Building the Kijang brand through a 30 year story

We see Kijang everyday in the street. We also know that Kijang is by de-facto known as national-car, and until now there are five-generations of Kijang. That makes Kijang brand awareness higher than Toyota's.

Each of Kijang generation has its own story. The story started from the first-generation of Kijang, Kijang Buaya, made with the concept of multi-purpose vehicle and became very famous in the class in that era. The story continued with the development of the second-generation called by Kijang Doyok, which is customized into several variants, from box-car, pick-up, public transportation, etc. The third-generation is Kijang Super, made based on the concept of family-car and was famous with its TV ad which shows the testimonial of a little boy that proclaim Kijang can pick-up his whole family at once. The ad became a popular story among its customers. Toyota also created the phenomenon tagline in this era, “Kijang: memang Tiada Duanya” which is still famous until today. The fourth-generation was Kijang Kapsul and the fifth-generation is known as Kijang Innova, the Beautiful [R]evolution.

For the last 30 years, Toyota had maintained and strengthened the Kijang image, stories and associations, through the firm activities itself, the influencers, the customer and the creation of a new popular culture. Now, we are very assured with the reputation value of Kijang. For me, there is one other value that increases the value of Kijang. Do you know that around 70% of its components were made by local? Somehow, there is emotional –nationalism - value touching my heart. That’s why I am very proud of this brand, besides it is now approaching ASEAN market. In conclusion, I just want to said that branding is not about logoing, naming or tag-lining. A brand must sound its solid positioning, and branding is a integrated function of image, stories and associations.