The $1 Billion Toyotathon

In what may very well be called one of the most daring moves made by a car manufacturer when it comes to its marketing strategy this year, the Japanese from Toyota seem to have decided on launching a dazzling $1 billion campaign for the fourth quarter of 2009.

Toyota is resorting to this daring move (given the current economy and the fact that the US market is now flooded with the 700,000 vehicles sold under CARS) in the hope that the fourth quarter will be just as in any other year: strong.

"We see the economy is starting to strengthen a bit," Irv Miller, Toyota spokesman was quoted as saying by msnbc.com. "We've stopped playing defense. It's time to go on the offense."

The strengthening of the economy was witnessed by Toyota is August, when the company was able to post an amazing 32.4 percent increase in US sales, compared to the same month of 2008. The company sold a total of 225,088 vehicles, up 10.5 percent over year-ago levels on a daily selling rate basis.

Of course, the increase may be irrelevant, as August was CARS-month and Toyota was CARS' best selling brand, with 19 percent of the total sales going to the Japanese manufacturer.

Even so, the new marketing campaign will be rolled out in November and will follow the company's established Toyotathon marketing and sales run. Toyota has not yet released details and offers for this year's media assault.