Low emissions. high hopes.
Toyota Prius
CHALLENGE
Obviously, the ground-breaking technology posed a difficult challenge in launching the new Prius, since no one knew what hybrid technology was, no one knew whether it was going to work. What made this launch challenging was that the product had to be executed with the exact same strategy platform in every market around the world. That was something, up to that point, Toyota had never done before. What we had going for us was the insight we used to forge the product position was true of everyone within our target audience.
INSIGHT
People will choose to do the right thing…as long as ther’s something in it for them.
Basically true except we learned that humans, given a choice, will choose to do the right thing, as long as there’s something in it for them. And this was true everywhere in the world. It was considered a “human truth” irrespective of where in the world you live.
SOLUTION
The key to making the Prius a global success was not to tout the environmental advantages of limited emissions from fossil fuel, or the the pending danger of the global climate change. Our best bet was to offer a new vehicle technology that was so advanced that it provided all the comfort, performance and quiet ride of other high-end vehicles except it also offered the added bonus of less guilt by reducing exhaust and dramatically increasing miles-per-gallon averages. It was the perfect “and-and” solution in what had been historically a definitive “either-or” category.
Unsolicited endorsements
What we hadn’t anticipated was how quickly the most influential people embraced the Prius.
Never underestimate the power of a good influencer. Cameron Diaz has been a loyal Prius driver since 2003.
She was just one of the hundreds of the rich & famous that chose to drive a Prius because of what it said about them to the world.
:60 International TV launching the Moving Forward brand campaign that spoke to the technological leap that the Prius represented more than the environmental or economical advantages.
