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Toyota Uses Social Networking to Market Hybrids

Toyota has redesigned its hybrid vehicle site to now let owners create profiles like those found on MySpace and other social networking sites. The hope is that owners will discuss their reasons for owning a Toyota hybrid vehicle.

“Toyota’s more than 600,000 hybrid owners are very passionate about their vehicles and the reasons they drive them,” said Gregg Benkendorfer, national manager of media strategy and digital marketing for Toyota, writes Environmental Leader. “The new community site taps into that excitement by letting users visually represent themselves through graphic art and video.”

The Toyota site allows users to view profiles of other owners, share their reasons for driving a hybrid, and provide statistics about themselves and their vehicles. Every community member is visually represented. There’s also an interactive distance map, which charts how much further Toyota hybrid vehicles travel than ordinary cars, and a gas savings calculator.

Saatchi & Saatchi LA and Firstborn created the site.

Because green consumers tend to be passionate about their beliefs, one would think that word-of-mouth marketing is a driving force for green companies, but that’s not always true, according to MediaPost.

Interpublic Group created an environment friendly score from Business Week’s Top 100 Global Brands 2006 list and analyzed online consumer conversations about each brand in relation to the environment over a period from April to June of 2006. Only 40 of the 100 brands had any mentions associated with the environment. Toyota and Honda topped the list with their hybrid vehicles.

The MediaPost article recommends to companies that if they have an environmental message associated with their brands, “don’t feel shy - court advocates, seek endorsers and reach out to your customers so they want to learn more.”