Toyota on Emotional Design

(sort of)

Interesting read from the TED Blog about a Toyota Camry that's going to be racing in NASCAR: TED Blog: And in walked emotion. They're surprised, as am I, to be writing about NASCAR, but it's an interesting marketing strategy on Toyota's part.

From TED:
"Of course, the Camry racing in NASCAR isn't the Toyota you and I can buy -- it's a pure race car with a motor that you can't get feeding power to the rear wheels. So it's more of a Toyota "Camry", but it looks the part, and it gives current and soon-to-be Toyota fans something to hoot and holler about in an irrational kind of way. ...

"Racing in NASCAR is part of of a larger trend of emotional design sweeping the entire Toyota-Lexus-Scion range."

The blog entry also points to some exciting new Toyota products -- especially surprising when the words "Toyota" + "exciting" weren't used in the same sentence before. My former Camry was called the "mom car" (and I'm not a mom!); the newer Honda Accord is, frankly, a little more exciting. Maybe my next car will be an exciting Camry!