Scion: Toyota plays the demographic game

Most of this post is anecdotal and not substantially supported by hard numbers or articles but I wanted to share this story since it's interesting and may rise interesting questions we can pursue. If people know more about this issue, please share.

When Toyota was becoming wildly successful in the US market in the mid to late 90s, they asked their customers why. Amidst the usual answers, they found something interesting and scary: people were driving their cars because it's not what their parents drove (not something they grew up with).

"The Toyota brand resonated with boomers, but it did not resonate with youth. It may have respected Toyota as a brand, but Gen Y simply does not want to drive the same brand as their mom and pop drive." (article)

The US population pyramid:

Scion was started in 2003, well before the bulk of the Generation Y reached driving age (and even further from purchasing age). It's yet to be seen if Scion will actually resonate with the Generation Y crowd, but they have been successful at capturing a much younger audience than the normal Toyota buyers.

"Toyota's average U.S. buyer age of 54 is 2 years older than the average for Ford Motor Co. or DaimlerChrysler AG and six years above that for Honda Motor Co., according to San Diego- based market researcher Strategic Vision Inc.

After Scion's 39, ``the next youngest brand is Mazda, at 41, and Volkswagen at 42,'' said Tom Libby, an analyst with JD Power & Associates of Westlake Village, California. he said." (Article)

This is Toyota's long range planning, playing the demographics game.

By the way, Scion is not available in Japan or anywhere else in the world except the US. I'm not sure if the cars rebranded and sold under different names (almost all Toyota cars have different names in Japan, making cross cultural car talk much harder). Lexus, the brand designed to sell luxury Japanese vehicles (along with Acura and Infiniti) in the US, was introduced in Japan in 2005, 16 years after the US. Luxury brand stereotype in Japan is still dominated by German cars, and for the longest time "left wheeled" (we drive on the left, so the wheels are typically on the right) was a status symbol (though most foreign companies now sell cars with wheels on the right).

So what will the Gen Y be doing when they're 40? Driving Scions everywhere?