SANTA MONICA, CA – Scion wants to reignite enthusiasm for the brand at its dealerships and is asking that each of its stores appoint what it is calling an ambassador.
It’s a modification of an existing scheme that debuted with the brand 11 years ago. As Scion stores are inside higher-profile Toyota dealerships, Scion wanted to make sure it had an advocate within each building. But the prior program, dubbed Scion Champion, lately had fallen by the wayside.
“When we launched the brand we had a request with dealers for something we call a champion, and that person was supposed to be a dedicated individual who did nothing but (represent and sell) Scion in the store,” Doug Murtha, Scion vice president, tells WardsAuto in an interview during a ’16 iA and iM media preview here.
But Murtha says the drop in Scion’s volume, from a high of 173,034 in 2006 to 58,009 last year, caused the champion program to wane, as financial incentives for those participating were tied to sales per outlet.
“As you might imagine, at recent volume limits that (program) was hard for a lot of our dealerships to justify from a pay-plan standpoint, and that role largely has gone away at most stores,” Murtha says.
Now with the new ambassador program, the brand is asking not for someone dedicated, but rather designated.
“When we look at the dealers who are doing a good job with Scion today, the one common thread we found is they have somebody on staff (with) some skin in the game,” Murtha says, adding there usually is a pay-plan-type of commission in these stores.
The ambassador program is more flexible than the champion program. For instance, Murtha says dealer staffers responsible for Scion could have other duties in a different department, such as used cars or inventory management.
“Whatever (scheme) it is, we’d like one person as our single point of contact.”
This month, to reintroduce dealers to the brand, Scion is hosting representatives from its 1,004 U.S. stores, who may or may not be ambassadors, at a Texas training event.
A third of Scion’s dealers have signed up representatives for the event, says brand spokeswoman Nancy Hubbell. With regional-team training members in attendance as well, “we are at capacity,” she says.
Scion is funding the “lion’s share” of the Texas training, Murtha says, but is requesting dealers contribute something to have some skin in the game.
Scion Still Shooting for Six Figures
Two years ago, a top Toyota official told WardsAuto the automaker was concerned it might have too many Scion dealers, as the brand’s retail network exploded to near-Toyota proportions, with stores outside of the urban areas originally targeted.
Scion has many more dealers than other U.S. brands with similarly small volumes. For instance, BMW’s Mini has roughly 100 U.S. stores.
But when Toyota gave Scion dealers the chance to bow out in 2013, none gave up their franchise.
While this was a positive sign of lingering enthusiasm for the brand, which serves as an entry point for young carbuyers to the Toyota family, Scion’s sales in the past two years have continued to underwhelm.
The brand’s 2014 tally of 58,009 was 15.1% below 2013’s 68,321, WardsAuto data shows.
Scion hopes to reverse the sales slide with the new iA and iM small cars, although Murtha acknowledges those two models alone, together expected to sell 50,000-60,000 units annually, won’t be enough to return Scion to a long-sought goal of 100,000 annual U.S. sales.
That volume level is seen across the industry as offering good profitability to dealers.
A forthcoming mystery model, widely believed to be a subcompact CUV, likely will be more influential and could get the brand back to the six-figure mark next year or in 2017.
Murtha says 100,000 isn’t the ultimate goal.
“In general, we’re looking to bring the brand back over (six figures) on a sustained basis, (but) if we could do 150,000 I’d be perfectly happy to do 150,000.”
Scion also retails the tC coupe and FR-S sports car.
Later this year it will discontinue the xB box. The iQ and xD small cars already have been killed.
