Toyota Camry: using focus groups in a different way
Focus groups showed that the perception of the Camry is dominated by design and innovations, but not linked to power and performance. Those individuals who disbelieved Camry’s potential for performance during focus groups, were invited to go for a test ride in the new vehicle. The passengers were taken for a comfortable ride to a racetrack, where a helmeted professional replaced the driver and pushed the car to its real performance potential. Hidden cameras inside and outside of the vehicle documented the spontaneous reactions of the passengers, while they were receiving a completely new impression of the Camry. In one execution, a passenger admits, “instead of saying ‘the Camry is a turtle,’ I should have said ‘the Toyota Camry is a turbo turtle.’” This work is an example for probably one of the best possible routes to come up with real people and real life in advertising. And it proves that there exist different approaches of using research results for creativity. via Adweek
