• by Fara Warner , January 2, 2007

Toyota marketing executives have long been accused of having the easiest job in the business, since--as the saying goes--"Toyotas sell themselves" because of their reliability and quality.

But in 2006, Toyota proved that it not only makes high-quality cars, it also knows a thing or two about making great marketing.

Toyota started off the year with four very different vehicles to launch--a redesigned Camry, the niche sport-utility FJ Cruiser, the tiny subcompact Yaris, and the full-size Tundra truck, which comes out in early 2007. In the midst of all that, it also signed a landmark deal for "engagement guarantees" from NBC that promises viewers will be engaged in the programming based on new measurements from panel surveys, instead of the traditional audience-size model that has been in place since the 1950s.

Toyota also set itself a goal of attracting more customers in America's heartland, where domestic brands still have a stronghold. Add to that the task of keeping Scion--its successful youth brand--on the cutting edge of marketing and maintaining Toyota's lead as the environmental car brand, and 2006 was a busy year for the marketers at Toyota's U.S headquarters in Torrance, Calif.

All those tasks required an unusual breadth and depth of marketing. And to top it all off, Toyota is expected to steal the No. 2 automotive brand spot from Ford for 2006--with sales in excess of 2.5 million cars and trucks.

Toyota started off 2006 with a bang, using the Super Bowl to launch the Camry. But even though it used a traditional national campaign, it showed off its marketing smarts by focusing on the unusual in the ads themselves. The Super Bowl ad featured Camry's hybrid electric-gasoline engine model and used a Hispanic-language version of the ad on national television.

"We wanted to open up people's minds to Camry," says Kim McCullough, corporate marketing manager for the Toyota division. "Sure--Camry has been successful, but it's also easy for consumers to dismiss it as a car that is for somebody else."

Even as Toyota was launching the Camry on national television, it shunned most traditional media for the FJ Cruiser and focused on events that would show off the vehicle's off-road capability.

The FJ Cruiser is a four-wheel-drive sport-utility vehicle with an unusual design that could easily have marketed itself as a fashion statement for outdoor wannabes, McCullough says. But, she says, Toyota wanted FJ Cruiser to be a true contender in the off-road segment where looks are less important than what is under the hood and between the tires.

Toyota created Trail Teams and took the FJ Cruiser to off-road events to prove its mettle. The vehicle did so well that bloggers and online enthusiasts began talking about its accomplishments on their sites.

The FJ Cruiser marketing group also created black-and-white inserts for serious four-wheel magazines that focused solely on the vehicle's off-road capability--not its colorful paint choices or fashion-forward design. Toyota used the same tactics of sponsorships and event marketing to pursue the brand's "heartland" strategy to increase its sales in the middle of the country. It has signed sponsorships with NASCAR, and is now the official brand of Bass Pro Shops, taking over from Chevrolet. It also is giving trucks to Future Farmers of America's members to drive for a set amount of time.

"We've got to change people's minds about Toyota one person at a time," McCullough says.

The launch of the Yaris, a tiny subcompact car, pushed the Toyota marketing team to make certain that the little car didn't target Scion's potential customers. The Yaris' under $15,000 price tag and its size put it in direct competition with Scions.

"Scion is the bleeding edge of youth," McCullough says. "Yaris is for more mainstream youth."

Cutting the youth market in such a manner meant that the Scion brand was featured on Second Life, a virtual world that is still not a part of mainstream culture. By contrast, Yaris launched with its own page on MySpace, where a majority of U.S. teenagers hang out online. Scion created its own broadband radio channels, while Yaris used "mobi-sodes"--television shows shown on mobile phones--to reach potential consumers.

Scion remains an internal learning lab for Toyota's marketers, McCullough says, with marketing programs considered too mainstream for Scion handed off to other brands to consider. For example, Lexus gave away a free music CD during the launch of its LS 460, a tactic once used by Scion.

Lexus also has studied how Scion stays a step ahead of its customers, so that it never feels boring or complacent. For years, Lexus sponsored a fashion show at Pebble Beach, Calif.--but it wasn't until 2006 that it began to work with Vogue to create a much more fashion-forward show to be in tune with younger, affluent consumers who were moving up to the Lexus.

Another way that Toyota has infused Scion learning throughout the marketing organization is to move its marketers around to other brands instead of up into other non-marketing jobs. For example, Jim Farley, now group vice president of marketing, once headed up Scion. Brian Bolain, who once worked on Scion, now works on Lexus.