Consumer Behavior Analysis of Toyota Corolla Altis Sedan in Singapore

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of consumer behavior, focusing on the Toyota Corolla Altis sedan within the Singaporean automobile market. It begins with a situation analysis of Toyota, including background, vision, mission, and a PEST and SWOT analysis. The report then delves into the target market, segmenting it demographically, psychographically, behaviorally, and geographically. The core of the analysis examines the target market's decision-making process, covering problem recognition, information search, evaluation, purchase, and post-purchase evaluation. Social, psychological, and personal influences on buying behavior are also explored. The report concludes with strategic marketing recommendations for the product, place, price, and promotion of the Toyota Corolla Altis, aiming to enhance its market position and appeal to its target consumers.

Running head: CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Consumer Behaviour
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Table of Contents
Introduction:...........................................................................................................................4
1. Situation analysis of Toyota:..............................................................................................4
Background:...........................................................................................................................4
Vision and Mission:...............................................................................................................4
Current market situation analysis:..........................................................................................5
PEST of Toyota:.....................................................................................................................5
Political factors:.................................................................................................................5
Economic factors:...............................................................................................................6
Social factors:.....................................................................................................................6
Technological factors:........................................................................................................7
SWOT analysis of Toyota:.....................................................................................................7
2. Target market description:.....................................................................................................8
Demographic:.........................................................................................................................8
Psychographic:.......................................................................................................................9
Behavioural:...........................................................................................................................9
Geographic:............................................................................................................................9
3. Target market decision-making process:.............................................................................10
3.1. Problem recognition:.....................................................................................................10
3.1a. Market induced:...........................................................................................................10
3.1b.New stage in life:.........................................................................................................10

2
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
3.2. Information search:.......................................................................................................11
3.2a. Level of risk:...............................................................................................................11
3.2b. Level of product knowledge:......................................................................................11
3.3. Evaluation:....................................................................................................................11
3.3a.List of evoked set and reason:......................................................................................12
3.3b. Compensatory and non-compensatory rules:..............................................................12
3.3c: Evaluation criteria and reason:....................................................................................12
3.4. Purchase:.......................................................................................................................12
3.4a. Availability of products:..............................................................................................13
3.4b. Retail factors:..............................................................................................................13
3.5. Post purchase evaluation:..............................................................................................13
3.5a. Post purchase feelings:................................................................................................13
3.5b.Post purchase cognitive dissonance:............................................................................14
4. Social influences on buying behaviour:...............................................................................14
4.1. Family:..........................................................................................................................14
4.2 Social class:....................................................................................................................15
5. Psychological influences on buying behaviour:...................................................................15
5.2. Perception:.........................................................................................................................15
5.3. Learning:.......................................................................................................................15
6. Personal factors influences on buying behaviour:...............................................................16
6.1. Personality:....................................................................................................................16

3
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
6.2. Age:...............................................................................................................................16
7. Marketing strategy recommendations:.................................................................................16
Product:................................................................................................................................16
Place:....................................................................................................................................17
Price:....................................................................................................................................17
Promotion:............................................................................................................................17
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................18
References:...............................................................................................................................19

4
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Introduction:
The aim of the report is to study issues in the consumer behaviour in case of medium
to high involvement product or brand. The study takes into the Corolla Altis Sedan by Toyota
Motor Corporation as its centre set against the backdrop automobile market of Singapore.
The segment of customers, which the study considers, consists of upper and upper middle
class customers residing in the Singapore. The paper opens with a situation analysis of
Toyota followed by the target market segmentation. The third section delves into the target
market decision-making process and the fourth section deals with the influences of the
society on the buying behaviour. The fifth section deals with the psychological influences on
buying behaviour followed by the sixth section on personal influences on the buying
behaviours of customers. The study ends with a recommendations section which forms its
seventh and the last part.
1. Situation analysis of Toyota:
Background:
Toyota Motor Corporations is a multinational automobile manufacturer and marketer,
which has its headquarters in Japan. The company started manufacturing vehicles in 1933.
The vehicle products of Toyota include cars, vans, SUV, commercial vehicles, hybrid car,
electrical cars and fuel cells. Toyota is a public limited company listed on several big stock
exchanges around the world like the New York Stock Exchange (nyse.com, 2017). These
factors have made the Toyota one of the most powerful automobile companies in the world
(toyota-global.com, 2017).
Vision and Mission:
The global vision of Toyota is to lead the global automobile industry by
manufacturing superior vehicles and ensuring safety of the users. The company’s vision also

5
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
includes sustainability, innovation and environment friendly operations. The mission of the
company is to assure high quality automobile products all over the world. Toyota seeks to
bring about continuous improvement in its operations and respect the stakeholders’ interest.
Current market situation analysis:
The current situation analysis of Toyota shows that the automobile manufacturer
leads the automobile industry. The automobile industry is an international industry worth
billions of dollars. The worldwide sales of vehicles reached 88 million cars, which is leading
to high capital maximisation for the automakers (strategyand.pwc.com, 2017). The industry is
experiencing a lot of innovation and entry of new varieties of cars like electric and hybrid
cars.
The tough competitors of Toyota are General Motors, Volkswagen and Nissan.
The market share of the Japanese automobile manufacturer is 11 percent followed by
General Motors enjoying 10.8 percent market share (businessinsider.in, 2017).
PEST of Toyota:
Political factors:
1. Toyota is a Japanese car manufacturer with a global presence. Hence, it comes under the
effect of political stability in its important markets like the Singapore. Singapore is a political
stable country and its government encourages entry of foreign companies.
2. Free trade agreements and bilateral political agreements between Japan and other countries
like the Singapore play important role in foreign operations of Toyota (mofa.go.jp, 2017).
The governments of Japan and Singapore have strong trade relationships which would
encourage the companies of one country to enter the other.

6
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
The analysis shows Toyota should take advantage of the political stability and
bilateral relationship between its home country Japan and host country Singapore to enter the
Singaporean market. However, Toyota should also form strategies to deal with negative
political driving incidences like terrorist attacks which are capable of breaching the bilateral
trade relationship between the two countries (Nugent, 2017).
Economic factors:
1. The gross domestic product and per capita income of Singapore are increasing. This means
that the customers of Singapore have more disposable incomes to buy expensive premium
cars like Corolla Altis Sedan (Ahmad, Choi & Park, 2015).
2. Toyota employs human resources and material resources in countries like Singapore and
comes under the influences of these factors. The workforce of Singapore is highly skilled and
educated workers.
3. Singapore has a wide network of financial institutions like bank, which provide easy
financial capital to business organisations. Moreover, the tax rates of the country are very low
which allow the business organisation earn high profits.
These analyses of the economic conditions of Singapore are favourable for Toyota to
enter the market with its expensive models of cars. The company should use the resources
available in Singaporean market like financial resources to enter and manufacture cars
(Sarkin, Bagautdinova & Averianov, 2013).
Social factors:
1. Increasing interest in the sustainable cars like electrical cars in the society are encouraging
sales of Toyota. The customers of Singapore prefer using premium cars Corolla Altis Sedan
due to increase in their incomes.

7
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
2. Dynamic changes of preferences among customers in Singapore about cars require the
companies like Toyota to carry out continuous innovation in their automobile manufacturing
method.
This analysis shows that the social conditions of Singapore favours Toyota to expand
its business in Singapore by selling premium cars like Corolla Altis Sedan. As discussed, the
people of Singapore prefer expensive cars, which would allow Toyota to sell its expensive
models among the people to earn huge revenue.
Technological factors:
1.The market of Singapore is technologically advanced and encourages high level of
automation in factories. This availability of advanced technology encourages innovation
among the companies.
2. Technological advancements have allowed Toyota to manufacture more sustainable and
eco-friendly cars like the electric car. This is proving to be opportunity for Toyota and
boosting its sales (Anderson et al., 2014).
3. Cyber crime and data threat are the major technological threats facing the automobile
companies like Toyota (Feher, 2015).
This analysis shows that Singapore is technologically advanced and encourages
innovations. Toyota should make use of this technological advancement to manufacture and
sell premium models like Corolla Altis Sedan. However, the company should be aware of
cyber crime, which can cause potential harm its business.
SWOT analysis of Toyota:
An analysis of the macro-environment of Toyota reveal the following strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats the company encounters:

8
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Strengths:
1. International brand.
2. Top market place.
3. Product line consisting of cars, SUVs,
commercial vehicles, electrical and hybrid cars
Weaknesses:
1.Strong competitors from other automobile
companies.
2. Toyota faces scrutiny of governments since it
is a automobile company whose production
causes environmental pollution.
3. The company is limited to automobile
manufacturing.
Opportunities:
1. The automobile manufacturer is expanding
into new markets.
2. Manufacturing of new models of cars.
3. Innovative products like hybrid cars.
Threats:
1. Legal cases due to high level of pollution.
2. Political and economic instability.
3. Data thefts and risk of losing strategically
important business data to unauthorised parties.
Figure 1. Table showing SWOT analysis of Toyota
(Source: Author)
2. Target market description:
The target market of Toyota can be evaluated based on four segmentation variables
namely, demographic, psychographic, behavioural and geographic. These variables are
explained as below:
Demographic:
Cars are expensive products and require middle and high involvement of customers.
The Corolla Altis Sedan comes in two variants namely the standard variant of cost $113988
and elegance variant $118988 (toyota-global.com, 2017) It is evident from the prices of the

9
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
model that the target customer profiles are the upper middle and the upper class customers.
The company makes expensive and sophisticated models, which match up the tastes of the
upper class customers (Parise, Guinan & Kafka, 2016). The high quality original spare parts
and services available at the service outlets all over the world enhance the customer purchase
experience about Toyota products.
Psychographic:
Psychographic segmentation of the customers takes into consideration factors like
lifestyle, values, social and personality, which represent their social status. Corolla Altis
targets the upper and upper class customers who view cars as status symbol. They consider
the high price of the cars manufactured by Toyota as the sign of high quality and status
(Shende, 2014).
Behavioural:
The behavioural segmentation of the customers Toyota serves consists of middle,
upper middle and upper class people. Corolla Altis is meant particularly the upper and the
upper middle class people who have considerable knowledge about cars and use them on
daily basis. These classes of customers show great involvement while purchasing premium
cars and enjoy driving them (González, Cárcaba, & Ventura, 2015).
Geographic:
The geographic segmentation of Toyota customer profile consists of upper and upper
middle class customers all over the world. Toyota has strong presence in all the major
markets and occupies high position in them. The company owns supply chain and distribution
chains all over the world. These chains ensue that Toyota is able to sell its high priced cars to
the rich people all over the world (Athreye, Tuncay-Celikel & Ujjual, 2014). Toyota has
services centres all over the world. This geographically vast network of service centres allow

10
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
the company to cater to the needs of the rich people by offering them genuine parts for
expensive their Toyota cars. This availability of Toyota showrooms and services all over the
world encourages the upper class buy their cars because of after sales services (Murali,
Pugazhendhi & Muralidharan, 2016).
3. Target market decision-making process:
The target market of Toyota consists of the rich and the upper middle class customers
which make decisions regarding the purchase of expensive car models like Corolla Altis.
Corolla Altis is a premium car and hence, the customers show high involvement while
making purchase decisions consisting of the following five steps:
3.1. Problem recognition:
The target market of the customers of Toyota consisting of rich and upper middle
class customers identify the problem or the need to buy an expensive car. The need can be a
want of a luxurious premium car which modern features and sophisticated look which can
function as a status symbol (Qian, & Soopramanien, 2015).
3.1a. Market induced:
The main market of the expensive models of Toyota like Corolla Altis consists of
upper and upper-middle class customers who have high disposable incomes to buy luxurious
cars. However, with the increase in the income of the middle class in Singapore, the induced
market for the company consists of the middle class customers as well. These middle class
customers today are also preferring premium cars to exhibit their increased income and social
status (Kearney & Levine, 2014).

11
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
3.1b.New stage in life:
The young rich and upper middle class customers often buy premium cars like
Corolla Altis to mark new stages in their lives like promotions to higher ranks. These
customers are technologically sound and show a lot of involvement in the technical aspects
while buying expensive’ cars like Corolla Altis (Blanden, Gregg & Macmillan, 2013).
3.2. Information search:
The second stage of purchase of high and middle involvement products like premium
car models is searching and gaining information about them after realising the need to buy
acquire expensive cars. The customers gain information about Toyota cars from various
sources like acquaintances and online reviews.
3.2a. Level of risk:
Expensive products like, cars involve risks both financial risks and physical risks of
the rider. The customers before buying cars consider their quality, attributes and prices. The
big brands like Toyota act as quality assurances for the customers. The customers also
consider the on road safety the cars provide to the rider.
3.2b. Level of product knowledge:
The customers before taking purchase decisions regarding premium cars acquire
adequate level of knowledge. The sources of knowledge are internet, reviews from friends
and acquaintances, online reviews and even professional advisors. The customers also
consider the financing aspects like availability of car loans from banks and amount of down
payments available for a particular model of car (Dumortier et al., 2015).