Scion is a brand created by Toyota in 2002 specifically meant to target 18 - 30 year old Americans. With sazzy designs and the relentless use of the word 'COOL'; it did created a sharp rise of interest in the American automotive market, successfully pulling in 80% of new buyers that had never own a Toyota before and generating almost 200,000 visits to it's website every month. Further proving that Toyota does have it's strengths when it comes to marketing their products.
However, the sudden rise in fame also brought a drastic drop, over the last 17 months,
Scion's sales has been on a steady decline, except for March 08' when the sudden petrol price hike turned many buyers towards Scion's fuel efficient, small and practical line ups, which are also very affordable. However that didn't last long, since the introduction of the 2nd generation Scion xB and the all new Scion xD, consumer interests didn't turn out what Toyota ought it should be, sales continue to decline and current monthly website visitors are a mere 50% of what is used to be, triggering an alarm that the brand needs a strong steroid injection to not fall off the radar of American consumers.
Thou bad news from American car manufacturers seems like a norm these days due to the worsening economy and of course the petrol price hike, we were wondering whether that's the real cause where any CEO would gladly blame it on for Scion, as the product lineup, brand positioning of Scion is exactly what the behemoths GM, Ford and Chrysler are trying very hard to be, to produce cheap, small, fun, vibrant, fuel economy, practical small cars for the American consumers, and recent buying trends of Americans does reveal so.
If that's the case, how come a brand that SHOULD profit from the recent change in buying habits of Americans not benefit from this downfall of interest in trucks and SUVs?
We reckon it comes down to the product lineup itself, thou all are fairly attractive products, they're dated in this most competitive market in the world, with the tC entering it's fourth year, the xB thou is an all new, but it looked exactly like the previous xB, but larger, and clumsier. The xD however, reminds people exactly of the old xB. With one glance, nothing seems to be new, and as we all know 18-30s are consumers who wants excitement, experiment, new stuffs to explore on.
Thus merely putting modified Scion models on their websites is something that's not satisfying their target consumers. The following months would prove to be a difficult uphill battle for this new brand that have had a taste of success. New models are needed Scion, and quick.
Below are photos of the xA, xB, tC, New xB and xD. (In sequence)
Scion xA
Scion xB
Scion tC
New Scion xB
Scion xD
