Talk:Toyota Project Genesis
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This is not true: I worked on Project Genesis, and the project plan for the Scion Brand roll-out. Detroit's car companies are notorious for copying each other as soon as they get a whiff of something new (that is one reason why most cars look alike). If the american car companies had known that Toyota was planning a new "Youth Brand", they would have tried to do the same... probably in a lame fashion, diluting the impact of the Scion roll-out. On the other hand - American car companies NEVER copy someone else's failure.. particularly Toyota's.... they relish it. And so for the research and analysis phase of Genesis, the cover story was spread to the effect that "Toyota was trying to bring GenY into regular Toyota Dealerships and the existing Toyota Brand. This could not be further from the truth - since even the earliest research showed that kids HATE "old-guys with slick hair and wing-tips trying to sell them stuff". The earliest mantra of the Genesis research was "My Ride - My Way!"... and hence Scion's bewildering number of optional features... so that no two are alike. This also separated the customer from the dealer, since most of the choices were made using an online "configurator"... NOT an annoying conversation with a "greasy old man".
The original plan was to launch new dealerships as was done with Lexus. But Lexus had thick profit margins sufficient to support such a requirement,... Scion did/does not... and the community of Toyota Dealers (referred to in TMS Headquarters as "the regions") rebelled, refusing to "buy-in" yet again for a new brand with a whole new showroom for each location. The online configurator was moved into the dealership, and face was saved by calling it "a dealership within a dealership"... but the whole original point was lost: Young people don't want to even see an "old-guy" nor walk into a traditional car dealership. What was supposed to look and feel like an Apple store... was turned into the successful-yet-hamstrung thing we see today... thanks to the consolidated power of the most reviled profession other than lawyers and politicians (according to the project Genesis research).
Similarly, Prius was snuck out as a sleeper so that Detroit would not see it for the sea-change that it has proven to be.rgderg
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