Aygo won’t be Toyota’s European Scion February 20, 2006
Toyota Motor Europe is considering merchandise tie-ins for its Aygo model’s name, but won’t develop the minicar as a separate brand to attract young European buyers.
Advertising in most of Europe is for “Aygo by Toyota” instead of simply the Toyota Aygo (pronounced “I go”).
But Toyota Europe won’t duplicate a strategy used in the US, where the carmaker’s Scion brand specifically targets younger buyers, said Andrea Formica, Toyota Europe sales and marketing vice president.
“We are not planning either to introduce Scion in Europe, or to transform Aygo into a proper brand,” Formica told Automotive News Europe.
Formica said the Toyota brand is not as well known in Europe as it is in the US.
In the US, Scion targets the children of Toyota owners. In Europe, Toyota is fighting to boost its brand recognition, particularly in the major markets.
But “the Aygo name has potential in itself to be successful among young buyers,” Formica said. He said Toyota has received several requests from other trendy product makers to license the Aygo name.
“Three or four [offers] are serious. We are looking at the brand affinity with Toyota and Aygo, studying various possibilities,” Formica said.
Toyota launched its Scion brand at the 2002 New York auto show. Scion is aimed at Generation Y, people between 16 and 25. This group of the US population is expected to include 4 million potential car buyers by 2010.
The first Scion models, the xA and xB, went on sale in California in June 2003 and the rest of the US in early 2004. In July 2004, Scion added its third model, the tC coupe.
Scion sold 156,485 units last year, up 58 percent from 99,259 units sold in 2004, its first full year of US sales.
- Posted in : Uncategorized, Toyota
- Author : Bullet
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