The new Toyota Corolla Cross.
With the launch of its Toyota Corolla Cross crossover, Toyota is innovating in more ways than one. The automaker is cleverly extending its decade-old nameplate to a new type of vehicle, hoping to transfer the ever-youthful appeal of its small sedan to a small SUV.
And with the new Corolla Cross, Toyota also is innovating in marketing to the important Latinx cohort of the American consumer. The company is trying to leverage cultural insights and giving attention to leading creatives in the U.S. Hispanic community to reach crucial audience subsets not only for Corolla Cross but also for the Toyota Tundra pickup truck. By featuring content about creators online with Toyota, Latin digital-media company Remezcla is trying to drive awareness and interest among Latinx consumer and enhance multicultural marketing efforts within the community.
“As the top automotive brand among Hispanic consumers since 2004, Toyota values and appreciates the community’s loyalty and trust in our brand,” Ann Dragovits, media manager for integrated marketing operations at Toyota North America, told me. “Our commitment continues to be to provide not only vehicles that fit our customers’ active lifestyles but also to support initiatives, organizations and efforts in the community that are important to our customers and authentic to the Toyota brand.”
Remezcla’s storytelling approach, for example, had singer Marinero and fashion stylist Keyla Marquez driving from vintage store to vintage store in Los Angeles in the Corolla Cross, putting together new visual aesthetics and learning about each other’s creative side in the process. Toyota also sponsored a video by custom-guitar maker Tomas Alfredo Delgado as he drives a Tundra into the California forest and contemplates the natural environment that lends him the materials for his craft.
It’s an approach that goes in a different direction — and, in a way, beyond — the stereotypical approaches that many marketers take toward the Hispanic community by, for example, focusing on family.
“There’s a bit of truth to some of those things, the family emphasis, but we try to look at little bit deeper than those surface-level insights,” Neylu Longoria, group account director at Remezcla, told me. “Family is valuable to everyone, not just Latinos. We try to dive into what’s behind, culturally, not just being relevant but also sensitive and trying to connect in a meaningful way.
“We’ve really tried to connect and elevate creators’ voices and thsoe who are well-connected in the community, and in this case, specifically in LA,” Neylu Longoria, group account director at Remezcla. “We’re touching on interest and also relevant things that consumers see on a day-to-day basis.”
