As Lexus turns 25 for the 2015 model year, the formerly sedate luxury brand is acting like a 20-something who is living life to its fullest and will worry about the consequences later.
When the brand launched for 1990, the cars had understated styling and Lexus touted the quality and value of its cars. One early television commercial, for example, showed champagne glasses stacked on the hood of an LS sedan to demonstrate how smooth the engine was.
Now, though, Lexus models sport a gaping, in-your-face front design, and the advertising focuses on performance, with young adults partying like there’s no tomorrow. One current spot shows an overheated couple on the verge of outdoor sex in the rain when the man gets distracted by a blue Lexus IS sport sedan.
“Some people look at it and say, that’s very provocative, and some people look at it and say, you went too far,” Lexus marketing communications manager Brian Bolain said in an interview.
In 1990, Lexus was aimed squarely at the Baby Boomer generation, just as they were reaching their peak earning years and ready to move to more upscale vehicles. Bolain said the racier image the brand is carving these days is designed to appeal to the next big cohort of luxury buyers, Generations X and Y.
“The point of what’s changed at Lexus is, we used to try to be a little bit of something for everybody. Now we’re trying to be a lot of something for a few people,” Bolain said.
Boomers currently account for 48 percent of luxury vehicle sales but Bolain and Lexus expect the percentage of Gen X and Y sales to jump from 31 percent to more than 50 percent.
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“We have to change our appeal or expand it to a new audience, and that’s where you see a lot of performance messaging coming from us.”
That means taking some chances. The gaping grilles, for instance, have provoked comparisons to the alien in the “Predator” movies, but Bolain shrugs that off.
“Love it or hate it, it creates a conversation about Lexus,” he said. Throwing in lots of horsepower and racecar handling ability generate more buzz.
“Performance is what people will respond to,” Bolain said. “Hybrids are important because we want to be perceived as a green company, but honestly, it does not personify the brand in any particular way. Performance does.”