baggy shirts and jeans," says Dawn Ahmed, Scion's former national manager for sales promotion, now marketing Toyota's trucks. "This is a community that aspires to luxury goods. Scion is mixing golf with the street."
On the music front, Scion launched its own record label to help promote aspiring hip-hop artists. So far the company has backed 18 musicians, with vinyl runs of 100 to 250 albums each.
That doesn't include the hundreds of hip-hop artists Scion has hyped through compilation CDs it gives away by the thousands to auto show and club attendees. Scion also hosts 75 nightclub events each month for rising musicians.
Fame is the kiss of death
"The secret is that we are involved when people aren't yet famous," Templin says. "If they even have a hint of becoming famous, then we are on to the next unknown, because there is always an unknown you can support."
Scion's backing of budding filmmakers includes sponsoring X-Dance, an unauthorized splinter of Robert Redford's famed Sundance Film Festival. Whereas Sundance focuses on art-house dramas, X-Dance movies deal with snowboarding steep glaciers or surfing the thunderous waves off Maui.
Scion's print advertising buy is restricted to such underground magazines as Complex, Elemental and the ironically named Mass Appeal.
Scion is even reaching for those who can't drive yet. It is co-sponsoring an exhibit at a Los Angeles science museum with Marvel Comics. In it, young visitors can fit into the exoskeleton of superhero Iron Man and physically lift with pulleys and levers, a Scion xB hatchback off the ground. Scion is aiming even younger by collaborating with the educational Web site Whyville, whose average viewers are between 8 and 15 years of age.
Peyote hallucinations
Not everything works, however. Although its xPress Fest brought student filmmakers together with indie-rock bands to make music videos, Scion found that rock music didn't resonate well with its core hip-hop music base.
Sometimes Scion goes too far, such as the backlash it incurred when an online cartoon character had peyote-induced hallucinations. Some ideas -- such as buying breakfast at Denny's for hungover spring breakers -- never get off the drawing board.
But Templin is willing to put Scion's money behind long shots, because that's where new trends come from.
"We'll make mistakes, whether it's getting into indie rock or techno (dance music) or whatever," he says. "And when hip-hop is part of the mainstream, rather than just permeating it, then we'll get out of that, too."
Not that Scion ignores more traditional marketing styles. In April, the company began a second round of ride-and-drive events. The first time around, the cool factor of the locale, such as Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, was as important as making the cars available to drive. This time, Scion will concentrate on getting butts in seats.
The company even is working the old racing favorite of "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday," but with a twist. Scion launched a three-driver team in the burgeoning world of sport compact drag racing. Last season, Brad Personett won the 51st U.S. Nationals in a heavily modified Scion tC.
The three- to five-year planning cycles for most cars and trucks poses a difficult challenge for Scion, a brand whose fickle customers are quick to abandon any product that seems stale.
The solution: aftermarket accessories. At launch, customers could choose from about 40 accessories backed by the Toyota warranty.
Scion's ad spending
Scion emphasizes sponsorships and underground marketing, but it’s still spending on mainstream media. Here’s what it spent in 2005.
Cable TV $18.7 million
Magazines $5.7 million
Network TV $5.4 million
Spot TV $5.4 million
Internet $2.5 million
Local radio $2.3 million
Outdoor $2.0 million
National spot radio $604,000
Business-to-business magazines $149,000
Newspapers $65,000
Total $42.8 million
Source: TNS Media Intelligence
This month, Scion rolled out "Optimize." It's a program that offers 150 accessories, many from third-party tuner brands that resonate with young buyers.
The accessories help fatten profits for dealers. All three Scions sticker for under $17,000 and carry the typically narrow margins of economy cars. Dealers make considerable profits on accessories, which often add between $1,000 and $2,000 to the transaction price.
Scion customizes its vehicles at the port before they are shipped to dealers. But the Optimize program allows for dealer-installed parts as well.
Scion also is creating a stripped-down "tC Spec" edition at a cut-rate price, going on sale this summer. Templin's message to dealers: Only sell this car to tuner kids who were going to rip out the seats, change the wheels and put in scissor doors anyway.
Says Templin, "I don't want to see any tCs with steel wheels driving around."Maturing buyers
One of Templin's goals is to move Scion's maturing owners up the retail ladder into Toyota or Lexus vehicles.
Two years on the market is too short a time to measure the success of that strategy, but executives say they are seeing Scions traded in for the new Toyota FJ Cruiser SUV and the Lexus IS 250.
Youth-marketing experts applaud Scion's guts, especially given that it is a division of buttoned-down Toyota.
"The key element for Scion is they have to stay relevant with Gen Y," says Bill Stephenson, head of the automotive practice at Nielsen BuzzMetrics in Irvine, Calif.
"Most of what they do is under the radar. But if Scion starts doing traditional stuff, Gen Y will look for another alternative. Remember, this is the audience that defected from the Honda Civic."
05-23-06, 07:37 AM
#2
"The key element for Scion is they have to stay relevant with Gen Y," says Bill Stephenson, head of the automotive practice at Nielsen BuzzMetrics in Irvine, Calif.
"Most of what they do is under the radar. But if Scion starts doing traditional stuff, Gen Y will look for another alternative. Remember, this is the audience that defected from the Honda Civic."
"Most of what they do is under the radar. But if Scion starts doing traditional stuff, Gen Y will look for another alternative. Remember, this is the audience that defected from the Honda Civic."
However, I think Scion will still lead the market for good starter cars for tuning, and personalization is the key to attract more customers. Let these other compact cars flood the market, but let Scion still be the best in tuner personalization.
05-23-06, 08:01 AM
#3
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I think a lot of marketers are totally clueless in marketing to this, their intended, demographic. If I remember correctly, the median age of xB buyers is quite a bit higher than the 18-25 age group they're chasing. And the tC's median age is close to 50.
So it's not the d-bag hipster advertising or the separate "underground" Scion brand that's winning over buyers - more than anything else, it's offering the right product at the right price and as far as marketing goes, that is about as traditional as it gets.
I wonder what Toyota (OOOoooopPPPPpSSs!!!! we just lost our 18-25 crowd
) er Scion executives think about their de facto demographic.
M.
So it's not the d-bag hipster advertising or the separate "underground" Scion brand that's winning over buyers - more than anything else, it's offering the right product at the right price and as far as marketing goes, that is about as traditional as it gets.
I wonder what Toyota (OOOoooopPPPPpSSs!!!! we just lost our 18-25 crowd
) er Scion executives think about their de facto demographic.M.
05-23-06, 08:46 AM
#4
Originally Posted by videcormeum
I think a lot of marketers are totally clueless in marketing to this, their intended, demographic. If I remember correctly, the median age of xB buyers is quite a bit higher than the 18-25 age group they're chasing. And the tC's median age is close to 50.
I think marketers are doing a good job in getting the GenY demographic. Scions are not exclusive, you will also get GenXers and baby-boomers on the economic-gas-efficient-daily-driver market.
05-23-06, 09:02 AM
#5
Lexus Fanatic
Well, another significant thing about Scion is that, even over and above the young, baggy-pants and caps-on-backwards crowd, and even the tuners, Scions, particularly the xA and XB, are appealing to older people on fixed incomes who appreciate the Toyota quality, low prices, Saturn-style no-haggle sales policy, space efficiency, and high gas mileage these cars offer despite their quirky looks and annoying center-mount gauges. The posted article, for some reason, did not really mention this, but we're seeing much the same thing with the xA and xb we saw with the Echo ( and are likely to see with the new Yaris as well ).........marketing to Junior but selling to Granny.
05-24-06, 01:17 AM
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Videcormeum, the reason why the median age might be high for Scion is because parents buy those car with their own money for their teenagers. The important thing is that the end user of scion is the younger crowd.
Last edited by GSsnarl; 05-24-06 at 01:20 AM.
05-24-06, 01:34 AM
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Originally Posted by videcormeum
I think a lot of marketers are totally clueless in marketing to this, their intended, demographic. If I remember correctly, the median age of xB buyers is quite a bit higher than the 18-25 age group they're chasing. And the tC's median age is close to 50.
So it's not the d-bag hipster advertising or the separate "underground" Scion brand that's winning over buyers - more than anything else, it's offering the right product at the right price and as far as marketing goes, that is about as traditional as it gets.
I wonder what Toyota (OOOoooopPPPPpSSs!!!! we just lost our 18-25 crowd ) er Scion executives think about their de facto demographic.
M.
So it's not the d-bag hipster advertising or the separate "underground" Scion brand that's winning over buyers - more than anything else, it's offering the right product at the right price and as far as marketing goes, that is about as traditional as it gets.
I wonder what Toyota (OOOoooopPPPPpSSs!!!! we just lost our 18-25 crowd
) er Scion executives think about their de facto demographic.M.
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05-24-06, 03:30 AM
#9
Lexus Fanatic
Originally Posted by GSsnarl
Videcormeum, the reason why the median age might be high for Scion is because parents buy those car with their own money for their teenagers. The important thing is that the end user of scion is the younger crowd.
05-24-06, 09:33 PM
#10
Speaks French in Russian
Thread Starter
When you're hustling Gen Y, it's gotta be hip
Mark Rechtin | | Automotive News / May 22, 2006 - 6:00 am
Scion gave away bags of freebies at xPress Fest, a music video contest.
LOS ANGELES -- The backstage warren of Hollywood's Ivar Theatre is jammed with a couple of hundred raucous 20-somethings. The thump of electronica dance music fills the air, and revelers shout to hear each other. The line for the bar is packed six across and 10 deep.
An underground rave? No. It's the afterparty for the xPress Fest, a marketing gambit by Toyota's Scion youth division. The xPress Fest is a nationwide contest that finances student filmmakers' music videos for unknown indie-rock bands. The Los Angeles event is the last of the 10 regional screenings of the videos.
Scion executives are chasing a moving target: Gen Y, which Scion defines as people born between 1977 and 1994. To be seen as cool, Scion has to find events that are far from mainstream culture. Measuring the success of the events is difficult.
Asked whether they cared about Scion's corporate sponsorship, the responses of xPress Fest attendees ranged from "It's cool that they care about the arts" to "I had never heard of Scion before tonight" to "I'm just here for the free drinks."
Hardly a ringing endorsement.
But Scion isn't looking for mass acceptance. Just a few thousand kids a month will do.
Thanks for the cash
Scion executives won't say how much sponsoring xPress Fest cost, but a ballpark estimate would be about a half-million dollars.
At the Los Angeles event, just 20 miles from Toyota headquarters, there was nary a Scion employee to be seen. Giveaway bags loaded with Scion swag were snapped up in a heartbeat.
To Collin Redden, a 25-year-old graduate film student at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., it made a difference that Scion sponsored xPress Fest. Although Redden doesn't own a Scion, several of his friends do. If the contest had been backed by another brand -- say, Pontiac or Right Guard -- it wouldn't have rung as true, he said.
As for taking a corporate handout to boost his film career, Redden is pragmatic: "Anyone who says this has a corporate stench to it hasn't tried to do film. It's all about money. My budget was funded for $7,500. I would have been a fool to turn it down."
Battling Scion
One of Scion's artistic requirements for xPress Fest was that if a video required a car, it had to be a Scion. Four of the 10 filmmakers didn't use a car at all. Another filmmaker, John Welsh III of Philadelphia, battled Scion over the artistic integrity of his work -- and won.
Welsh's video of the band Paper Route involved a rural family moving away from their farm, which didn't make a good fit for Scion product placement. Renting a Toyota Tundra proved too expensive. So Welsh mollified the judges by using a beat-up Chevrolet truck, shot out of focus and without logos.
Despite the skirmish over his film's content, Welsh applauded Scion's effort.
"You just don't see car companies dishing out a couple hundred grand to make film students' dreams come true," Welsh said. "I respect them for that."
Mark Rechtin | | Automotive News / May 22, 2006 - 6:00 am
Scion gave away bags of freebies at xPress Fest, a music video contest.
LOS ANGELES -- The backstage warren of Hollywood's Ivar Theatre is jammed with a couple of hundred raucous 20-somethings. The thump of electronica dance music fills the air, and revelers shout to hear each other. The line for the bar is packed six across and 10 deep.
An underground rave? No. It's the afterparty for the xPress Fest, a marketing gambit by Toyota's Scion youth division. The xPress Fest is a nationwide contest that finances student filmmakers' music videos for unknown indie-rock bands. The Los Angeles event is the last of the 10 regional screenings of the videos.
Scion executives are chasing a moving target: Gen Y, which Scion defines as people born between 1977 and 1994. To be seen as cool, Scion has to find events that are far from mainstream culture. Measuring the success of the events is difficult.
Asked whether they cared about Scion's corporate sponsorship, the responses of xPress Fest attendees ranged from "It's cool that they care about the arts" to "I had never heard of Scion before tonight" to "I'm just here for the free drinks."
Hardly a ringing endorsement.
But Scion isn't looking for mass acceptance. Just a few thousand kids a month will do.
Thanks for the cash
Scion executives won't say how much sponsoring xPress Fest cost, but a ballpark estimate would be about a half-million dollars.
At the Los Angeles event, just 20 miles from Toyota headquarters, there was nary a Scion employee to be seen. Giveaway bags loaded with Scion swag were snapped up in a heartbeat.
To Collin Redden, a 25-year-old graduate film student at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., it made a difference that Scion sponsored xPress Fest. Although Redden doesn't own a Scion, several of his friends do. If the contest had been backed by another brand -- say, Pontiac or Right Guard -- it wouldn't have rung as true, he said.
As for taking a corporate handout to boost his film career, Redden is pragmatic: "Anyone who says this has a corporate stench to it hasn't tried to do film. It's all about money. My budget was funded for $7,500. I would have been a fool to turn it down."
Battling Scion
One of Scion's artistic requirements for xPress Fest was that if a video required a car, it had to be a Scion. Four of the 10 filmmakers didn't use a car at all. Another filmmaker, John Welsh III of Philadelphia, battled Scion over the artistic integrity of his work -- and won.
Welsh's video of the band Paper Route involved a rural family moving away from their farm, which didn't make a good fit for Scion product placement. Renting a Toyota Tundra proved too expensive. So Welsh mollified the judges by using a beat-up Chevrolet truck, shot out of focus and without logos.
Despite the skirmish over his film's content, Welsh applauded Scion's effort.
"You just don't see car companies dishing out a couple hundred grand to make film students' dreams come true," Welsh said. "I respect them for that."
05-24-06, 09:34 PM
#11
Speaks French in Russian
Thread Starter
Here's what some specialists in youth marketing say about Scion.
David Morrison, president and founder of Twentysomething in Philadelphia
"To have something with pop for a moment is doable, but to build a sustainable youth brand in the auto industry is a monumental challenge. There is a danger in saying, 'We're hip and cool,' while you draw in older consumers. Scion needs to be careful of being expropriated by senior citizens - who like young, fun and cheap, just like the kids do. People are going to see the vehicle, so even if Scion is marketing below the radar, the vehicle won't be below the radar. Scion has to work harder on the product development side to keep the brand young and hip."
Max Kilger, chief behavioral scientist for Simmons Market Research Bureau in New York
"I don't think Scion would be doing as well without the marketing. Scion has developed a product that's different and very customizable. That appeals to the hip-hop culture. Scion then has incorporated that into their cultural and marketing values. They don't have to say, 'Go buy a Scion,' in big Detroit letters. If Toyota keeps altering the Scion style and gives vehicle and customizing choices, they can maintain their niche. Customization is a significant part of it."
Bill Stephenson
Bill Stephenson, head of the automotive practice for Neilsen BuzzMetrics in Irvine, Calif.
"Gen Y is extremely finicky. Some of what Scion is doing is silly, and dealers are probably asking how it relates to someone actually walking in the dealership. But in order to grow the brand, Scion absolutely has to do these things. Scion's product lineup is so thin that customers are waiting for new product to come out. They must innovate new product, because Gen Y is not going to wait around buying xBs forever."
Alex Wipperfurth, author of Brand Hijack and a partner with Plan B in San Francisco
"I'm not sure what the purpose of Scion is, other than it looks different and cool. 'Cool' makes me throw up. There has to be a theme behind sponsoring all those events, beyond, 'Let's be in the right crowd.' If there isn't, then you are going to be a fad. The good news is that Scion is increasing traffic to Toyota showrooms. Whether it's young or old buyers, who cares? The challenge is to keep the core target market feeling special. Let the geezers buy the xA, but make sure the young buyers are in on the secret."
David Morrison, president and founder of Twentysomething in Philadelphia
"To have something with pop for a moment is doable, but to build a sustainable youth brand in the auto industry is a monumental challenge. There is a danger in saying, 'We're hip and cool,' while you draw in older consumers. Scion needs to be careful of being expropriated by senior citizens - who like young, fun and cheap, just like the kids do. People are going to see the vehicle, so even if Scion is marketing below the radar, the vehicle won't be below the radar. Scion has to work harder on the product development side to keep the brand young and hip."
Max Kilger, chief behavioral scientist for Simmons Market Research Bureau in New York
"I don't think Scion would be doing as well without the marketing. Scion has developed a product that's different and very customizable. That appeals to the hip-hop culture. Scion then has incorporated that into their cultural and marketing values. They don't have to say, 'Go buy a Scion,' in big Detroit letters. If Toyota keeps altering the Scion style and gives vehicle and customizing choices, they can maintain their niche. Customization is a significant part of it."
Bill Stephenson
Bill Stephenson, head of the automotive practice for Neilsen BuzzMetrics in Irvine, Calif.
"Gen Y is extremely finicky. Some of what Scion is doing is silly, and dealers are probably asking how it relates to someone actually walking in the dealership. But in order to grow the brand, Scion absolutely has to do these things. Scion's product lineup is so thin that customers are waiting for new product to come out. They must innovate new product, because Gen Y is not going to wait around buying xBs forever."
Alex Wipperfurth, author of Brand Hijack and a partner with Plan B in San Francisco
"I'm not sure what the purpose of Scion is, other than it looks different and cool. 'Cool' makes me throw up. There has to be a theme behind sponsoring all those events, beyond, 'Let's be in the right crowd.' If there isn't, then you are going to be a fad. The good news is that Scion is increasing traffic to Toyota showrooms. Whether it's young or old buyers, who cares? The challenge is to keep the core target market feeling special. Let the geezers buy the xA, but make sure the young buyers are in on the secret."
05-24-06, 09:43 PM
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The point I was trying to communicate in my other post is that I think Toyota could have easily introduced the Scion vehicles under the Toyota nameplate and experienced the same kind of success they're experiencing now.
The tC, xA and to a lesser extent the xB are all selling primarily due to their low price-point, Toyota reliability, economy and value. These are not selling-points that required the exorbitant expense of brand-development that Toyota's undertaken in creating Scion. They probably would have come out ahead in the long-run by marketing and selling these vehicles as Toyotas.
To me it seems they created the entire brand for one fad product - the xB - which Toyota probably thought was a risky bet in the US and that their chances would be improved with gimicky marketing.
M.
The tC, xA and to a lesser extent the xB are all selling primarily due to their low price-point, Toyota reliability, economy and value. These are not selling-points that required the exorbitant expense of brand-development that Toyota's undertaken in creating Scion. They probably would have come out ahead in the long-run by marketing and selling these vehicles as Toyotas.
To me it seems they created the entire brand for one fad product - the xB - which Toyota probably thought was a risky bet in the US and that their chances would be improved with gimicky marketing.
M.
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