From products to social networking: GAC Toyota's solution to the dilemma

This article uses the case of Toyota Sienna to introduce how to combine products and social media to enhance the brand's market influence. It is recommended for friends who are interested in brand operations to read and learn.

The automobile industry, as a microcosm of modern industry, is as complex and sophisticated as the "crown jewel of modern industry."

In recent years, a trend is that automobile manufacturing has gradually begun to iterate as quickly as consumer electronics, and the speed of new car introduction has continued to accelerate, which is undoubtedly welcomed by consumers.

However, the publicity for some new energy vehicles nowadays focuses on displaying functions such as large screens, refrigerators, color TVs, and cool electronic rearview mirrors, but the essence of car manufacturing is rarely mentioned.

Car manufacturing still cannot be separated from the technology accumulated by traditional car manufacturers over the years. At the same time, when facing new technologies and new trends, traditional car manufacturers must fully leverage their technological advantages and keep pace with the times in marketing innovation.

01 “The best Senna in China”: Senna’s upgrade and commitment

As a traditional automobile brand with a profound historical heritage, GAC Toyota has been adhering to the concept of "making good cars for China" and continuously carrying out innovative practices in recent years. By carefully optimizing its product line and improving service quality, GAC Toyota has won wide recognition in the market.

In 2023, GAC Toyota sold a total of 901,025 units throughout the year, ranking first among Japanese brands and firmly among the top three among joint venture brands.

Entering 2024, GAC Toyota continues to maintain a strong momentum of development. The launch of new models, such as the new generation Camry and the pure electric SUV of the Bozhi brand, as well as the continuous innovation of market strategies, have aroused heated discussions among consumers, and both sales and word of mouth have shown a positive trend.

These actions fully demonstrate GAC Toyota's technological and product foundation, as well as its strong fan base.

In the product matrix of GAC Toyota, Senna is undoubtedly a model with iconic significance. As one of Toyota's representative models, Senna has always been a "hot seller" in the MPV field with its spacious space, comfortable riding experience and reliable quality, winning the favor of countless family users.

Over the years, Sena has accumulated a large number of loyal users due to these unique advantages. These user groups not only have deep feelings for Sena, but are also the most valuable brand assets of GAC Toyota.

The 2024 Toyota Sienna has been fully upgraded for the Chinese market and held a press conference. Without too much rendering, everything goes straight to the point: sincerity and value - the new Sienna has upgraded the E-FOUR electronic four-wheel drive system, Face ID recognition system, Qualcomm Snapdragon SA8155P automotive-grade chip, welfare seats and other configurations specifically for the Chinese market, and the price benefits are discounted by 25,000 yuan.

The new car's configuration is far higher than that of other global markets in order to meet the diverse demands of Chinese consumers for high-end MPVs. It can be said that it is truly a special car for Chinese users.

GAC Toyota also proposed a new slogan for the 2024 Senna - "The best Senna in China", which reflects its sincerity in providing the best products to Chinese consumers.

Through these new actions, GAC Toyota once again demonstrated its innovation capabilities and market insight as a traditional automaker.

02 Create a topic matrix, Sena activates users to jointly build the brand

For a traditional automaker like Toyota, it has always been in the leading position in the industry in terms of products and technology, but seems to be relatively weak in marketing. But in fact, GAC Toyota has a deep brand heritage and is not short of users who pay attention to it. It just needs effective communication to show its advantages.

In response to the launch of the new car, GAC Toyota made new attempts on social media and launched a series of social marketing activities around Senna.

Through a carefully designed topic matrix - industry hot spots + social hot spots, GAC Toyota successfully mobilized users' enthusiasm for discussion, activated a huge fan base, promoted the release of brand voice, and brought GAC Toyota back into the mainstream market discussion.

1. Industry hot spots: precise positioning and user-centric optimization configuration

Product configuration has always been the focus of discussion among users on social networks about cars today.

GAC Toyota Sienna conducted detailed market research on configuration and made adjustments and upgrades to the vehicle configuration, including second-row seat upgrades, E-Four electronic four-wheel drive system, smart cockpit and localized changes.

Through the two topics #Best Saina in China# and #Saina for Chinese families to have more volume# launched on Weibo, GAC and users discussed configuration upgrades for the Chinese market. These topics attracted widespread user attention and discussion, demonstrating GAC Toyota's innovation in optimizing product configuration.

In terms of price, GAC Toyota Sena launched the topic #Sena exclusively caters to Chinese car owners, official price reduction of 25,000#, which not only effectively conveyed the message of price reduction, but more importantly demonstrated that GAC Toyota is willing to provide more cost-effective products to Chinese consumers, while also showing the brand's market acumen and flexibility.

These measures fully reflect the new slogan of GAC Toyota Senna - "The Best Senna in China", and truly put users at the center, accurately positioning and optimizing configuration according to the actual needs of domestic consumers. This not only strengthens the emotional connection between the brand and consumers, but also further consolidates GAC Toyota's leading position in the Chinese market.

2. Social hot spots: stimulate emotions and resonate with users

In today's automobile market, the functional value of a product is important, but consumers also tend to gain emotional value beyond the product.

GAC Toyota Sai Na's promotional activities for the Chinese market also fully considered this point. The social topic survey #Why do the elderly always miss family trips# they launched on Weibo is a typical example.

Unlike Europe and the United States, in China, the elderly are more involved in their children's lives, from planning their children's weddings to helping their children take care of their children. However, when young people travel with their children, the elderly are often absent because they find it difficult to adapt to sitting in a car with small space and uncomfortable seats for a long time.

GAC Toyota Sena has seen through this unique pain point and upgraded the rear seats for the domestic market from the product design perspective, upgrading them to the same integrated zero-gravity aviation seats as the Alphard, adding ventilation, heating, massage, electric adjustment and other functions to improve riding comfort. At the same time, there are also models equipped with electric lifting welfare seats, so family travel is no longer a problem!

This is a manifestation of insight into market demand. In response to this pain point, Sena worked with leading news media to extend this pain point into a social issue, combined with the hot topics of spring travel, and let users discuss it together, which resonated with them.

In this way, Sena not only increased the social awareness of its products, but also allowed users to deeply understand its product characteristics. This strategy ultimately made the topic rank among the top 31 hot searches on Weibo.

3. Fan activation: interactive co-creation, KOLs and users jointly shape social voices

Traditional automobile brands with a deep historical heritage have a group of loyal fans, including a large number of KOLs. How to find and activate these fans and make them a powerful amplifier for brand marketing is the key to success.

Take Toyota as an example. It has a large number of loyal fans on Weibo, who will spontaneously discuss topics such as the configuration and price of new cars. These discussions not only provide the brand with rich market insights, but also provide valuable information resources for formulating precise marketing strategies.

By listening to the voices of these fans, GAC Toyota Sena is able to find the points that truly connect with user needs, and carry out targeted product design and marketing strategy formulation around these points.

After GAC Toyota Senna released the topic about configuration upgrade and price adjustment, it quickly triggered a lot of heated discussions among KOLs and fans. They discussed various design improvements of Senna, such as the upgrade of the second row seats and the addition of the E-Four electronic four-wheel drive system, showing their high attention and interest in Senna.

These designs based on user demand insights have become marketing amplifiers that meet user needs. After the Weibo topic was released, Senna's fans not only discussed it enthusiastically, but also actively participated in content creation, making the topic a hot topic for users and allowing users to spontaneously support the brand, which also highlights GAC Toyota's more than 20 years of brand heritage and mass base.

In the end, the three topics were successively on the Weibo hot search list, with the highest ranking at TOP 14, significantly increasing the brand exposure.

GAC Toyota Sina's marketing strategy is a closed-loop path of insight into market demand - product design improvement - user discussion verification - amplification of marketing effect. In this way, GAC Toyota Sina not only activates the potential value of fans, but also successfully transforms user discussion and participation into actual market influence.

03 Conclusion

In the current fierce competition in the automotive industry, product first is still the essence of car manufacturing, and user-centricity is the prerequisite for success. The powerful topic matrix function of the Weibo platform can effectively guide the discussion of KOLs and users, help brands expand their voice, and enable joint venture brands to participate in the competition, be present, and not be afraid of the stage.

In the case of GAC Toyota Sienna, by combining product and social hot spot release, it not only enhanced the brand's market influence, but also successfully entered the discussion field of the mainstream market and gained the due brand voice. It successfully demonstrated how traditional car companies can use social media strategies to enhance brand voice and expand market influence. This may be an inspiration for joint venture car brands.

Author: Xunkong

Source public account: Xunkong’s Marketing Revelation (ID: 846631)