Lexus

LEXUS

Lexus (English: Lexus; Japanese: レクサス), founded in 1983, is a global famous luxury car brand of Toyota group. It only took more than ten years for the brand to sell more than Mercedes Benz and BMW in North America.

Since 1999, Lexus has ranked the first in the sales of luxury cars in the United States for 11 consecutive years. In 2005, Lexus successfully entered the Japanese domestic market and became a premium car brand with global sales. At first, Lexus used "the passion of perfection" as its slogan in the United States. Later, it used "the pursuit of perfection" as its marketing motto in countries and regions around the world. Until 2013, its slogan changed to "amazing in motion".

In 2019, the cumulative sales volume of Lexus in China exceeded 1 million units; in 2019, the annual sales volume in China was 200521 units, with a year-on-year growth of 25%. In March 2020, brandfinance released the report of the world's top 500 most valuable brands in 2020, ranking Lexus No. 200.

Historical review:

Mr. Toyoda put forward a shocking question: "after accumulating half a century of automobile R & D and manufacturing experience, can Japan create a top class car that is superior to the world's automobile industry?" In other words, the new car's direct rival will be the long-standing famous European car brands. We all realize that what he has raised is not only a problem, but also a comprehensive challenge to the Japanese automobile industry. However, all the people present with a very firm "yes, we can!" In response, we all know that this is not an impulsive response under a temporary incentive, but a firm commitment to the future mission made by a group of experienced and highly skilled professionals.

After years of painstaking efforts and painstaking research, Lexus was solemnly listed and succeeded at one stroke.

Brand logo

Lexus was first launched in North America, because the pronunciation of Lexus is similar to the word "luxury", which reminds people of the impression that the car is a luxury car. Lexus car trademark uses the capital letter "L" of the car name "Lexus", and the outside of "L" is surrounded by an ellipse. The ellipse represents the earth, which means Lexus cars are all over the world.

According to the official statement of Toyota Motor Sales Company of the United States, the ellipse radian was modified according to the precise mathematical formula. It took more than half a year for more than three designers and advertisers to complete it: this outstanding logo beat five design comparisons. In 1987, Molly Sanders, the head of Molly designs Inc., spent three months elaborately making this distinctive ellipse and l, replacing the most promising version of the original one, which looks like a seagull's wing without a circle.

The new Lexus logo made its debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show in January 1988.

In October 1986, a meeting was held between the top management of Toyota American sales company and luxury car R & D department to discuss the naming of new models. To find a proper name is like a hot potato. It must be elegant, but not feminine; it must be noble, but not delicate; it must be generous, but not unscrupulous. It has to be unique and outstanding.

Lippincott & Margulies, a brand management company in New York, has compiled a list of 219 possible names. They sifted out the last 10 from the original list. After further debate, the list was reduced to five: Alexis, calibre, chaparel, vectre and verOne. Alexis was the only name that was unanimously recognized by those present. But what's most criticized about it is that it sounds like a personal name, not a car name. What's worse, Alexis is the name of a crazy woman in the TV series, which means disreputable.

Finally, John French, the project manager of Toyota Motor Sales Company and the main contact person of brand management company, carelessly wrote some names according to Alexis, so Lexus was born. Frankie painted out Alexis' a, and after some discussion, the group changed I to u. The last name is Lexus.

Brand development

1983

In August 1983, Toyota held a significant board meeting, which was the starting point of Lexus. The board of directors covered up Toyota's ambition to the outside world with some unimportant discussion topics. When the media and the public thought this was another meeting of Toyota's routine summary, statement and inspiring remarks, the door of the meeting room suddenly closed, because they wanted to start the real and top secret topic of the board of directors. The topic revolves around the letter F (F is the F1 project, f also implies the English word flagship, 1 implies the first car). The atmosphere of the meeting is no longer as calm and silent as it used to be, and there are rare debates on the board of directors.

For Toyota, it's a success or failure project.

Board chairman Yinger Toyoda asked the company's top executives, designers, engineers and corporate strategy experts: can we create a luxury car to challenge the top market? What I didn't expect was that everyone's answer was the same - "yes.". The word "can" is full of doubts and worries. But Toyota has to make this gamble. Toyota needs to make another breakthrough in 1983, just as it did in World War II and the 1950s.

As a matter of fact, no one, except Toyota, agreed with the clarion call to enter the luxury car market from the very beginning. Akiro Toyoda, the son of the founder of Toyota and later the chairman and President of Toyoda Yinger, is a hesitant person. He thinks Toyota should make the best of what they do better - producing affordable cars for everyone. But Mr. Toyoda, like others who seem to praise but worry, finally changed his tune.

"You put the question to me, why Toyota has been successful in the United States for 30 years, and we still need to invest billions of dollars and tens of thousands of hours of research and design to put into production a brand new high-end car? Maybe, you know, I don't like to ride in other people's high-end cars. " "I don't have to ride Cadillac or Lincoln or Mercedes Benz from now on," Toyoda joked to American dealers shortly after Lexus went public in the United States

Toyoda Yinger was also very clear about the situation of Toyota at that time. He didn't want to board Noah's Ark for a futile thought journey. He believes that once Toyota gets involved in the luxury car market, it must take the top competitors in this field as the enemy. Toyota has to face Mercedes Benz S-class and compete with BMW's top 7-series cars. If Toyota drops its status, the risk of investment will multiply.

To produce top luxury cars, Toyota has to invest a lot of money to develop new engines and chassis. However, the consumer demand orientation of luxury car market is too strange for Toyota. Even if Toyota will do everything under the hood perfectly, Toyota also needs to consider the ride comfort, interior and exterior beauty - these are not Toyota's strengths.

The most difficult thing for Toyota is the reputation of Lexus. Toyota doesn't sell luxury cars. Can you imagine how difficult it is to persuade consumers to buy a luxury car from the same company as a cheap corolla (corolla is an entry-level car in the U.S. market) but for tens of thousands of dollars? Toyota's main competitors in the luxury car market can sell cars with their brand names. Because it's called Mercedes Benz, so I buy it; because it's called BMW, so I like it. But will consumers be willing to pay close to a Mercedes Benz S-class to buy a Toyota, or even a car made by Toyota but not called Toyota? This is really a serious problem. "Toyota makes Lexus? Toyota is the base of producing tens of millions of cars, and Lexus is out of place. It's like selling Wellington steak at McDonald's It was true that they were sarcastic about fortune at that time.

Toyota's research found that the market is changing quietly. Babyboomers in the United States (people born in the late 1940s and early 1950s are called babyboomers, which means babies born at the peak of their life in Chinese. They are growing up, they will soon enter their prime of life, and their spending power will be greatly improved. When they were young, they were loyal consumers of Toyoda, but they wanted to buy more upscale cars. Toyota smelled the opportunity of luxury car market. Luxury car brands at that time were becoming stronger, happier and more confident. Because they have a new generation of luxury consumers. Toyoda's "ambition" is huge, he said

Chinese PinYin : Ling Zhi