Business Report Assignment Sample
Company – Toyota corporation
Industry background – Toyota is a major name and a multinational giant in the field of automotive manufacturing and there are not many companies in the same domain, that comes close to its brand image and strong market presence. This is a Japanese company known for the first innovative use of the lean and waste management strategies that gave its products the longevity and the price affordability that the Americans and the other county consumers were looking for. In the industry and market scenarios, the biggest competitors of the company are General Motors and the FORD that is very important to be noted and understood as well (Liu and Meng 2017). As per the company information released, it was found that in the year of 2020, Toyota has the leading market share of 8.5 percent followed by Volkswagen, Hyundai, Ford and Honda respectively with the market share of 7.8 percent, 5.4 per cent, 5.1 percent and 4.8 Percent respectively that is critical to understand as well. As per the scientific reports, the profits made by the company Toyota corporation alone in the year of 2020 was reported to be around three hundred and twenty-seven billion yen (Soviar et al. 2019). Due to its high mileage, smart features and strong hardware-software technology components, the profitability of the company has shown a steep rise, and this has remained a trend for past couple of decades. The Japanese automobile corporation also has a strong set of external as well as internal strategies that has helped the development of a strong positive brand perception and equity and its effective operational as well as the marketing strategies are to be determined for it (Nkomo, 2019). Toyota is known in the car and vehicle manufacturing industry for a number of exclusive features through which it has revolutionised not only the car manufacturing but business management and its protocols itself. These most important company characteristic is quality management that is waste and lean management through which it cuts the costs on the wastage and thus on the final products. Teamwork along with maintenance of the company silos are particularly important for the staffs of the company and in operations management, this is a major aspect of employee management. The vision along with the mission statement of the company helps in the development of the continuous learning protocols within the company that aids the continuous professional development of the Toyota staffs at different levels. These values and techniques of the company Toyota has revolutionised business practices throughout the world and the impact of Toyota highly efficient business practices has been worldwide (Prandi, 2018). Various other industries have taken up the business practices and manufacturing practices that was only used by the Toyota Corporation. The company has been industry innovators and pioneers with respect to that of features such as the Brake Assist, stability control, smart stop technology, anti-lock brake system and even brake force distribution, thus preventing any kind of risks. The Toyota culture that emphasizes on the values of teamwork, work ethics, practical interventions, continuous quality improvement and others are those which has greatly solidified its market position over the span of many decades. The different types of the values and traditions of the company has impacted its positive brand perception and respect from other companies and stakeholders – which has impacted upon the brand equity and corporate identity in a major manner. In the automotive industry, the main best-selling cars which are also placed in the global top ten are The Toyota Corolla, Toyota Highlander, Toyota Camry, Toyota Tacoma, and Toyota RAV4. It is these cars which has completely dominated the automotive industry of the world, and these are likeable for its comfort, features and the mileages that is important to note. As per the business news and reports, the company Toyota has been reported to be most valuable brand in the automotive sector of the world and in whole, as per industry statistics, it is the seventh most valuable brand of all the brands in all segments combined. This shows the level of excellence and brand perception plus corporate identity, that the company has reached over the recent decades which is attributes by its technology, company values and business plus project management techniques. Employees are core to the company and respect for all is the value that has taught employee management practices to other companies in industry too.
Present communication plan
It is important to note that the internal as well as the external communications are very integrated with each other in the Toyota corporation company. While Toyota is known for its differentiation strategy that it uses for its main marketing communications, there are main different areas (internally) that integrates the marketing communications and mix externally. These are the company values, processes, people and the problem solving that is vital to make a point of. Integrated lean practices, employee training and respect on a constant basis, setting up key responsibility areas and accountability for the same and processes involving material and productions management, just in time, visual stream mapping and empowerment of the teams – are major integrations (Nusran et al. 2018). Problem solving tools used includes plan, do, act and check cycle along with operational training to develop employee skills and these are very important elements are drives and underpins the integrated marketing communications mix. The internal communication for the staffs is one of the major aspects of the company management and communications programs are particularly developed and provided to the staffs to help market and sell the company products better. Stakeholder communications such as supplier and seller support are also important parts and the elements of the marketing communication mix that is used by the company chose here (Belgrade and Puspita, 2021). The innovations in different areas of the integrated marketing mix started post the 1980s that showed its business development and profitability over the year, as an automobile powerhouse. The differentiation is seen in their marketing approach as because the high-quality cars from the company, are marketed and advertised separately at a time span, being given to each for its market growth and development (Adeola, Hinson and Evans, 2020). There is a specific, highly committed research team and centre where the market and consumer research undertaken that helps the company meet the customer desires in a great way. And thus, it can be understood that the marketing mix used by the company greatly depends on its own research centre for the expected outcomes. Thus, the product segment of the integrated marketing mix is presently strategized like this, in Toyota.
In terms of the ‘place’ segment of the marketing communication mix, the company uses strategies like sales consultations, one to one selling, post-sales support, technical support, customer care, product demonstrations that gives importance to each consumer in a special way (Putra, 2019). Client communications is thus an important element of communication mix that helps in direct marketing. And this vitalizes the effect of what is known as ‘pull marketing strategy’ which is critical to the present integrated marketing mix used by the organization.
In terms of the pricing element of integrated marketing communications mix – strict cost differentiation approaches focussed on waste management, high end profit-making, high-quality service delivery and consumer demand requirements, are emphasized upon. Sometimes, the marketing communication mix also use low-cost strategies (that is cost reduction strategies) along with cost differentiation strategies to develop the market share and revenues, as planned (Rossiter, Percy and Bergkvist, 2018).
For the promotional component of the marketing communications mix, there are certain varied types of tools and techniques such as the brochures, word of mouth, digital and internet marketing, flyers, yellow pages, television, newspapers, radio ads are productively used by the company (Hatta, Widarto and Emi, 2018). Thus, it can be said that the company uses a 360-marketing strategy that uses all mediums of communication to the public and the digital plus traditional modes are both highly utilized by the company.
From the above mentioned and thoroughly discussed integrated marketing communications, it can be said that there are certain gaps and risks in the current exiting model followed by the company. Secrecy can be barrier to flow of information through all levels of the organisation thus creating risks in productivity and stakeholder communications. Next, it has a hierarchical system in the global framework of its administration, and this led to differences and issues with regional or sociocultural management in specific country of its operations that is vital to comprehend as well (NASER, 2021). Lack of flexibility in terms of the company values and the lack of the flexibility in terms of administration and marketing strategies can lead to development of serious gaps with the organisational market and sales performance. New technologies being invented by other companies every year, and the increasing costs of the non-renewable resources such as the rubber, steel, glass and fuel are the major barriers to free-flowing profitability of the business. And that is why stakeholder and supplier communications have to be on spot. The service level agreements along with the negotiations in terms of raw materials and lobar costs in case of outsourcing by Toyota has to be analysed and implemented well by the company, in order to close the above-mentioned operations and marketing communication gaps. On the overall, both external as well as internal communications along with process and operation excellence are – important elements of the marketing communication mix, used by Toyota.
References
Adeola, O., Hinson, R.E. and Evans, O., 2020. Social media in marketing communications: A synthesis of successful strategies for the digital generation. In Digital Transformation in Business and Society (pp. 61-81). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Belgrade, I. R., and Puspita, V. 2021. Marketing Communications Strategy and Brand Sustainability of Toyota Astra Motor Indonesia. In 2nd Southeast Asian Academic Forum on Sustainable Development (SEA-AFSID 2018) (pp. 196-199). Atlantis Press.
Hatta, I.H., Widarto, R. and Emi, R., 2018. Marketing Mix Analysis, Purchase Decisions, And Customer Loyalty Of Toyota Yaris In Jakarta, Indonesia. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 20(10), pp.3-8.
Liu, J. H., and Meng, Z. 2017. Innovation model analysis of new energy vehicles: taking Toyota, Tesla and BYD as an example. Procedia engineering, 174, 965-972.
NASER, S.A.A.M., 2021. Online branding strategies of Toyota.
Nkomo, T., 2019. Analysis of Toyota Motor Corporation.
Nusran, M., Basri, M., Ahmad, L., and Paris, A. Y. 2018. Analysis of marketing mix on the decision of the purchasing of Toyota Kijang Innova car using method of structural equation modeling (SEM). In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 175, No. 1, p. 012016). IOP Publishing.
Prandi, S., 2018. Product Management-Analysis of Toyota processes and application to LCV models in Europe (Doctoral dissertation, Politecnico di Torino).
Putra, A.H.P.K., 2019. Quantitative Series: Linking Marketing Mix and Increasing Product Sales of Toyota Type Avanza.
Rossiter, J.R., Percy, L. and Bergkvist, L., 2018. Marketing communications: Objectives, strategy, tactics. Sage.
Soviar, J., Holubčík, M., Vodák, J., Rechtorík, M., and Pollák, F. 2019. The Presentation of Automotive Brands in the On-Line Environment—The Perspective of KIA, Peugeot, Toyota and VW in the Slovak Republic. Sustainability, 11(7), 2132.
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