Essay: Micro Factors & Market Analysis Of Toyota Prius In Australia.

Describe micro environmental factors.

Micro environmental factors are integrated and incorporated within the business prospects in of the companies and these are developed and demonstrated within the particular product orientation and company and in this case, the Toyota Prius is taken as the selected car for understanding the Australian Market. The micro environmental factors depicts the internal sources and internal strengths of the company which are required to understand and depict the business process and business definition (Cravens and Piercy, 2008). For introduction of the new product like Hybrid cars to the markets, proper business attention and integration is to be developed and modified within the business case. The micro environmental factors are discussed here like:

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Employees are the base of the organization and in Toyota Australia, there is formal communication structure being placed and ensured to provide the feedback for the same. In response to the present business scenario, the employees are well informed and motivated for the variety of services and products which are communicated to them for being the part of effective team and group within the company. As the Prius itself is the innovative and creative product, the employees are motivated and rewarded for further business and proposition.

The company Toyota has also considered the availability of resources and thus the company has come up with manufacturing and assembling unit within the country where from there is also export made to the New Zealand and other neighbour geographical regions. There are tangible and intangible resources both needed and those are like power, workforce, knowledge, raw material, metal, fabrics and cotton etc which are important and easily available in the Australian market.  

The shareholders are the people who are responsible for the funding and they are to be pleased with the perfect attention to the different attribution to the business and profit making scenario which are incorporated within the business and the process engagement of the company (De Haan, Mueller and Peters, 2006). There should be sufficient and effective process, operations and marketing coordination given to the company and the consumers with respect to the business and revenue generations and those are to be improved with the business process scenario within the company Toyota. 

The dealers and the suppliers are presented within the company’s success and business integration and there are subsequent attention given to them in respect to attain the proper market share. There are specialised formal structures to place and depict the suppliers and dealers within the organizational system and those people are also coordinated with meetings and seminars to ensure the correct attention and understanding of the business policies and rules. There is also regular suppliers and dealers interaction with the company and the consumers to understand and predict the needs accordingly.

The company Toyota is at present the largest car manufacturer and seller in the world and it has different types of products to cater into different segments of the consumers. The company was not initially prepared for the hybrid cars and there were only emphasis on the expansion to the different large and mid range vehicles to cater into the mass market in EU countries and US (Sandberg, 2012). With the advent of environmental and sustainability campaigns and the increased value of environmental programs and risk triggered the company to innovate and develop the cars which are more eco friendly and having less environmental impact. The Toyota Prius was the first hybrid car to be entered in the Australian market and the company has also indicated the different prospects like less fuel emission and less environmental impacts. As stated earlier, the Prius was developed within the Hybrid segment of cars which are more targeted to the premium class of the consumers (Beliveau, 2010). The consumers were not initially accepting the car due to new and changed features and with price attached. Later the Prius became a status and statement to the others. The consumers are happier to buy Prius due to the innovative and distinct designs and there are also the pricing strategies which helped the company to sell and present the Toyota Prius in the appropriate market and eager consumers.

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The Australian consumer are also having different options for Hybrid cars like Honda Civic, Toyota Cambry etc but the distinctive feature and design with the performance in the presented market and environmental aspects and those are to be also required to make the consumers satisfied with the correct attention to the new values and offerings of the Toyota Prius in the Australian market (Kley, Lerch and Dallinger, 2011). The consumer’s Status and recognition need is successfully fulfilled within the Toyota Prius and thus there is more market share and market penetration with the related segment of the hybrid cars. The consumers have the options to choose the less expensive alternatives to the higher models from BMW, Mercedes or Audi in the market and those are helping the company to maintain the market share.

The marketing Mix is a combination of different marketing activities and samples and those are also considered to produce the correct attention towards the required market demand and consumer’s expectation. The different variables are like product, price, place and promotion (Kotler, 2012).

The product here is Toyota Prius which is a Hybrid car. Hybrid technology is used in vehicles to supplement the conventional petrol engine with electric battery and motor. The engine is then powered with more efficiency and less fuel consumption with lower environmental impacts by the vehicle and this also helped to control and integrate with more power and performance within larger cars with less erosion and fuel consumption (Graham-Rowe et al., 2012). The product is also an supplement to the higher fuel like petrol pricing and thus the cars can be integrated within the two aspects also. The Toyota Prius has different models and variants at present in Australia and those are like Prius C or V class in the market.

The company Toyota has not introduced the car with Scheming pricing for getting the car more profit and then lowering the price as per the market is engaged with competitor. The company has integrated with penetration pricing and those are relevant to entre in the new market with the new product which was not perceived before (Beliveau, 2010). This pricing strategy helped the company Toyota to retain and maintain the market share and thus in present market statistics, more than 50% of the hybrid market segment is considered and developed within the Toyota Prius. The pricing of Toyota Prius though is higher than the general engine cars and it is also regarded as the substitute to the higher end cars in Australia like BMW, Audi, Mazda, Mercedes etc.

The promotional campaign in the Australia and other market is considered with different objectives and those are to be also engaged with different attention to the marketing mix and marketing orientations within the company. In that respect, the initial promotional activities were done on the environmental aspects and then the promotional activities were done to communicate the consumer with the advantages for the practical and day to day transportation options (Graham-Rowe et al., 2012). The company has tried to integrate with the social media, digital and online promotional campaigns and there were e-brochures presented within the market to communicate with the present marketing strategies. The later promotional campaigns also tried to depict the utility of the car with size and comfort and those are to be also developed in order to attract more consumers within the market.

The company has adopted dealers and suppliers throughout Australia and there are almost 210 dealers, with 277 outlets and other Lexus dealers located within the Australian Subcontinent with almost 13000 people employed and integrated within the business. The company has also tried to incorporate the formal structure and proceeding within the dealer relationship to maintain the proper and adequate business considerations in Australia.

The company has taken the decisions to close the production in Australia within the year 2017. This is mainly to achieve the long term sustainability in Australia and those are to be effective from the management decisions on strategic and business propositions. Toyota Prius is the market leader in the hybrid car segment and those are to be maintained with more product development and innovative strategies integrated within the business. The company should look for more stable and sustainable market and those can be achieved by proper market research. The Toyota Prius can be also presented to the developing countries for establishing a new market. There can be also new product life cycle introduced within the Toyota Prius by modification and product development done.

Conclusion:

From the above discussed project and understanding, it can be ensured that the Toyota Prius is the market leader in Australian hybrid market and that is to be also maintained by the company for attaining proper direction to the future business proposition. The company has implied the perfect marketing strategies for Toyota Prius and those have ensured the future proposition to the market and the company’s probable activity to be more informed and sustainable in Australia.

References:

Graham-Rowe, E., Gardner, B., Abraham, C., Skippon, S., Dittmar, H., Hutchins, R., & Stannard, J. (2012). Mainstream consumers driving plug-in battery-electric and plug-in hybrid electric cars: A qualitative analysis of responses and evaluations. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 46(1), 140-153.

Kley, F., Lerch, C., & Dallinger, D. (2011). New business models for electric cars—A holistic approach. Energy Policy, 39(6), 3392-3403.

Beliveau, M. (2010). A study on hybrid cars: Environmental effects and consumer habits (Doctoral dissertation, Worcester Polytechnic Institute).

Sandberg, U. (2012). Adding noise to quiet electric and hybrid vehicles: an electric issue. Acoustics Australia, 40(3).

De Haan, P., Mueller, M. G., & Peters, A. (2006). Does the hybrid Toyota Prius lead to rebound effects? Analysis of size and number of cars previously owned by Swiss Prius buyers. Ecological Economics, 58(3), 592-605.

Cravens, D., & Piercy, N. F. (2008). Strategic marketing. McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Kotler, P. (2012). Marketing Management, millenium edition: Custom Edition for University of Phoenix.

Lancaster, G., & Massingham, L. (2010). Essentials of marketing management. Routledge.