Strategies for Enhancing Profitability: Leveraging Asset Turnover Ratios

The provided content discusses the importance of brand management in the progress of a company, using Toyota as an example. It highlights the three major concepts of brand audit, brand exploration, and leveraging the brand. The report emphasizes that brand management is crucial for a company's growth, citing Toyota's success as evidence. The content also references various academic sources to support its claims. In summary, the report stresses the significance of brand management in driving business progress.

Brand Management of Toyota company 1
Brand management

Brand Management of Toyota company 2
Executive summary
Brand management is necessary for the company to maintain the reputation in the market.
The purpose of this report is to describe the audit report of Toyota Company which will be
helpful for further understanding. The belief of Toyota is in profit instead of cost. There are
various kind of strategies has been discussed in this report. Brand exploratory and leveraging
brand has been described which will be helpful for further studies.

Brand Management of Toyota company 3
Contents
Executive summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Brand Audit.....................................................................................................................................5
Brand inventory............................................................................................................................5
Brand positioning and portfolio...............................................................................................6
Brand Mantra............................................................................................................................7
Brand Elements........................................................................................................................8
SWOT Analysis of Toyota Corporation.................................................................................10
Marketing Mix Aspects..........................................................................................................12
Brand Exploratory.........................................................................................................................14
Brand knowledge.......................................................................................................................14
Consumer based brand equity................................................................................................15
Brand salience........................................................................................................................16
Brand resonance pyramid...........................................................................................................17
Brand performance and imagery............................................................................................17
Judgments and feelings..........................................................................................................17
Brand attributes......................................................................................................................18
Brand loyalty..........................................................................................................................19

Brand Management of Toyota company 4
Leveraging the Brand....................................................................................................................20
Brand extension..........................................................................................................................20
Leverage secondary association.................................................................................................21
Diversification into other sections.............................................................................................21
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................23
References......................................................................................................................................24

Brand Management of Toyota company 5
Introduction
Brand management is considered as the planning which tells that how brand will perceive
in the market to attain the targeted goal. To describe the brand management, Toyota Automobiles
Company has been taken in this report. Toyota Motor Corporation is a multinational automotive
Japanese company which headquarters is situated in Japan. Toyota Car Manufacturer Company
has been using its principles to manufacture the reliable car as well as sustainable development
of society through occupies innovative and super quality products and services. Brand Inventory
and brand exploratory will be described in this report in the context of Toyota Company. The
aim of this report is to explain the audit report of Toyota Company which will be helpful for
further understanding. Brand leveraging is the strategy which is being used in the company to
expand the products in to the new market. The report will present the brand leveraging of Toyota
global company.

Brand Management of Toyota company 6
Brand Audit
A brand audit is being done by evaluating the present position of the company and
effectiveness of its product in the market in comparison of its competitors. It is the report which
will help company to examine the current situation of the company including strengths and
weaknesses.
Brand inventory
Differentiation cost and low cost both are being used by Toyota as generic strategies to
gain a competitive advantage in the automobile industry.

Brand Management of Toyota company 7
Figure 1: Brand Power of Toyota
Source:(Bhasin, 2016).
Brand positioning and portfolio
The current brand positioning of Toyota is effective and Toyota has been very successful
due to its superior quality and design. It is the strategy which is being used by company to build
a grand brand image (Qian, 2014). Along with differentiation cost Toyota also utilizes the
strategy of low cost to attain the competitive advantages. Toyota is able to gain the cost
leadership strategy by accepting careful choice, lean production and efficient distribution from a
low quality services and products.
POP’s-
 Innovative
 Efficiency
 Eco-friendly vehicles
 Reliability
 Validity
POD’s-
 Affordable
 Simple Maintenance

Brand Management of Toyota company 8
Figure 2: Brand portfolio of Toyota
Source: (Chart, Industry & Industry, 2010).
Toyota is a company which holds a portfolio of strong brands such as Scion, Daihatsun,
Hino and Lexus. To expand its portfolio, Toyota has focused on R&D and improves the quality
of the products significantly. As per Internal analysis of Toyota, it has been analyzed that the star
of Toyota is Prius hybrid, Lexus- luxury sedans and land cruiser SUV.
Brand Mantra
Brand mantra can be considered as the core brand promise and brand essence. The
current brand mantra of Toyota is “Quality over quantity.” The main purpose of brand mantra of
Toyota is that all employees are responsible for the brand. Toyota is seeking to go back to the
basics. It is the third automobile company in the US which is manufacturing excellent car, yet the
senior manager of Toyota Company, Jim Lentz, believes that the market share of the company

Brand Management of Toyota company 9
will be earned by company only 14% to 17% because the main focus of the company will be
over the quality instead of quantity (Coyle, 2013).
Brand Elements
Toyota is renowned worldwide for its trucks, cars, robots, vans and related to automobile
product. The logo of Toyota is having the simplicity with meaning (Tsimonis & Dimitriadis,
2014). It has been analyzed that the original name of the company was Toyoda which has been
changed after some time with Toyota.
It is the logo of the company in 1936 to 1947.

Brand Management of Toyota company 10
After the changing in the technology the logo has been changed and the description of logo has
been elaborated in above image.
Figure 3: Logo of Toyota
Source: (Zhao, Ichise, Mita & Sasaki, 2014).
The current logo of the company is presentable in 3D view. The shape of the logo of
Toyota is horizontally stretched elongated ellipse. The three ellipses present the products, the
trust and the great strides of Toyota. Value chain works in Toyota Company to support the
packaging in which the contribution remain of primary activities and support activities (Chiarini
& Vagnoni, 2015).

Brand Management of Toyota company 11
SWOT Analysis of Toyota Corporation
Strength  The market position of Toyota is strong in different geographic across the
world.
 In the context of brand recognition, Toyota has number of shares in all
over the world.
 Toyota beliefs to expand its business and its portfolio that is why the
strong focus of the company on R&D.
 Extensive production and distribution network (Thakor and Katsanis,
2011).
Weakness  The recall of products could influence the image of brand.
 Toyota is declining the sales of its product in the key geographic segment
 The company has low return on equity and assets in comparison of other
companies (Coman & Ronen, 2011).
opportunity  The brand recognition of Toyota is strong so it is the biggest achievement
of the company to grow as a global automotive industry.
 Toyota is balanced to advantage from producing a partnership with
BMW.
 Another opportunity for Toyota Company is out looking the global new
car market.

Brand Management of Toyota company 12
Threats  Intense competition can be the highest threat for the Toyota Company.
 Toyota is sensitive in the context of fluctuations of the currency
exchange rates and appreciates majorly the Japanese Yen which bring the
difficulty for the foreign country.
 Natural disaster could be the reason of threats which impact the
production structure of the company.

Brand Management of Toyota company 13
Marketing Mix Aspects
Product
Toyota is the international corporation. It has various products which are categorized as per
prices and demands. Toyota provides the products in the form of tangible and intangible products
ranging (Mell, Seshadri, Kwong & Dalman, 2013). They have 19 car modes which is most
desirable. Along with that Toyota provides gears and other parts as well.
Figure 4: Products in the marketing mix of Toyota
Source: (Bhasin, 2016).

Brand Management of Toyota company 14
Pricing
The selling price of Toyota products are determined by the price of cost and profit taken
as well. The approach of Toyota is different, instead of selling price cost, they compute the
profit. It is the belief of the Toyota that it is marketing mechanism. The low cost and
differentiation strategy has been used by the company to attain the competitive advantages.
Promotion
Toyota is using several strategies of promotional to increase their sales in an appropriate
manner. They advertise through newspaper, yellow paper, television, flyers, internet, broachers,
word of mouth and billboards. Toyota has introduced new tagline “Let’s go places”.
Distribution
The first priority of Toyota is customer and it knows the importance of making its
products by keeping consideration of targeted customers. They sell their products by dealership.
The staff of the company is not only perfect in the field of sales but also in data collection
product information finance insurance and order taking (Chiarini & Vagnoni, 2015).

Brand Management of Toyota company 15
Brand Exploratory
Brand exploratory is considered as an examination which is undertaken to understand the
feeling of customers about the brand. It is an agenda that seeks to conduct a research in order to
attain a feeling and perception of consumer. Toyota is the World's most valuable car which is
able to make consumer confidence. It has been analyzed in the context of a car brand perception
that how the entire brand perception of Toyota scored in comparison of other brands.
Figure 5: Factors in buying a new car
Source: (Chiarini & Vagnoni, 2015).
It is an image which shows that Toyota secured the high position in quality.
Brand knowledge
Toyota is the company that is able to register its brand in the eyes as well as the mind of
its customers. It is not only concentrating on the depth but also the breadth of its brand
awareness (Koopman, 2014). To build the brand awareness, it uses advertisement and promotion

Brand Management of Toyota company 16
in an effective manner which facilitates the company to increase its sales and revenue. In the
context of brand performance, Toyota has proved that it is enough able to make the Expectations
of consumer with the products offered to the brand of Toyota which make sure creation of brand
loyalty as well as brand resonance. Brand performance refers the basic properties of brand in
context of its starting product and service features (Rothaermel, 2015). There are 4 types of
intangible offering by Toyota. That is user profiles, user situation, values and history Heritage
and experiences. In the reference of user profile, Toyota has built a profile picture of targeted
market with consisting of various consumers. Purchase and uses situation strippers that a
situation of purchasing by customer is very easy which is made by Toyota. Toyota has mingled
itself with the 5 elements of the personalities that are excitement, sophistication, sincerity,
ruggedness and competence (Bakker, 2014).
Consumer based brand equity
Consumer based brand equity is the model which shows the various elements of
particular brand.It involves resonance, judgment, feeling, performance, imagery and salience. It
is the Keller’s brand equity model is also referred as CBBE. These elements help Toyota to build
its brand stronger and give ability to make shape of brand in a way to force customer to thing
about the customer. Strong CBBE brings more customers of the brand.

Brand Management of Toyota company 17
Figure 6: CBBE
Source: (Keller, 2016).
Brand salience
Toyota is being ranked 1 in the international market of automobile industry. It reflects the
high recognizable and identifiable global brand. It has been analyzed that almost people of the
world are aware about the brand of Toyota and have heard of Toyota. Brand salience facilitates
the brand in category identification. Brand awareness is categorized in terms of brand depth and
breadth in the context of brand depth (Petison & Johri, 2016). Toyota is the top most brands in
comparison of other automatic brand. The primary serve market of Toyota is Germany, Asia,
Japan and so many other countries. Toyota is a created brand which facilitates to determine
brand in the context of recall, as you remind for innovation and comfort the first name come in
mind is that Toyota. The tagline of Toyota is "let's go places" which defines importance of
comfort, fuel efficiency and design which helps to remind about Toyota in the mind of
consumer. In the context of brand breath, after consideration of the purchase of Toyota is very

Brand Management of Toyota company 18
close to other brands such as ford, Nissan etc. Toyota is widened portfolio of product and ready
to change in the market which facilitates in gaining the breath in the segment (Zhao, Ichise, Mita
& Sasaki, 2014).
Brand resonance pyramid
Brand performance and imagery
Product is considered as an important part of the brand equity. It is a first impact what
customer experience and what the Toyota tells the customer about the brand. Customer
functional needs are met by the brand performance and in case if not meet then exceed their
potential. There are some performance attributes and benefits which help to make the
functionality in a different manner (Dennis, 2016).
 Hybrid designs
 Fuel efficient
 Outstanding designs
 Appreciable performance
The imagery used by the Toyota throughout is different according to the segmentation being
Rapid Pace and assertive for the sports range keeping in mind the youth and comfort for the
Sedan and SUV. The main focus of Toyota is creating the attractive brand.
Judgments and feelings
The decisions of customer judgment are influenced by the following key elements:

Brand Management of Toyota company 19
Brand quality- it is the belief of Toyota to maintain the relationship with the customers by
providing them a good quality service and remembering experience (Collins, Muthusamy &
Carr, 2015).
Credibility- there is two main factors for Toyota trustworthiness and likability. People who buy
the product of Toyota believe that it's safe, eco-friendly and Technology upgraded.
Superiority- Toyota has attained superiority by providing differentiation elements in its product
(Tull and Hawkins.2011).
The dimensions of feeling:
 Security
 Excitement
 Satisfaction
 Warmth
 Self respect
Brand attributes
Toyota is one of the most reliable brands of automobile which increase the interest of
consumer to buy it. Toyota has various brand attributes such as eco-friendly, quality, value
reliability, performance, safety and durability. The user of Toyota has given excellent marked in
the context of performance, value for money and quality.

Brand Management of Toyota company 20
Figure 7: Brand attributes of Toyota
Source: (Chart, Industry & Industry, 2010).
Brand loyalty
Brand loyalty is dependent on the response of customer, expressed overtime and respect
to alternative brand (Flint, Signori & Golicic, 2016). It is biased. The customer of the Toyota is
loyal and have trust on their products main purpose of Toyota is provided the quality product its
customer even after the recall issues.

Brand Management of Toyota company 21
Leveraging the Brand
A brand leveraging is a strategy which uses the power of existing brand to enhance the
competition by moving into the new market but the related product category.
Brand extension
The concept of Toyota is very innovative and it is considered as a well manufacturer of
vehicles. To extend the market, Toyota was created Lexus in 1987 to provide a second marketing
channel of Toyota in the United States. Lexus was a combination of two words luxury and
elegance. The aim of brand is to compete with well known luxury brands of Europe. It was the
first step which is taken by the Toyota in the creation of a sub-brand that provided a realistic
opportunity to connect the luxury car market which is enhancing expanding (Hayran & Gürhan-
Canli, 2016).
There are major two kinds of brand extension strategies that is centralized or
decentralized. Centralized Strategy refers the extension’s leverage of the parent brand name,
position and reputation the new revenues for a business. It can be considered as a line and
category extension in which new products are introduced under the same brand of the
organization (Mell, Seshadri, Kwong & Dalman, 2013). It is a strategy which is useful and give
benefit such as cost saving. On the other hand, decentralized brand extension strategy refers
extensions leverage in distribution; manufacturing and various economies of scale but in this
brand extension strategy the parent brand name do not share in the market. It is very useful brand
strategy for automobile industry because it protects their parent brand during signification
extension into the various categories and Markets. Toyota has extended its market in the zone of

Brand Management of Toyota company 22
luxury by introducing the Lexus and in to the youth oriented market with Scion (Lee & Jo,
2012).
Leverage secondary association
There are several ways to build brand equity. Brand elements provide the alternative style
that is selling proposition of logo evening. The aim of marketing strategies is to sell the product
in affordable price of customers by using correct distribution network (Singh & Oliver, 2015).
Secondary Association is considered as a branding marketing function that transfers the quality
of the organization to the brand in the form of question. On the basis of history and heritage
Toyota can be associated with the era family car. First model was corolla model is started and
formed in 1957; the 25th anniversary of this product has been celebrated in 1982. Toyota
appointed the new Millennium with the launch of the players, the first mass produced electric
hybrid car in the world. Celebrity endorsement is also known as celebrity Brand which is a form
of advertising campaign and the strategy of market that is used by company’s nonprofit
organization and brands. It is the concept which includes celebrities to use their social status or
Fame to facilitate promotes a product or service to raise the awareness of consumer about the
product. There are so many celebrities who endorse Toyota such as Buster Posey, Virat Kohli,
Eli Manning and DeAndre Jordan.
Diversification into other sections
There are so many competitive companies in the automobile industry that compete
Toyota equally. One of them is Honda which is Japanese company and produced well known
vehicles for the customers. It has been analyzed that Toyota and Honda have raced in the
department of return on equity over the last 10 years. Toyota has produced higher returns. In the
rough manner, Toyota delivered 13% ROE in comparison with Honda 10%. But seeking at ROE

Brand Management of Toyota company 23
in isolation can be tough because it has the product with several factors (Nkomo, 2013). For
instance, a lesser tax on a higher proportion of debt is able to push up ROE without any
amendment in the ability of company to produce profit. The profitability of Toyota is indeed
higher in comparison of Honda. Toyota and Honda has same burden such as tax efficiency and
equity multipliers. The bigger difference between Toyota and Honda is that Honda is using its
product in more efficient way to produce sales but the concept of Toyota is different and it is
using more convenient way to convert its sales into profit. The asset turnover ratio of Toyota has
continuously remained in the range of 65% to 75%. The assent turnover of Honda is 80% remark
and it has the nature of fluctuation.

Brand Management of Toyota company 24
Conclusion
It has been concluded that brand management is necessary for the progress of the
company. Various elements of the brand of Toyota have been considered in this report which
will be helpful for analyzing the status of the brand in the view of customers. There are major
three concepts such as brand audit, brand exploratory and leveraging the brand which has been
analyzed on the bass of Toyota Company. Toyota is the multinational brand which is known by
almost everyone. The trust of user on Toyota is higher because it provides the safety, durability
and high quality products. Like a several companies of Japan, Toyota has proved to develop its
business with a rigorous focus. It expanded its market to enter into the new luxury markets by
producing the new brands Lexus and Scion. The marketing strategy of Toyota is able to reap
well.

Brand Management of Toyota company 25
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