Service Marketing Strategies of Toyota

SERVICE MARKETING
TOYOTA
4/22/2019
TOYOTA
XXXXXXX

Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Niche Marketing Strategy........................................................................................................................2
Social Media Marketing...........................................................................................................................2
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)...........................................................................................................3
Referrals Marketing.................................................................................................................................3
Customer Relationship Management System..............................................................................................4
References...................................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
The American Marketing Association defines service marketing as “the activities, the benefits or
the services which are provided for sale by a service provider and generally in connection with
the sale of goods” (Chetty, 2010). There are various techniques that are used by service
providing firms for the marketing of their respective services such as word-of-mouth, referrals,
social media, demonstrations among others (Ashe-Edmunds, n.d.). The purpose of this essay is to
explain and evaluate the service marketing techniques of Toyota – a Japanese multinational
automotive manufacturer. Toyota provides various services to its customers includes Rent a
Toyota, Toyota Repair Services, Toyota Tire Replacement Services, etc. The techniques which
the company follows for providing these services are discussed and evaluated below:
Niche Marketing Strategy
It is a targetable focused portion of the market. A company usually decides to launch a
new product or service by targeting only one segment of the market. This leads to
specialization of the company in that particular segment for that particular product or
service. Toyota follows the practice of niche marketing. It was one of the first automotive
companies to understand that there was a segment of consumers interested in
environment friendly cars. To meet these needs, Toyota launched Prius, an environment
friendly car aimed at the sustainable user segment (Angelo, 2012). For marketing this car,
Toyota used environment friendly focus groups. The impact of this was that Toyota not
only created the niche, but was considered the niche itself. Prius is still regarded as the
top choice for environment friendly cars.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing for both products and services is leading the way for marketing
strategies for all types of companies. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and
YouTube provide for a global audience reach that traditional marketing techniques could
never provide. Toyota successfully made the leap from being a traditionally marketed
firm to being known for using social media to market its products. In 2014, to launch
Tundra, Toyota filmed Instagram, videos of the car and pushed them through ads on
Facebook. The effect of this was that Toyota saved on a major part of its advertising
budget and at the same time successfully engaging their target audience. Toyota