Toyota Mirai Was Endorsed Via Japanese Manga

A manga was published to endorse Toyota Mirai.

The Japanese are quite smart when it comes to endorsing their cars. There have been numerous campaigns in Japan that have gained a lot of traction and have thus resulted in increased sales. Toyota Motors Corp. vehicles have always used new techniques to market its products thus this time it is via the Japanese manga- a conventional cartoon style thoroughly followed in the region as highlighted by Green Car Reports.

Green Car Reports very smartly chalked out an example that was published in 2015. The company found the Toyota Mirai- a fuel cell hydrogen powered car being front and center in Motorfan. The issue was a Model Special Edition which surfaced in January, FY15. Similar to all the issues of the Motorfan, the publication was devoted to one model only and since Mirai was debuted at that time in Japan, the hydrogen powered car got the opportunity.

The comic was in Japanese but has also been translated in English for all those who are acquainted with the language. The issue shows Japanese mid aged guy who is on the lookout for a new car which has advance power features. He then goes through various possible option but soon he gets convinced that the Mirai is better than other car that have alternative fuels like BMW range-extended i3, Nissan Leaf battery electric, and Toyota hybrid car- Prius. Ironically, he has to go through a mild detour when he is hit by wife once he tells her about the price of the vehicle.

The good thing about this method is that nobody living in Japan needs to be concerned about crossing the lines when it is about the odd and weird depictions of Toyota cars. This is merely because TM is quite good at it on its own. By the start of the fiscal year of 2016, the company started to pitch a campaign for Toyota Prius that encompasses 40 young girls through anime graphics. 10 such girls were used in the company’s television advertisement whereas 30 were found on the company’s official website. These girls were known as the Impossible Girls where every girl was associated to a characteristic of the car is it door chimes or engines.

This is quite mild in contrast to an advertisement by the company that surfaced in Japan for the pickup trucks during the summers of FY14. The advertisement was called "Jungle Wakudoki" where a few businessmen were driving in the jungle. During this journey, they were heads on with a gorilla, a dance off also took place with the beast- it was like a Gangnum Style moment. The advertisement is extremely cute and attractive and the jingle is so engaging that it gets stuck on you mind.

This clearly indicates that Toyota has always been creative when it comes to their advertisements thus using manga as a medium comes as no surprise.