Recently I have seen a number of commercials for the new Toyota Venza. These all consist of adults in their young-to-mid 20's going on about their parents being older and less fun. Meanwhile, the older parents are out having the times of their lives, going to concerts, mountain-biking, or horse-back riding. The 'children' meanwhile are living hum-drum, if not outright boring, lives while they worry about their elders.
So, Toyota has made a couple of interesting marketing decisions based on these commercials. Firstly, and most importantly, the users of the vehicles, and therefore the likely buyers for the Venzas, are these aging adults of what is likely the baby-boomer generation. It shows them still being active and having fun. But secondly, it portrays the current growing population of up-and-coming adults as being not nearly as exciting. What this does to me, as one of those 20 somethings, is say that this commercial is not meant for me, and they don't expect me to buy such a car.
But why am I not in the proper demographic of buyers? One would think at my age that a new car would be what I want. I have a nice job, a couple of years out of college. But then I look at my generation, and realize that we are not a good target demographic right now. What with the economy being low, and tons of people coming into the workforce without their being new jobs, while my generation wants a new car as bad as the next guy, that doesn't mean that my generation can afford one. Alternatively, my generation still needs cars, but we are maybe more likely to go and by used cars and older models, things more within our price range rather than a brand new car.
So, why say all this about a car commercial. Mostly because it shows a lack of trust in our generation's spending power, and more importantly, in between the lines of it all, a sign that my generation will not be spending like our parents, and though it may look boring to investors and big business, I consider that a very good thing.
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