Customer Attitude and Marketing : Toyota Prius

Running head: CUSTOMER ATTITUDE AND MARKETING
CUSTOMER ATTITUDE AND MARKETING
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1CUSTOMER ATTITUDE AND MARKETING
Topic: Customers’ attitudes and perceptions towards Toyota Prius
Introduction
The marketing activities of an organization specifically rely on identifying the concerns
or the preferences of the customers. The changing attitude and perception of the customers while
making a buy is an important consideration that are made by the organizations while designing
the marketing plan. In this connection, it has been observed that the Toyota Prius model
experienced lower sales volume and increased complaints. Therefore, the research will be taking
the initiative of identifying the perception and attitude of the Australian customers towards
Toyota Prius with the purpose of empowering the different marketing and product development
related activities of the business.
Brief literature review
The perception and attitude of the customers towards a brand is reliant on the image and
the quality of offerings that the organization provides to the clients. The different marketing
activities that are induced by the organizations are specifically focused towards influencing the
perception and the attitude of the buyers towards a proposition. According to Decker and Baade
(2016), the brand image of an organization creates a sense of trust among the customers which
naturally drives the same towards making a buy of the propositions. Moreover, Bhardwaj and
Bishnoi (2019) stated that the quality of propositions and the utility that a brand proposes helps
in influencing customer perception and attitude. It has been observed that around 67% of the
customer are more inclined towards experience or utility based buying practice (Ahn, Park and
Hyun 2018). In case of automobile industry the customers are more driven towards fuel efficient
vehicles providing better mileage.

2CUSTOMER ATTITUDE AND MARKETING
According to Junquera, Moreno and Álvarez (2016), most of the companies take the
initiative of improving the experience of the consumers through improved R&D measures. The
buying behaviour, attitude and preferences of the customers are driven by the value of the
offerings and the competitive vantage point of the same against the other existing organizations.
Hulse, Xie and Galea (2018) observed that the trust on the brand and the peer pressure are again
other factors that simply affect the perception and the buying attitudes of the customers. It has
been observed that the millennial population takes the initiative of judging between two similar
propositions through extensive web based research (Singh 2017). Market volatility with the
presence of wider number of propositions that are offered by the competing organizations has
significantly intensified the chances of switches. The customers switch from one brand to
another based on the features, the utility and the innovativeness apart from the brand value.
Hardman et al. (2016) observed that the competitive utilities that are provided by one
brand over another attracts the attention of the customers. In this relation, Schivinski and
Dabrowski (2016) reflected in a research stating that most of the automobile companies take the
initiative of adding more features to the propositions for improving the experience of the
customers. Most of the customers are more driven towards concerns of sustainability and thereby
they exhibit a nature of value based buying. In this connection, the automobile industry has taken
the initiative of devising technological innovations for fuel efficiency, mileage and comfort of
the customers.
According to Ahn, Park and Hyun (2018), comfort and fuel efficiency are the primary
motivators for different customer groups other than the design or colour of the vehicle. The trust
of the competitors on the brand image and the innovativeness of the propositions are more likely
to attract the attention of the customers. Therefore, the different needs and preferences of the