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Monday, December 30, 2013

Toyota Puts on a Show at a Mall in Changsha

On November 17, I visited the new Kaifu Wanda Plaza in Changsha, China. While there, I saw a promotion for the Toyota Vios, which Wikipedia describes as "a four-door subcompact sedan manufactured by Toyota Motor Corporation primarily for emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region". In an article published November 7, CarNewsChina.com reported:
The new Toyota Vios has been launched on the China car market. Price starts at 69.800 yuan and ends at 112.800 yuan. The new Toyota Vios debuted on the Shanghai Auto Show in April, it is the cheapest Toyota branded sedan available on the Chinese auto market, competing head to head with cars like the Volkswagen Jetta and the Citroen C-Elysee...

The new Vios is an important car for Toyota in China. The old Vios was very unpopular because it was considered too small and underpowered compared to the competition. The new Vios is larger than the old one, but the engines seem rather old and underpowered.
Although the content, size, extravagance, etc. vary, I've seen numerous promotions like the one at Kaifu Wanda Plaza elsewhere in China. For now I will refrain commenting about this common form of marketing in China, but to provide an example of how companies are trying to connect with consumers in China and to add some more color to the earlier post about Kaifu Wanda Plaza I will share a few photos and a video of the Vios promotion.

It included a variety of performances. For example, a pair of foreign men with guitars:

two men playing guitar in front of a video display


And four women with modern-looking violins and a string bass:

four women in white dresses playing electric clear violins


There were also enthusiastic emcees, a fashion show, videos, and young women wearing dresses and tiaras (also appearing in the earlier post here) who appeared to mostly stand around and occasionally provide assistance:

three young women wearing dresses


I don't know how many cars sales resulted from the promotion, but at least it drew a crowd:

a performance at a promotion for the Toyota Vios at Kaifu Wanda Plaza in Changsha


For more, below is a video of one performance. I was interested in capturing audience behavior as well, so it's from a distance and not the greatest for fully appreciating the performance. I will not be providing a review of the performance (including commenting on the fog machines) other than to say, like the promotion as a whole, it reminded me of others I have seen in China.

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