Toyota's Marketing Audit Essay: Situational Analysis, Objectives, And Marketing Activities Outline.

For an organisation of your choice (a product or service provider is equally acceptable) conduct a marketing audit on the organisation.

Your audit should contain the following:

1. A situational analysis including organisational goals, context and competitor activity.
2. A review of the internal strengths and weaknesses of the organisation.
3. The establishment of marketing objectives that support the organisational goals set out in section 1.
4. The development of outline marketing activities (4Ps or 7Ps) including a planning timetable to support the objectives set in section 3.
5. A conclusion outlining the benefits to the organisation that will result from the implementation of the marketing activity contained in the audit.

Understand the concepts of segmentation, targeting and positioning
Describe how the marketing environment affects a firm's strategy
Describe the role of marketing within service firms
Analyse the marketing mix

Organizational goal and context

Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the most innovative Japanese company that engages design, manufacturing the commercial vehicle for years. The company was started in the 1937 and headquarter of the company is in Toyota Aichi (Toyota-global.com 2018). Worldwide the corporate structure of Toyota consists of more than 300,000 employees. As per the statistic report, Toyota is the fifth largest company as per the revenue concern. This is the world's first automobile manufacturer that produces 10 million vehicles per year since 2012 and in 2014 the amount increases by 200 million, which is adapted for the mass-market adaptation. The production output is 10,420,140 unit (FY2018) and the revenue increases by ¥29,340,500 million (Toyota-global.com 2018). This is the leader in hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and it has most of hybrid passenger car model around the globe.

The position of the company is high in rank as the level of innovation they introduce in the market is quite effective and relevant. The situation analysis of the company determines the emerging economy of the organisation and also expect the growth in the last five years is incredible. Other automakers were more unwilling to alter their attention from big to small cars, expectant the value of fuel to bond ultimately, taking customers back to the big-car crinkle. The industry revenue generation and state the company in a more competitive position is the key issue in that case. The demand determinants and positional strategy in the market establishment is the key alternative in that case and consumer faith in saving fuel and money is the key approach that initiated by Toyota (Toyota-global.com 2017). 

The goal of the company is to establish effective working capital management and cost management for the quality production in the national and international market. The environmental challenge and initiative along with the electrification or Eco-car strategy are one of the significant goals that they try to implement in their process.

The most highlighting context, in that case, is associated with employees that maintained in a thorough manner by the company. The issues are quite highlighting in that manner as culture and innovation introduced by the company is somehow effective and formative in nature (Budde, Alkemade and Hekkert 2015). The culture of contradicting their product from their companies and evolve some stagnant giants that are over-ruling the oppositions or the competitors are the main concern in that case. The steady growth of market and productivity improvements are the key deliverance that target customers want from the company and that has been delivered by Toyota for years.

The range of automobile companies persist in the world are trying to compete with others with their unique selling proposition. However, customer preference and innovative development in the product is the key concern that differentiates the product quality as well as promotion. There are some prior factors that customers noticed at the initial time in a car like fuel economy, price safety, product features, the standard of customer service and downward demand in the market (Kieckhäfer, Wachter and Spengler 2017). The companies are like Nissan, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Suzuki all these companies are trying to beat their counterpart by implementing effective strategies and those strategies are high in natural and they introduce significant financial growth in the market as well (Toyota-global.com 2017).

Competitor strategy

                                                                                    Figure 1: Toyota’s Revenue

                                                                                 (Source: marketrealist.com 2016)

The strategy has been taken by Toyota is effective enough for market. The volatility in oil prices, currency exchange rate, increasing the bargaining power, rising infrastructure cost and rising labour cost – all these are important for a company as well as for the customer. So they have segmented their product quality and trying to make the change in operation factors (Okutomi and Amasaka 2013). The process of channelling and brand market equity addressed by the company is effective enough to beat other companies and also the innovation introduced by them is quite valuable in terms of levelling a royal emblem over their company.

The internal strengths of the company are:

• Toyota is the world’s leading automaker based in Japan, so a good brand image and loyalty persists in that case.
• The issue of research and development of the company is at per the best in the world and that is the reason most numbers of innovative cars are produced by the company. The company has 15 research facilities in 8 different countries like China, Thailand, the US, France, Belgium, Australia, Germany and Japan (Öberg, Henneberg and Mouzas 2012). These hubs are mainly based on three major research and development areas like leading-edge technology development, Product development and basic research (Toyota-global.com 2017).
• The widest customer reach in the world and reputable brand management is the concerning aspect in that case and they have maintained their reputation for the last 75 years.

• The production system of Toyota is also interesting as the company as they have different manufacturing system and system philosophy of elimination of waste from the manufacturing process (Chan, He and Wang 2012). The just-in-time concept is the basic system was introduced by Toyota and that continuous flow of their production. The lower costs of products and better quality of vehicles are the positives in that case.
• Toyota has the largest operating profit margin in percentage and the leap of profit margin is there (Ghani 2012). This is one of the systems that hard to replicate.
• The company has the strong human resource as well and they have appointed skilled labour to retain their customers (Toyota-global.com 2017). The strong diversified portfolio has been maintained through this way and large varieties of products are there that all made from the advanced technology.
• The global supply chain of the company is one of the major strength that the company has and this is the major strength of the company.

The weaknesses of the company are:

• The aspect of competition and revenue generation for Toyota is important in that case and Toyota is not as good as other companies in case revenue generation.

• Toyota is in the whole world and they have increased demand from customers. However, the dependence of suppliers is there for the production and customer need. In that case, they are lagging behind from other companies.
• The green vehicle technology has started by Toyota but they are not grabbing the actual market where they place their products. In China and India, is the best two places where the formidable approach has got to Toyota (Nichols 2013).
• The website is an open platform so people can easily deliver their views and approach that what they have experienced with their products (Gummesson 2012). Some of the negative comments are there as well that make a negative impact on customers.
• The poor brand recognition in four different flagships of Toyota in Lexus, Hino, and Daihatsu and in another place. However, the process is not good for the productive nature for the business (Toyota-global.com 2017).

• To enhance the high-quality service for long and provide products that define their brand image
• To maintain service quality in national and international and provide legitimate customer care that is effective enough to formulate their business.
• To cater to all the dimensions of innovation and foster any sorts of process that are beneficial for customers.
• To maintain a good relationship with customers by the ethical presence of the company and to highlight the positive aspects of it.
• To evaluate the driving force behind the advancement and gain the highest revenue in that process

In case of product, Toyota has huge range of tangible and intangible products for their customers. The products are high in range and these are self-marketed. The company has nineteen car models those are segregated in different categories. In case of small, medium and large size passengers car Tarago, Corolla, Rukus, Aurion these are quite important. In SUVs and 4WD Parado, Rav4, Land cruiser 200 all these are highlighted as super utility vehicle. Road assistance car services and extended warranties are the assistance that provide along with the product. They have trucks also and the hybrid product line of Toyota is the important aspect in that process.

Toyota focuses on the pull strategy and they have a different pool of target customer also. Toyota has a good marketplace and they also fulfil the demand of the customer. In case of the marketing mix, placing a product is important and that is the reason Toyota has curtailed their supply chain cost so that reasonable service cost can be provided and the high-quality product can be obtained. Product information, finance insurance, order taking decisions are important in that case and product placement is minutely handled for Toyota.

In the case of the pricing process, Toyota cost profit strategy is important as they have calculated the profit of the company only instead of calculating the selling price. The quality of the vehicles are high and cost of cars are directly proportionate to this. The utmost attention to waste elimination and the low-cost vehicles are the main attraction of the company. In technology, design and quality, price defers but the fuel efficiency and low-cost introduction is the key approach in that case.

Internal strengths and weaknesses of the company

The promotional standard is quite high in Toyota and their different projects make the company different from others. The promotional of safe technology, Toyota global vision, Toyota traditional vehicle, Smart mobility society all these are needed a promotion at the level best. The trust is one of the main ethics in that case and some of the promotional schemes are there. “Let’s Go Places” in 2012 by the brand Ambassador Virat Kohli in India is the concern advancement for business. In most of the countries, the rate of penetration is high. The marketing strategy of Toyota is based on the three major things. The traditional advertising medium, Dealership networking across the globe, four sales channel are the prime marketing strategies that Toyota has taken. Dealers’ network and sales channels are important in that case to make some advancement in production (Delafrooz, Taleghani and Nouri 2014).

The implementation helps in the environment, social infrastructure and in the structural change in the industry. The problem in urbanisation and technological innovation, as well as robotics, are introduced by the company and that makes something different from the other companies as well. Through these strategies, the company is being benefited in process of eco-car strategies or electrification, automated driving and utilization or the AI intelligence are the selected benefitted applications that companies are introduced in their recent processes (Toyota-global.com 2017). The process of accelerating electrification initiatives, ingenuity to use hydrogen fuel and a connected platform with company and customers is the important hub that initiates the information and intelligence in the process of expanding the business in a suitable way.

Conclusion

Therefore it can be concluded that market expansion and change in service lining for the development and focused on the artificial intelligence is the key commitment that the company delivers for their creative advancement. They have a short-term planning of social media promotion or make a communicative forum for introducing smart technologies to people. However, in the long-term process, comprehensive changes of introducing robotics or in-depth progression of artificial intelligence is the key parameter that will be implemented in that process. The wide range of product and services are the key advancement that they had made and this technological advancement makes them different from others and place a good position in the global competitive index.

References

Budde, B., Alkemade, F. and Hekkert, M., 2015. On the relation between communication and innovation activities: A comparison of hybrid electric and fuel cell vehicles. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 14, pp.45-59.

Chan, H.K., He, H. and Wang, W.Y., 2012. Green marketing and its impact on supply chain management in industrial markets. Industrial Marketing Management, 41(4), pp.557-562.

Delafrooz, N., Taleghani, M. and Nouri, B., 2014. Effect of green marketing on consumer purchase behavior. QScience Connect, p.5.

Ghani, N.H.A., 2012. Relationship marketing in branding: The automobile authorized independent dealers in Malaysia. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(5).

Gummesson, E.R., 2012. Internal marketing in the light of relationship marketing and network organizations. In Internal marketing: Directions for management (pp. 45-60). Routledge.

Kieckhäfer, K., Wachter, K. and Spengler, T.S., 2017. Analyzing manufacturers' impact on green products' market diffusion–the case of electric vehicles. Journal of Cleaner Production, 162, pp.S11-S25.

Morgan, N.A., 2012. Marketing and business performance. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 40(1), pp.102-119.

Nichols, W., 2013. Advertising Analytics 2.0. Harvard Business Review, 91(3), pp.60-68.

Öberg, C., Henneberg, S.C. and Mouzas, S., 2012. Organizational inscriptions of network pictures: A meso-level analysis. Industrial Marketing Management, 41(8), pp.1270-1283.

Okutomi, H. and Amasaka, K., 2013. Researching customer satisfaction and loyalty to boost marketing effectiveness: A look at Japan's auto dealerships. International Journal of Management & Information Systems (Online), 17(4), p.193.

Toyota-global.com 2017 The Changing Business Environment and the Expansion of Mobility Value retrieved from: https://www.toyota-global.com/pages/contents/investors/ir_library/annual/pdf/2017/ar17_2_en.pdf [Accessed on 31st July 2018]

Toyota-global.com 2018 Toyota retrieved from: https://www.toyota-global.com/ [Accessed on 31st July 2018]