Reflecting the country’s multi-cultural population, Toyota’s Australian unit has launched a new marketing campaign designed to attract Chinese-speaking buyers to the recently launched Yaris hatchback.
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The company will run advertisements in the Chinese press directing potential Yaris buyers to a dedicated Chinese-language call centre.
The call centre will then guide customers to their nearest dealership, as well as the nearest dealership that employs a Cantonese or Mandarin-speaking sales representative.
If customers order a test drive or brochure, they will go into the draw to win a weekend trip to Queensland (Australia’s Florida).
Toyota Australia divisional manager national sales and marketing Matthew Callachor said the programme was a first for the company.
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By GlobalData“Toyota traditionally develops mass-market advertising campaigns that speak to the widest possible audience,” said Callachor.
“And while we’ve run campaigns in Chinese-language newspapers before, we’ve never taken such an in-depth approach to connecting with the Chinese community.
“We’ve put a lot of effort into ensuring that our dealership network is equipped to support this promotion. We’ve identified Mandarin- and Cantonese-speaking sales consultants throughout the dealer network and their information has been loaded onto our call centre database.”
Callachor said the campaign was a pilot programme for Toyota. “This is basically a toe in the water for us and, if it is successful, we will look at expanding the concept to other cultural groups,” he said.
There are more than 400,000 Cantonese and Mandarin speakers in Australia, making them one of the country’s largest cultural groups.
Aside from the Chinese community, Cantonese and Mandarin are widely spoken in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Callachor said Toyota’s research indicated the Chinese-speaking community was well disposed to the Toyota brand.
“Toyota has a strong reputation for quality in this community. That reputation has grown mainly by word of mouth, as owners have passed on their positive ownership experiences to family and friends,” he said.
