Individual Marketing Plan Report on Toyota Prius
Executive Summary:
Toyota is the well famous and well known company in the Oman. Its quality products capture the almost complete market. People are showing their full trust on the products of Toyota because of their high quality and 
customer satisfaction. The popularity is increase in Oman due to its effective marketing strategies and sales support programs. Toyota first priority is to provide more customer satisfaction and bring smile on their faces. So in it’s every model of car, it provides more and more advancement, introduce new and latest technologies which give more benefits to its customers and full satisfaction.
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Introduction and Objectives:
In 1937, Toyota motor was developed in Japan and in 1965, introduce as first product of UK based. With a passage of time, it becomes the highest selling brand in united state due to its better production. In 80s, it starts its production in vehicles and now after 59 years, it become the most famous and recognized selling brand. And soon it going to attain the first position in the selling list. It only the journey of Toyota from its success and many plans are going t implemented for future. The mission statement of Toyota is “providing best customer experience and dealer support to sustain sustainable growth”. From its mission statement, it is clearly mentioned that Toyota main focus is on customer satisfaction and this thing encourage Toyota to provide high quality product with peaceful drive and leisure. Toyota work on continuous improvement, which show not only in products but also in its technologies, different services and value added services. (ukessays.com, 2015)
Now we talk about the latest model of Toyota, which is Toyota Prius. It becomes most famous hybrid car in new era of hybrid technologies in all Middle East. With striking new designs, Prius bring ground breaking hybrid performance with fun to drive sprite. Its specifications related to vehicles are imported as per GSO conformity Certificate applicable to the grade from Toyota motor corporations. Its parameters may be different due to non Toyota accessories installation. Nationwide service network and parts of Saud Bahwan Automotive support the outstanding product quality of Toyota. So Toyota become the most well known and trusted brand in all over the world. (toyotaoman.com, 2017)
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Toyota is providing high quality products according to its requirements. But for promoting any product, its marketing strategies are very much important and they perform a key role making its product more famous and attract more and more customers due to its marketing strategies and people are willingly ready to purchase the product of Toyota due to its effective marketing policies and methodologies which help in promotion of all products.
Current Market and Company Situational analysis:
- SWOT Analysis: Prius is hybrid car with fully electric manufactured. It was introduce in 1997 in Japan and now this model sold in more than 90 countries.
The SWOT analysis of Toyota shows its strengths and weakness which are related to its operations that make it stronger from its competitors. Some strengths are given: Highest market share in the US market; Toyota Prius is the leader in market with 80 percent share and its best competitor is Nissan Altima hybrid. Innovation; Toyota more concern with its improvement in current models and also in prius. Prius latest version launch in 2021 with a plug in hybrid and 15% reduction in carbon emission. Toyota Frugality; its main focus on reliability and frugality in its all designs. Prius is lighter, high energy efficient and compact which suits its optimal fuel economy and higher speed. Unique design; prius is more successful car due to its design. Its design brought down its drag coefficient as its competitors are finding to difficult. Environment impact; hybrid electric car is the demand of customers as they Want emission on environment and prices surging. And at this time, its launch is become important for all customers.
Now there is also some weakness with the strength of Toyota Prius: More choice for eco friendly car; the demand for eco friendly cars will going to increase in future and many companies are going to invest in hybrid technology. Different competitors also provide more economic options as compare to Toyota. Huge order; Toyota has to face a huge order of cars as they set a bench mark of total sales and more products are ready in process. Higher sales in Japan; its hybrid sales are more in Japan as compare to other countries as 50% of all hybrid cars are sold in Japan. (Bhasin, 2018)
- Toyota Five Force Analysis: five force analysis of Toyota show that bargaining power and competition are strongest factors in automobile industry. The five forces are: Bargaining power of Toyota customers; its customers directly affect the revenue of business. The influence if customers on business are very strong. Some external factors are consider to be main contributors for strong bargaining power like moderate substitute availability, high quality information and low switching cost. Competitive rivalry or competition; Toyota has to handle strong force of competition. This show that how firms effect each other due to competition factors. Some external factors related to competitive rivalry environment are; low number of large firms, high variety and differentiation of firms and high aggressiveness of firms. Bargaining power of Toyota suppliers; suppliers want ti improve the firm with the business. This analysis shows the interaction between business and suppliers. Some external factors are low forward integration of supplies, high overall supply and moderate population of suppliers. Threat of new entry; new entries are present as potential competitors for Toyota and its external factors are high supply chain costs, high cost of brand development and high capital cost. Substitution threat; the substitute are mostly effect the products of Toyota. Its external factors are low convenience in using substitutes, moderate availability of substitute and low switching cost. (FERGUSON, 2017)
Market Segmentation:
Toyota market segmentation and target markets are depend on the statement that right car for right place and for right person. For this Toyota segments in all countries and identified their all main markets. It target economy class to lower class. The market segmentation, market strategy, marketing positioning and market targeting of Toyota depend on care related to its users so different product attributes and variety offer to their customers. Its main segments are Psychographic segmentation and Demographic segmentation. In first segment, Toyota focus on family sized and high class people with high income. In second segment. Toyota targets the upper middle high income group of people and their family size.
Toyota use three different dimensions for making and efficient and effective plan for marketing and these elements are Low operating cost, safety and green.
Toyota invests in mostly on safety feature of car. Green shows the positive response from their clients. So on depend on its three basic factors, Toyota become successful to capture the opportunities of market.
Toyota using adjacent segment. In this strategy, company trying to increase its market share continuously and improve its customer growth. In start, small and easy vehicles are target of company. And with this same strategy, now Toyota is manufacture a specific car and move to another, large cars as compare to previous. it expand its market by introducing Sedan cars and expand its market. (ukessays.com, 2015)
This combination of segmentation helps Toyota in understanding different group of customers and customer profile. It use different targeted strategies for selling and manufacturing according to customer segments and try to enhance the customer satisfaction with all facilities. Different type of value based and customer benefit strategies for positioning are used by the company for prominent the functional benefits related to offer of company. According to its production system and Global presence, Toyota takes competitive advantage in its marketing strategies. (Bhasin, Marketing Strategy of Toyota – Toyota Marketing Strategy, 2018)
Different plans are used by Toyota Company for making its marketing strategies more effective and efficient. So some SMART rules are adapted by Toyota Company to making its market more strong and competitive. Its two basic approaches are used in making its market more attractive and make unique from others. These are quality improve approach and customer first approach and in last after sale service approach.
In quality improve approach, Toyota consider quality as collection of sales, service quality, product quality and quality of work as all basic rules for supporting the quality issues. Product and service provide at best level to customer when all employees are engaged with the design and development related to production, purchasing, sales, and after sales services by implementing quality assurance cycle at each implement process.
Its quality function policy depends on global company wide policy. Its fundamentals are policy and function management. Toyota also appoint Chief quality officers in many countries to handle regional problems and promote collaboration globally. Its major initiatives are coping the quality troubles, story teller activities maintain focus on the series of recall issues, strength quality improvement measures through region driven measure centered on CQOs and quality month activities for enhancing the employees awareness related to quality.
Customer first approach is present in Toyota for provide customers all services and products that bring smile on their faces. To Toyota try to offer superior feature cars according to quality performance, safety and environment. Its major initiatives are ongoing customer first staff education and Lexus information center and Toyota customer assistance center activities.
It’s after sales services include better car, and better services. Regular checkup of cars, repair due to any breakage and legal checkups are part of services. So after sale services provide support during ownership of customers. Its major initiatives are listen the customer feedback with Toyota national dealer advisory council and global learning facilities with accumulated service technologies. (toyota-global.com, 2018)
Marketing Mix strategies and Recommendations:
Toyota Motor Corporation is the biggest manufacturer of cars in the overall world and work in various countries. Its headquarter in Japan and become most profitable and successful car manufacturer in the world.
Toyota used marketing mix strategies for promoting its product in the market. Toyota has almost 51 units of manufacturing and its innovative environmental and hybrid technologies made it leader of automobile industry. It also develops fuel cell technology which will use in future. Toyota brand is related with the reliability, innovation, durability, safety, sustainability and quality of products.
Toyota provides its customer all intangible and tangible products. A high quality product is self marketed and make more desirable the vehicles of Toyota. Its main concern is customer interest and their research center always try to work on customer expectations and demand with the passage of time. Its marketing mix normally includes three different elements like pricing, placing and promotion.
Pricing in marketing mix; Toyota is the second largest seller company in 2003. With their heavy investment and innovative designs in promotional activities , they capture the attention of customers in all over the world. They produce vehicles of high quality and provide in moderate price. Selling price include profit and cost price of any product. Any increase in cost directly affects the selling price of customer. But Toyota use different approach as it calculates the profit instead of selling price. They though t that it is market mechanism and customers who determine selling price of product. The profit of company going to increase because of low cost vehicles and high quality.
Place in the marketing mix; Toyota always focuses on its customers and makes different products for their targeted customers. Through dealership they sell their vehicles and with the selling staff, they sale their products. In dealership, sale staff works together s a single team for assembles the plants. Staff is highly skilled with product knowledge and sales information, finance insurance, order taking and data collection. It focus on pull strategy and develop cars according to demand of customers.
Promoting strategies of marketing mix; Toyota uses various promotional strategies which help in increase the sales volume. They use different sources like newspapers, televisions, internet, word of mouth, broacher, yellow pages, billboards, radio and flyers. To draw attention they use catchy slogan. In 2012, they appoint Virat kholi as brand ambassador. They also introduce a cash back offer to consumer revive and dealer as instant rebate. These types of offers also attract non cash buyers. (Bhasin, Marketing mix of Toyota – Toyota Marketing mix, 2018)
Evaluation and Control:
Key performance indicators management is not specific to production system of Toyota but branded Toyota’s key performance indicators are very important for Toyota. The development of key performance indicator become global and proper set of methodologies and set of languages are established. These key performance indicators are derived from different indicators that help in creating an ideal situation for the operations. So these key indicators help in all operations and all sectors and give indication to all management that which area need more improvement and which one is doing its best performance according to conditions. Basically, proper evaluation must be required at every level to determine the productions and operations are done according to specific conditions and terms or not. So it provides proper check and balance related to quality and production because Toyota not compromises the demand of customer. With this Toyota also focus on internal and external control related to performance and financial problems. Proper information and relevant data must be collected which measure whether the information is correct or not and relevant according to requirement of company. (Ng, 2012)
Budget:
Toyota Company is most well reputed and highly manufactured company in all over the world, as we know it produce all the products according to customer demand and requirement. So proper budget must be prepare according to need of production department and proper financing issue must be resolve according to its requirement before the time of manufacturing because its finance and accounts department are work properly and safe a proper amount of cash in case of any need. With this proper budgeting system must be adopted by company to making all the production preparation in advance according to demand of market and requirement of customers.
Conclusion:
After all the above discussion about the Toyota Company we conclude that this is most famous and well reputed company. They are concern with the customer demand, its likeness and requirements. Because they want to bring smile on the life of customers. So they are very much concern with the requirement and demand of customers. Their second main agenda is to provide a high quality product, as they no compromise on quality of products or cars and provide with full facilities to customers at most appropriate prices. Because they concern with customers so they bring cars according to income level of customers and their purchasing power will not effect through their high prices. Its main head office in Japan and it almost run its business in more than 90 countries and sell its car by providing high quality and more customer satisfaction.
References:
- Bhasin, H. ( 2018, February 6). SWOT analysis of Toyota Prius. Retrieved from https://www.marketing91.com/swot-analysis-toyota-prius/
- Bhasin, H. (2018, january 12). Marketing mix of Toyota – Toyota Marketing mix. Retrieved from https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-mix-toyota
- Bhasin, H. (2018, March 6). Marketing Strategy of Toyota – Toyota Marketing Strategy. Retrieved from https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-strategy-toyota/
- FERGUSON, E. (2017, February 2). Toyota’s Five Forces Analysis (Porter’s Model). Retrieved from https://panmore.com/toyota-five-forces-analysis-porters-model
- Ng, C. (2012, august 17). The Toyota Branded KPI System. Retrieved from https://tera-tps.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-toyota-branded-kpi-system.html
- toyota-global.com. (2018). Customer First and Quality First Measures. Retrieved from https://www.toyota-global.com/sustainability/society/quality
- toyotaoman.com. (2017, 11 21). News & PR. Retrieved from https://www.toyotaoman.com/en/news/203
- ukessays.com. (2015, march 23). The Toyota Marketing Strategy Marketing Essay. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/the-toyota-marketing-strategy-marketing-essay.php