Toyota will launch a massive US media campaign next autumn as its production returns to normal and it rolls out a fully redesigned Camry sedan, the automaker told dealers gathered in Las Vegas for a meeting this week.
The media campaign will include 40 new commercials and will try to position Toyota as “smart, safe and worry-free,” a person who attended the meeting told the Wall Street Journal. The campaign promoting the new Camry will start in October, according to this source.
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The automaker is counting on the model barrage to drive sales in the US, chief executive Akio Toyoda told the dealers, the source said. Despite recent declines in US sales and market share, Toyota still aims to hit a previously announced goal of selling over 2m Toyota-branded vehicles in the US by 2013, the source recalled Toyoda saying.
Toyota plans to sell 20 new or redesigned products in the next two years, 13 of which will be all-new or significantly updated, as it tries to rebound from market share losses caused by product recalls last year and vehicle shortages stemming from the 11 March earthquake in Japan, the source said.
The new models represent a move toward new, flashy styling pushed by Toyoda, who spoke to the dealers. Toyoda emphasised that Toyota would attempt to move away from the conservative designs that have been the target of customer criticisms in the past, and made it clear that North America would become more independent from Japan in terms of control over product design and manufacturing.
The new models in the pipeline include a redesigned Avalon sedan; a compact hybrid called the Prius c; and the FRS, a sports car for the company’s Scion youth brand [this will be the Toyota ’86’ shared with Subaru – ed], the person who attended the meeting said. Toyota also showed the dealers battery-powered versions of the RAV4 sport-utility vehicle and the subcompact iQ.
Toyota sales dropped 33% in May as a result of low inventories and price increases and are forecast to decline by double-digits again in June, when the automaker reports the results later on Friday. Toyota had to cut production at its plants in the US and Japan because of parts shortages caused by the earthquake, the WSJ noted.
The company still is reporting short supplies of the Tacoma and Tundra pickup [made in Texas], the Scion models and the Prius hybrid, the dealer briefed on the meeting said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
