Toyota Project Genesis

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Project Genesis was a plan by the Toyota Motor Sales USA to attract more youthful buyers to the company's products. Though widely considered by the media to be one of Toyota's worst flops, the learnings from the experimental team provided the foundation that the successful Scion marque had been built upon.

Launched in 1999, Project Genesis was a task force formed by Yoshimi Inaba, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA and James Press, COO of TMS. They intended to take three new products which were about to be introduced and sell them as a "marque within a marque" through Toyota's United States dealer network.

The cars, the Celica, MR2 Spyder, and Echo, would be bundled together and advertised differently from other Toyota models. At the time, in America, these vehicles were in segments that were shrinking and not necessarily considered typical youth segments. Regardless, the parent company in Japan challenged Toyota USA to market these existing products as "youth" vehicles.

The Toyota ECHO was a global vehicle sold in Asia and Europe under the name Yaris. It attracted American younger buyers in the first year of its launch, but the average age would creep up in subsequent years. The ECHO has since been replaced by the global brand Yaris nameplate. The MR-2, named the MR-S in Japan, did not sell very well either, as it was believed to be impractical enough for younger generation buyers (little storage room, low seating capacity, and other problems are common to two seater convertibles, but they are inconvenient when it's the owner's only car). Another suspected cause is the importation restrictions by Toyota, which caused severe dealer markups and made the car less accessible to younger buyers. It did at least sell well with the tuner market. The Celica, on the other hand, was one of the models that was cited as being successful at first. In its first model year, 2000, it sold over 65,000 units. This number started to trail off towards it final 2005 model year in which it only sold 15,000.

With a limited budget, minimal product input, and strong internal political resistance, Genesis struggled to make the enduring marketing impact it set out to accomplish for the launch of the three vehicles. However, in later years, with its demise, Genesis would end up having a more compelling impact to the Toyota brand and the targeted youth consumer.

In 2001, Genesis was officially brought to a close by the announcement that Toyota Motor Sales USA decided to launch a separate marque, Scion. Scion's success can be directly attributed to the learnings gained from the Genesis experience and struggles.

[edit] References

• Bill Vlasic (April 20, 2003). "Toyota turns edgy to grab Gen Y buyers". Detroit News.