After two failed attempts to corner the market for big cars, Toyota is to make another foray into the segment with the launch of its latest V6 model, the Aurion, which will take on the Holden Commodore, the Ford Falcon and the Mitsubishi 380.
Toyota’s Lexcen, a re-badged version of the Commodore, was launched in 1989 and withdrawn in 1997, and the Avalon, another V6 model launched in 2000, was killed off last year.
Toyota corporate manager marketing communications, Peter Evans, said the Avalon—a version of a superseded model originally created for the US market—“taught us a lot about the big car segment”.
“We had high hopes for sales at the beginning but we became realistic at the end of its cycle that it was never going to be a volume player, although we could have continued to sell 400 to 500 per month,” he said.
“The Aurion has been styled by Aussies for the Australian market and is not an aging US model.”
The Aurion was unveiled at the recent Melbourne Motor Show, six months ahead of its launch in October.
Saatchi & Saatchi is creating all the advertising for the launch, which Evans said will “run the whole gamut” of media, while Publicis Mojo is rolling out a campaign for Toyota’s new Camry model.
Toyota has already started to hype up its new launch.
In the week following February 2, it ran a countdown website, makeyourmove.com.au, to allow consumers to register their interest in the car and sign up for a reminder email on February 9 when the promotional site morphed into the official site, aurionv6.com.au.
For the full story on Toyota’s marketing campaign for Aurion and what competitors Holden and Mitsubishi are planning, see this week’s issue of B&T out Friday February 24.
