The Scion brand will be aimed at those who seek out the latest trends in style and innovation. It marks a departure from Toyota's typical target, who is looking for a conservative, reliable and economical model, and from existing models targeting a younger market, such as the Celica, which mainly attracts female customers. Its launch is scheduled for June 2003 in the US followed by a global roll-out.
The Japanese car giant has handed Attik a wide brief covering brand positioning, customer experience of retail outlets, advertising strategy and visual identity. The brief focuses on making Scion a lifestyle brand and is thought to be worth around £32m.
Toyota announced its intention to launch a youth brand in 2001, but the Scion name was not revealed until March of this year. Jim Lentz, vice-president of Scion, said: "For the past four years, we have been listening carefully to this new generation of car buyers now reaching driving age and entering the car market."
Simon Needham, group creative director at Attik, said: "We're aiming to appeal to the 16 to 21 age group and create an aspirational brand. In the retail environment we're looking to create a place where young people feel comfortable hanging out and not a place where they go just to stare at a car."
Attik was appointed on the back of its work for youth brands such as MTV and Nike, but Toyota is now its biggest account. The agency has created a youth market research tool called Taxi, which uses 'street teams' to feed information about the latest trends and styles back to a main database.
Scion has appointed agency Oasis to devise its online strategy.
.jpg)
.jpg)