Eyeing recovery, Toyota plans $1 billion in marketing blitzkrieg in US
22 Sep 2009
Japanese automaker Toyota, now the world's largest carmaker, is mulling spending $1 billion in a marketing campaign in the US during the last quarter of 2009, on the assumption that the US car market will recover as the country emerges from recession.
The proposed marketing campaign was revealed to Toyota's US dealers at Las Vegas last week. The fourth quarter normally generates strong sales for auto manufacturers, which tend to unveil large promotions to garner sales for their new models.
But typically in a time of recession, this would be one of the bold marketing move undertaken by Toyota as it gears up to roll out its $1 billion "Toyotathon" marketing and sales blitz in November.
The move is considered daring by industry analysts, who say that the US car market is now flooded with about 700,000 vehicles sold under the US car scrappage scheme, which ended last month.
Toyota spokesman, Irv Miller told CNBC, "We see the economy is starting to strengthen a bit. We've stopped playing defense. It's time to go on the offense."
He also said that the sum of $1 billion is the biggest ever that the carmaker will be spending in the fourth quarter.