If I had to describe Lexus in one word it would be “boring”. There is nothing that Lexus offers that would make someone buy one of their cars rather than a BMW or an Audi. Lexus realized this and came up with a solution that may bring them up to a competitive level with the German luxury manufacturers. Recently Lexus has been pushing their “F” line of cars in advertisements. It seems that their F line is based on high performance, exciting (even sexual according to their ad) cars. This line is reminiscent of BMW’s much loved M line. Lexus cars have always been fairly reliable, luxurious, and dull. If this F line does bring life into the brand then I think it will be very profitable.
Automotive news states that, “Lexus executives want the performance versions of their products to have as much gravitas as those of the BMW M or Mercedes-Benz AMG divisions.” They also agree with me that Lexus is boring. They go on to describe it as a “builder of soulless appliances,”
In this new ad the mans eyes are transfixed on a Lexus RC F coupe while an attractive girl is making sexual advances towards him. He is seemingly oblivious to whatever she is doing because his interest in the car outweighs his interest in the girl. My question is, will this racey ad turn former Lexus buyers away from their brand that they thought was the “safe” pick? The people who previously bought Lexus are not the people that this ad appeals to. They seem to be targeting a younger maybe 20 something crowd. Can that target market afford a luxury car though? At least the BMW M line has class and a history to it. Lexus says they are in a constant battle to regain the title of best selling luxury car in the US. They had the title for over ten years and lost it after the Japanese earthquake. This is their attempt at taking it back I guess.
Time will tell if Toyota’s luxury brand can compete with the likes of AMG and M. From the looks of some of their concept cars they definitely can.
Source: Automotive News
I think that trying to compete with the big German brands is a risky bet since they have a big brand name. Even other firms like Ford with Lincoln know this and do not try to compete against them. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next couple years. From the pictures it looks like young people would be their largest market sector, what might conflict with Scion.
Historically Lexus positioned itself as a less expensive route to luxury, with cars styled to be similar to Mercedes and BMW. Safe, yes, but if you’re a 50-something who can finally afford (and wants to indulge) in a bit of perceived luxury, isn’t that what you want?
So Dawejko asks a good question: the ad is on the face of it not targeted at people (men!) in that age bracket. What were they thinking? Perhaps they want those guys facing a mid-life crisis, who dream of trading in their aging wives for a younger sport utility vehicle, but settle for trading in their Camry for a Lexus. In the end it’s an empirical question, so I hope you all look back in a couple years to see whether Lexus succeeds in pulling in a younger demographic or at least repositioning itself as a classier act.
PS: I chose “Camry” intentionally, because given the current lineup of models this means going from one boring, er, safe car choice to another….