Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. has a new promotional campaign that says it's good for America, too. Billboards along highways in areas of the country such as the Cincinnati-northern Kentucky region, where Toyota employs 8,800 people, tout the U.S. economic impacts of the company, which is on its way to passing GM as the world's largest automaker.
The messages highlight numbers, such as 13 -- "Donuts in a baker's dozen; Toyota's U.S. investment, in billions," and 386,000 -- "Kilometers to the moon; U.S. jobs created by Toyota."
Toyota has led the way for Asian automakers that have steadily increased U.S. sales, and Toyota now has about 13 percent of U.S. vehicle sales. While GM and Ford Motor Co. are facing major restructuring with plant closings and job cuts, Toyota says it wants to expand car production in the United States. It recently announced plans to make up to 100,000 Camrys a year at a Subaru plant in Lafayette, Ind.
For all of 2005, GM lost 1.3 percent and Ford lost 1.1 percent of market share, compared with the previous year, while Chrysler gained one-half percent and Toyota jumped to 13.3 percent from 12.2 percent in 2004.
Toyota has had a long-term strategy of being accepted like an American company. "Those billboards are the culmination of 35 years of focus on being American in America," Wangers said. "They've waited until now to thump their chest."
The messages highlight numbers, such as 13 -- "Donuts in a baker's dozen; Toyota's U.S. investment, in billions," and 386,000 -- "Kilometers to the moon; U.S. jobs created by Toyota."
Toyota has led the way for Asian automakers that have steadily increased U.S. sales, and Toyota now has about 13 percent of U.S. vehicle sales. While GM and Ford Motor Co. are facing major restructuring with plant closings and job cuts, Toyota says it wants to expand car production in the United States. It recently announced plans to make up to 100,000 Camrys a year at a Subaru plant in Lafayette, Ind.
For all of 2005, GM lost 1.3 percent and Ford lost 1.1 percent of market share, compared with the previous year, while Chrysler gained one-half percent and Toyota jumped to 13.3 percent from 12.2 percent in 2004.
Toyota has had a long-term strategy of being accepted like an American company. "Those billboards are the culmination of 35 years of focus on being American in America," Wangers said. "They've waited until now to thump their chest."