Toyota kicked off its marketing campaign for the 2007 FJ Cruiser in the Mojave Desert following the SEMA show last week. It was the first of a series of events aimed at influential off-roaders, Inside Line has learned.
"We will do no TV advertising," said James Farley, Toyota Division vice president of marketing. "We will only focus on the enthusiast."
Farley said the company has hired "close to 50 off-road instructors" who will conduct a series of events throughout the country in the coming months as Toyota introduces the latest iteration of the roughneck FJ40 to a group of new consumers. The company is turning to over 30 Land Cruiser clubs in the U.S. to come up with participants for its FJ Cruiser off-road programs.
"Many people don't know what the FJ40 is," Farley said. "We'll spend all of our money establishing the FJ Cruiser's credibility as an off-road machine. We won't race [it] before we do rock crawling [and] mud and trail activities."
The 2007 FJ Cruiser goes on sale in February.
What this means to you: Toyota shows it understands the rule of the off-road: If you don't have authenticity, you don't have anything when it comes to vehicles like the FJ Cruiser
Source:
Edmunds
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