Toyota executives said they don't want to abandon loyal boomer buyers, who value Toyota's reputation for understated, highly reliable vehicles. But 51 per cent of consumers in America are now "young adults," said Genesis project manager Mark Del Rosso. And Toyota executives clearly are worried that the brand's safe image translates as boring to younger buyers.

In advertising that was scheduled to break on September 22, Toyota is revising its long-running "Toyota, Everyday" advertising campaign to stress the new tilt towards18-to-35 year old buyers. Gone is Sly and the Family Stone's soulful 1960s hit, "Everyday People." In its place are throbbing hip-hop, heavy metal and salsa, rhetoric about "revolution" and "defiance," and images of 20-somethings at play in Toyota's new Echo subcompact.

Toyota's US advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi LA, a unit of Saatchi & Saatchi PLC, assigned a special team to work with the Genesis group on its advertising and marketing. Saatchi unit Conill Advertising worked on Spanish-language elements of the campaign.

Toyota said that Echo prices will start at $9,995, with well-equipped models going for about $12,660. The Echo is a boxy subcompact with a high roof line that was designed well before Toyota decided to make it a centerpiece of its youth-marketing effort.

Price will be the key

The Echo "is $2,000 less than a Ford Focus," said James E. Press, executive vice-president of Toyota's US sales arm. The Focus starts at $12,280 and climbs to about $16,000, depending on the extras.The Focus has a more powerful 110-horsepower base engine, compared with a 108-horsepower engine in the Echo.

Press said Toyota hopes to sell 50,000 Echo cars a year in the US, once the Japanese-made car is up to full production. To hit that target, Toyota plans to offer special financing packages to younger buyers with minimal credit histories. Ford is offering similar financing deals on sits Focus.

Toyota will also launch early next month a redesigned Celica sports coupe, which will start at $16,695, or about $4,700 less than the car it replaces, Press said. Toyota hopes the price cut and the edgier styling of the new car will push annual Celica sales to about 60,000 a year from the roughly 4,000-a-year rate for 1999 models, Press said. Early next year, Toyota plans to aim its new MR2 Spyder sporty convertible at under-35 drivers with more money to spend.

To promote this trio of models, and forthcoming versions of other Toyota cars and trucks tailored to younger buyers, Toyota will put more emphasis ononline marketing ventures, including a video-heavy Web site called www.isthistoyota.com that will be launched on October 1. The site will rely largely on video and images, not text, to communicate its messages, Toyota Genesis team members said. Toyota also plans to direct more of its print and broadcast advertising toward venues popular with under-35 buyers-television shows such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Felicity"; and Elle, Men's Fitness and Entertainment Weekly for magazines.

(The Asian Wall Street Journal)