Brand Management in the Automotive Industry: Toyota Analysis

This report delves into the intricacies of brand management, using Toyota as a prime example. It begins by defining a brand and its development, emphasizing the importance of branding in differentiating products. The report outlines the brand development process, including brand strategy, identity, graphic design, and management. It then explores the Brand Pyramid Model, detailing the levels of presence, relevance, performance, advantage, and bonding. The study highlights the benefits of branding, such as brand awareness, customer loyalty, product differentiation, and competitive advantage. It also examines brand equity, discussing ways to improve it and the role of marketing in building brand value. Furthermore, the report touches upon different theories used for effective branding and provides insights into how Toyota manages its brand. Overall, the report offers a comprehensive analysis of brand management principles and their application in a real-world context.

Brand Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Brand and its Development..........................................................................................................1
Importance of Branding...............................................................................................................4
How to Manage Brand Successfully Using Different Theories...................................................6
Brand Strategy Model for Successful Brand Management..........................................................7
Management of Portfolio, Brand Equity and brand Hierarchy....................................................9
Evaluation How Brands Mange collaboratively and in partnership.........................................11
The use of different techniques used to leverage or extend the brands.....................................11
Techniques for measuring and managing the brand value for developing strong and enduring
brand..........................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Brand management is an planning or an analysis process that is used to gain knowledge
about how the brand is perceived in market place. It is important for organization to0 make better
relations with target market and target customers to full fill objective of marketing. There are
different tangible and intangible element in brand management that are used by organization to
meet the goals of marketing operation. This report is providing brief information of brand
management in Toyota (Rosenbaum-Elliott, Percy and Pervan, 2015). Toyota is a multinational
automotive organization that is providing various range product like luxury vehicles, commercial
vehicles and engines. Toyota was established by Kiichiro Toyoda in year 1937. headquarter of
Toyota Motors is in Tokyo Japan. Toyota is currently working all around globe and providing its
services to millions of people. This study is providing information of brand image of an
organization and in this case company is Toyota. It is also explained that how the brand is
developed by the company to perform marketing. In the study importance of branding is
provided as tool of marketing. How the brand management emerged as a tool in marking tool is
also evaluated in study. Different strategy used by organization in order to manage the brand
equity based on customers. Various strategies used in portfolio management, brand hierarchy and
brand equity management are also explained in report. Techniques used in process of taking
leverage and extend brand are included in study.
MAIN BODY
Brand and its Development
There are many seller of organization are selling same type products in market and in
order to differentiate their product form other organization's product company use different
things like name, term, symbol, design and any other thing that makes the difference from other
product is known as brand. The process which is used by the organization to making their
product form other organization using specific signs and designs is known as branding. This is
essential part of marketing now days. The brand development is a continuous process that is
adopted by organization to grow its market share in order to generate high profit from business
activities. There is a specific plan is used by organization to develop brand to make company
stable in market place (Heding, Knudtzen and Bjerre, 2015). For the organization like Toyota it
is important to differentiate its product from other company to develop good brand image in
market to attract more customer towards the organization.
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Brand Development Process
There are different steps are used to develop brand for an organization. This steps are brand
strategy, brand identity, graphic identity and brand management.
Brand Strategy
This is important for organization like Toyota to develop a particular strategy to take its
product to target market. The way a organization is communicating with its customer is an
important thing. To improve this communication there are different strategies are developed by
organization and this strategies help the company to make communication effective.
Brand Identity
This is the process that is used by organization to communicate its vision and mission
with target customer from start to end.
Graphic Design
The graphical designs, colours schemas and company logos used by organization to keep
their product branding different from other companies (Atwal and Williams, 2017)
(Lee, O’Cass and Sok, 2017). This are also implemented to put positive impact on customer
mind set to encourage them to by product of company.
Brand Management
This process is consists of various investments and methods to enhance the performance
of marketing operation to improve financial status and selling for company.
This is how different the brand is developed for organization to improve marketing
operation for company. Companies like Toyota uses this kind of policy to improve performance
in competitive market.
Brand Pyramid Model
Brand Pyramid is a model that is used by organization to bind customer with
organization. This is a strategy that make the customer to buy same product next time from same
company. Brand pyramid is all about make the customer loyal to company and it is a useful tool
for organization to create marketing strategy for organization. Customers of organization are
situated in the top priority of company. There are different levels in Brand Pyramid which are-
presence, relevance, performance, advantage and Bonding.
Presence- Customers do not know about a product or an organization till the time they have used
or tried a product of particular organization (Kelley, Sheehan and Jugenheimer, 2015). To make
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customer emotionally attached to a product or company is only possible after make them try the
product or service. Toyota provides test drives to customer to make them attracted towards the
vehicles and this process help them to encourage customer buy product and services of Toyota.
Relevance- This level is about how much the consumer is satisfied with product and services of
organization. To make customer to get satisfied with company product it is important for
company to keep their product relevant and enough featured to full fill demands of consumer.
Performance- The performance of company product and service is the place where people judge
an organization with other organization. On the base of performance of product customer rate
service compared to other organizations. For Toyota the performance of vehicles make the
consumer more attached to logo and brand of company (Lee, O’Cass and Sok, 2017). For
example company like Apple is very particular about branding of its logo. By this logo apple is
famous all over the world.
Advantage- In this level of pyramid loyalty of customer become tangible. If consumers of
company are considering a product beneficiary enough compared to other brand. As customer
got this feeling of attachment with company product they become emotionally connected to
company and company brand. For example if customer are considering vehicles of Toyota
useful then it is advantage for branding of company.
Bonding- This is the top level of pyramid where customer are connected to organization and
brand. This bounding between customer and company brand help the organization to improve
marketing process and this thing improves the number of sales of company. The name and logo
of Toyota has become the symbol of trust and quality service. This is what an organization want
form the customer and it is known as bounding of customer with brand.
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Importance of Branding
There are different advantages of branding for organization . Branding provide advantage
to organization in different areas. These benefits and advantage of branding maker the company
to be more focus and invest more in branding procedure.
Brand Awareness:
This is important for organization to make the customer aware of product and services of
company. There are many companies are selling same range of products. So, it is important for
company convey the brand logo and name to consumers for encouragement of them to buy
product form their company.
Customer Loyalty: By conveying brand image, logo and name consumer find attachment with
product or company. By providing them with quality product organization try to make them
emotional attached to company name as a brand. So, this is how branding make customer loyal
for company.
Product Differentiation: Without a name, logo and design customer are not able to differentiate
between two same product. These logos, different design, brand name on product or service are
used by organization to maker their product look different from product of other company
(Punjaisri and Wilson, 2017). By these logos customer identify the product of company.
Competitive Advantage: Branding is one of the important thing in marketing procedure.
Company try to design their logo and name in attractive way and this specific designs and
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Illustration 1: Brand Pyramid
(Source: Brand Pyramid. 2019)

colours can be used to differentiate product in set of product. This attractive designs and logos
positively attract the consumer to buy the product and thing help the organization to gain higher
market share in market place compared to other organizations.
Introduction of New Product: There are many products are used by different organization. The
customer are usually are not aware of these products. Here the organization used the branding
procedure to launch a product with high consumer attention. The launching of new product under
the brand name of famous company help company to make the customer aware of their new
product. If Toyota launch any any new product in market under its banner this thing pull the
attention of customer and target market and brand name of organization specifies the quality and
service of a particular new and innovative product.
Attractor Investors: There are many investors in market place who wants to invest in
something to get higher profit in return. But these investors are usually not aware of performance
of organization. Here the brand image comes, as the investors look product of organization are
trending then it helps them to select right company to make investment. Brand name and image
of Toyota is too good in market place and this current situation of company help to attract more
investors to make high investment.
Image of Quality: There are various aspect of product make user emotionally attached. Quality
is one of those aspect. Branding help the consumer to identify that which company is providing
better quality product. Later this brand name and image make the customer to judge the other
product of organization.
Attract Best Talent Form Industry: There are many employees are in automotive sector and
they are enough skill and educated to improve the performance of organization in market place
(Richard, Percy and Pervan, 2015). The image of company and brand value of organization
attract the talent towards the company. Every one wants to work with a famous company to
achieve high carrier growth. The brand value and image of Toyota attract more and more
employees to work with company for their professional growth.
Become Market Leader: The benefits of branding are not only limited to attract customers and
product launching process. Branding also have other benefits in market place. Organization can
set example in market place to become leading brand. By setting new level of standards in
productivity, quality, marketing organization can gain competitive advantage.
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This is how Toyota can use branding to gain market place advantage and positioning.
Organization can use its brand value and brand name to spread its business world wide.
Brand Equity
The brand equity can be consider as the value to have a famous brand name, logo and
design of an organization. This is based on the idea of company leader to generate more profit
from the branding of organization.
Ways to Improve Brand Equity
There are different ways can be adopted by organization to improve the value of
organization in perspective of customer. These ways to improve brand equity are- make the
customer aware of brand, communicate goals, vision and mission of organization, analyse the
response of brand and build specific relationship with customers. This is how organization can
improve brand equity of company.
Role of Marketing in Brand Equity
Marketing is the operation that is used by organization to communicate with customer
and build a permanent relation with consumers. Toyota is one of the best known organization in
automotive industry and the marketing strategy used by marketing department help the customer
to to know more about company product and services. Role of marketing is essential for
organization.
How to Manage Brand Successfully Using Different Theories
For effective branding organization can use different theories to take positive advantages
of it. These theories help the organization to implement better branding and marketing in target
market to improve performance of organization and attract more customer towards it.
Theory of Brand Management
The theory of brand management is explains the relation between customer and
organization's brand in psychological manner. As per this theory there are three various aspect of
positive attitude of customer towards the brand. These three aspects are emotional attachment,
brand evaluation and behavioural aspect (Čáslavová and Višněvský, 2016). The emotional
attachment of customer is important for an organization. This is good for long term relation ship
with consumers and this emotional attachment make the organization to conduct business
successfully in future. Brand evaluation is about how much the consumer like or dis like brand
and what they think about the brand image of organization. In this company should be interested
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in review of customers and this feedbacks and reviews of clients are important for organization
to improve growth of company in target market. The third aspect is the behaviour of customer
with company brand. The inclination of customer shows their interest in organization. This is
important for them to evaluate the their relation with respective customer for higher consumer
satisfaction.
The Branding Theory
The branding theory is providing guidelines for different aspects and components that are
important for brand management. First thing about brand management is the name of brand. This
should be attractive enough to attractive more consumers to buy company product. Next
component for brand management is perform marketing to convey the brand name to target
market to make consumer aware of company product. Customer satisfaction is also an important
component of brand management (Dessart, Veloutsou and Morgan-Thomas, 2015). In this
component organization tries to provide best suitable product to consumer to make them
emotionally connected to product. This can improve the brand value of Toyota. Customer
relation is an important component for organization. Better relation with consumer can help the
organization to improve brand value in target market. All above these organization can also its
brand value by reaching on the top of industry. As the organization get famous its brand value
will also increase with it. Without compromising with brand development organization can
generate higher response from customer towards brand created by them.
Value Based Brand Theory
The value based brand theory is about making long term customer relationship and
customer value. Success of organization depended on the service and quality delivered to
consumer under a brand. According to this theory customer of organization are supreme for
organization's brand value. To gain success in target market and defeat other competitors in
organization it is important to deliver better services to consumer. This theory says that for brand
life customers can be considered as blood.
These three theories are suggesting different thing for organization to improve the brand
image of organization and various components that should be considered to improve brand value
of organization.
Key Components of successful Brand
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Key component of successful business brand includes brand promise, brand perception,
brand values, target audience, brand voice and positioning of brand. These component are
important for organization to project company as bigger brand in market place.
Brand promise- This is the message conveyed by organization to consumer which includes the
goals and vision of company.
Target Audience- target is most important element of successful brand because company made
their marketing and branding policy as per the mind set of target customer.
Brand Perception- It is general view of customer and people of organization. It includes
current and future plans of organization and what changes and innovation company is going to
implement to improve its performance in the target market.
Brand Values- Brand values can be considered as position and status in market place. Brand
value of company drive by quality of product and satisfaction of customer.
Brand Positioning- Positioning is about comparative perforation of organization in the target
market. Position of company in market place also drive brand success of company.
Brand Voice- Brand voice is about the way organization is using to make communication with
its customers.
Brand Strategy Model for Successful Brand Management
Aaker's Brand Equity Model
According the Aaker's there are 8 to 12 combinations are identified as brand identity that
are classified in four categories. Thee categories are brand product, brand as organization, brand
as person and brand as symbol.
Brand as product- This is consists of product scope, product attributes, quality and value of
product, uses, user and country of origin.
Brand as Organization- It is consist of of organizational attributes, local working against global
activities.
Brand as Person- This is consists of brand personality and consumer to brand relationship.
Brand as Symbol- Audio and visual imagery metaphoric symbols and history of organization.
The motive of this model is to provide help and suggestion to an organization to build
brand management strategy to improve its brand image in target market. This is also a important
model to get better result in competitive market (Iglesias, Ind and Alfaro, 2017). Aakers's brand
model state what exactly brans stands for consumer. According to Aakers's brand model there
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are five components of brand management. These components are Brand Loyalty, Brand
Awareness, Perceived quality, brand association and other proprietary. To manage brand it is
important to consider this elements.
Loyalty of Brand
There are different customer of an organization and it is important for them to know
about the customers are loyal to product of organization (Goldfarb, Haviv and Moorthy, 2016).
For Toyota customer who are giving positive feed back and frequent buyer of Toyota products
are consider as loyal customer of brand. The organizations like Tesla and BMW are well known
in public this are their positive aspects.
Awareness of Brand
This component is consists of information about the customer a particular brand that is
famous and well known in public (Högström, Gustafsson and Tronvoll, 2015). The Toyota
Motors is one of the best automotive manufacturing organization. For Toyota this is important to
know what is the status of company in target market and how many people are aware of it. In
Perceived Quality
perceived quality is about the quality of company product in mind of public. It is also
related to consumer satisfaction. For Toyota Motors meaning of this perceived is what are the
expectation of customer and what kind of product is delivered by company. As Toyota is known
for its quality, service and performance the perceived value of Toyota is high.
Brand Association
In this component the collaboration of Toyota is considered. To perform business in
different market various type of partnership are formed by company. For example companies
like BYD and CATL are in partnership with Toyota on certain locations in different countries.
Other Proprietary
The aspects like patents and intellectual property of organization comes in this
component. More these patents and intellectual property owned by organization can also help the
company to manage the brand value (Wang, He and Barnes, 2017). For Toyota patent of their
technology and designs of different vehicles are how much effective in market place. Company
is best known for its product and also high number of patents are hold by Toyota so this
component is also good for organization.
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Management of Portfolio, Brand Equity and brand Hierarchy
Portfolio Management Strategies
There are different strategies are used by organization for portfolio management. These
strategies are active and passive strategy. This strategies are used by organization to improve the
investment and decision making of organization.
Active Portfolio Management Strategy
in this strategy use fund manager and brokers to purchase and sell stocks in attempt to
outperform a specific Index as Russell 1000 index Standard & poor's 500 index. This decisions
are made by portfolio and co-managers.
Passive Portfolio Management
It is also known as index fund management. This includes the creation of portfolio
intended to track the profit return from a particular market index or benchmark in close look. The
passive management do not have any management team that is making investment decision that
can be structured as an interchange trade fund.
There are different strategy is used by organization to manage the portfolio of
organization. These strategical requirements are are-
1. Effective diversification-
2. Perform in different work environment and time frames
3. Flexible Work
4. Fit personal needs and goals.
Strategies are-
1. Enhance income portfolio and this strategy is defined as total return strategy for the
conservative investors.
2. Dynamic global growth portfolio strategy that is designed for growth oriented investors.
In this style is created to proviode exposure to the best performing style to get better
outcome from stoke market.
Brand Hierarchy Management Strategy
Umbrella Brand
This strategy is also known as family branding (Erdem and Swait, 2016). Umbrella
strategy is used by those organization that are selling more then one product under a single
brand. This strategy cab be used by Toyota to improve sales in the target market. In this strategy
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