MKT00720 Marketing Strategy and Plan: Toyota and Ford Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the marketing strategies employed by Toyota and Ford, two prominent players in the automotive industry. It begins with an executive summary outlining the report's objectives, which include examining the companies' approaches to gaining a competitive advantage and understanding their marketing successes. The report then delves into the backgrounds of both Toyota and Ford, highlighting their key strategies such as brand equity, customer service, and value-based positioning. The core of the analysis involves evaluating the marketing successes of each company using analytical tools like the Four P's (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) and SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). The report explores how Toyota leverages its product portfolio, cost control, and promotional activities to achieve market success, while Ford's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are examined in detail. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the importance of adapting marketing strategies to maintain a competitive edge in the dynamic automotive market.

Running head: MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
Marketing Strategy and Plan
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
Executive Summary
The purpose of the following report is to demonstrate the various matters regarding the
marketing process and competitive advantage of the organizations. The organizations always
want to gain the competitive advantage by providing their customers with something better. This
will be very much helpful for earning the trust of the customers as well. The chosen
organizations for this assignment are Toyota and Ford. The brief background of the organizations
and the various marketing issues and the ways the companies will attempt to gain the
competitive advantage indeed. The marketing strategies of the organizations have been discussed
here along with their strengths and weaknesses. The analytical tools like Four P’s and SWOT
analysis have been used here as well.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Section 1: Brief background for the first company.........................................................................3
Section 2: Brief background for the second company.....................................................................4
Section 3: Marketing success evidence for Toyota.........................................................................4
Section 4: Marketing success evidence for Ford.............................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References....................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The purpose of this following report is to find out the different facts that are associated
with the marketing strategies. In this report, several fields will be covered like the marketing
strategies of the selected companies and analyzing how they have gained the advantage. The
success of the company depends on the ways how they can cope up with the problems they face
in the competitive business environment of the current times. The companies that have been
chosen for this report are Toyota and Ford (Ferrell and Hartline 2012). The marketing strategies
for these companies are very important since they will like to make more profits by
implementing some successful strategies. This will place them to a better position in terms of
their market success. The organizations selected here are very reputed global car manufacturing
companies and they have to make their profits. The marketing strategies will be analyzed here
and highlight the pros and cons. The ways they can improve will be discussed as well (Ferrell
and Hartline 2012).
Section 1: Brief background for the first company
Toyota is a Japan based car manufacturing company that operates within the automotive
industry (Toyota.com 2018). The headquarters of this country is situated at Aichi in Japan. They
prepare the automobiles, engines, commercial vehicles and various types of luxury vehicles.
Toyota is considered to be the market leaders in the hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. One of the
major strategies for marketing that Toyota has taken up is brand equity. The company is the sixth
most valuable brand in the world (Toyota.com 2018). Some of the areas that they have focused
are improving the customer service standards, maintaining the price safety. They have stressed
on the automotive financing strategies for better outcomes. The product portfolio of Toyota is
very strong (Baker 2014). This is why they gain the competitive advantage in this competitive

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environment. The production system of the company is globally recognized. The cost control
system also helps them to stay ahead of their competitors (Toyota.com 2018).
Section 2: Brief background for the second company
The second chosen company for this report os Ford. The company is an international
automotive company based in United States of America. The organization was founded in the
year 1903. The headquarters of this organization is situated at Dearborn, Michigan in USA. Ford
has come to be one of the biggest organizations in their respective fields. The organization uses
the differentiated targeting strategy for the various types of customers offering them a very huge
range of products. The value-based positioning strategy has yielded good results for them indeed.
Thus they can feel more associated with the customers (Fifield 2012). The Ford Motors has a
very strong hold in the developed nations all around the world. The company has more than 60
plants all over the world so they can provide their customers with a wide range of products, that
too, with a low price. Thus they achieve the global competitive advantage (Tidd and Bessant
2014).
Section 3: Marketing success evidence for Toyota
Toyota is a globally successful organization in the automotive company. The
implementation of the proper strategies will lead the company like Toyota to achieve the market
success. As they have completed the marketing activities in a proper way, this has been their
major issues in attaining the proper success indeed (Fifield 2012). The basic desire of the higher
managers is to evolve the marketing process that will lead to the success of the company in a
better way indeed. The analytical tool that will be used here to understand the marketing success
of Toyota is the Four P’s. The nature of products that Toyota provides to their customers is very

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complex indeed. Therefore, it needs proper marketing strategies that should be implemented
(Fifield 2012).
Toyota has provided several types of products into the global market that will let them
gain the attraction of the customers (Toyota.com 2018). The global motor industry has been
largely motivated by the variety of these vehicles. These intangible products have really catered
to the growth of Toyota on a large level. They have gone on to innovate new sorts of products
that will lead to customer satisfaction on a new way (Coelho and Henseler 2012). The
effectiveness of these vehicles has brought in the customer satisfaction in a better way indeed
(Fifield 2012). They always look to enrich the quality of their products properly indeed. The new
designs of cars will surely please the customers (Toyota.com 2018). The company has set the
price of their products as per the income levels of the customers. The quality of the products has
always been the foremost priority for the company. The price segmentation for the different
products has always been friendly for the consumers indeed. (Singh 2012).
Toyota has been highly successful in finding the areas for identifying the different market
segments (Hill and Brierley 2017). This has added to the competitive advantage of the company.
The promotional activities of this company have been much advanced (Armstrong et al. 2015).
They use the digital marketing strategy to gain the attraction of the customers in a better way
instead. Some small changes could be addressed in their promotional activities as well
(Toyota.com 2018). The television and news print are also used in their promotional activities as
well. The selection of the skilled workforce has been very much important in their marketing
activity (Singh 2012). The employees of the company are very much creative and they treat the
customers with much friendliness as well. The link between the upper and lower management

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has been smooth and this is why the organization has achieved such high growth indeed
(Armstrong et al. 2015).
Section 4: Marketing success evidence for Ford
The marketing success of Ford has been a very important factor for the success of this
company on a global basis indeed (Ford.com 2018). The competitive advantage can be achieved
by the company for the betterment of the process indeed. One of the main things that could be
done for the betterment of this process is that of the advertising campaigns (Gordon 2012). The
analytical tool that will be used to assess their market success and gaining competitive advantage
is the SWOT analysis. Some of the strengths of Ford are its customer loyalty and the brand
reputation that they have. (Ford.com 2018).
This is very important for them to get the ultimate result in terms of number of the
customers. The various kinds of cars and commercial vehicles can be taken as one of the biggest
strengths for the company. The quality of the products for Ford has been extremely high indeed.
The relationship with the employees has been their very strong point as well. The company has
around hundred plants all over the world that helps them to produce enough number of cars and
commercial vehicles so they can gain the customer satisfaction indeed (Gordon 2012). Ford has
suffered a great loss because of their product recalls in all the areas indeed. This has been their
major weakness in the last few years indeed. The company has lacked a innovative design that
has been their main problem over the years. The global recession has also left a negative impact
on the products of the organization. The total market share of Ford is less than other car
manufacturing companies as well (Ford.com 2018).

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Ford does not have a cost management system so this will be very important for the
image of the company. Very recently it has been seen that Ford has been manufacturing some
standard cars that have not been able to deal with the current competitive market indeed. The
expansion of Ford into more diversified geographical areas so this has been a major drawback
for the company as well. Certainly there are many opportunities for the organization to come up
and make the proper changes. This will lead to the best profits within the industry as well. They
can make their vehicles environment friendly if their vehicles emit lesser oxygen. This will not
make that much harm in the environment (Ford.com 2018).
The company can use the hybrid electric engines that will be consumer friendly and cost
friendly. (Hill and Brierley 2017). Thus their best efforts to become successful in their marketing
scenario can really come to be true. They can use the renewable energy sources like the solar
powers and bio fuels. Thus their place in the competitive business environment will surely rise as
well. There are many competitors in this industry so they will have to provide better best efforts
in order to cope up with the challenges. The weaknesses in both the internal and external
environments should be managed properly as well.
Conclusion
This paper can be concluded by saying that both the companies mentioned here are very
much competitive. These companies will look to provide better opportunities for the customers
to believe in them. Toyota has always provided the best systems and quality products to their
customers. This is why their products have gained a competitive advantage throughout the world.
Ford has also been very much influential in terms of their customers. Their products and the
fewer prices of the products have laid the organization to gain more customers. This is why both

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the companies will need to improve on their weaknesses and utilize their strengths in this ever
changing market condition.

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References
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Baker, M.J., 2014. Marketing strategy and management. Macmillan International Higher
Education.
Coelho, P.S. and Henseler, J., 2012. Creating customer loyalty through service customization.
European Journal of Marketing, 46(3/4), pp.331-356.
Ferrell, O.C. and Hartline, M., 2012. Marketing strategy, text and cases. Nelson Education.
Fifield, P., 2012. Marketing strategy. Routledge.
Ford.com (2018). Ford – New Cars, Trucks, SUVs, Crossovers & Hybrids | Vehicles Built Just
for You | Ford.com. [online] Available at: https://www.ford.com/ [Accessed 3 Aug. 2018].
Gordon, R., 2012. Re-thinking and re-tooling the social marketing mix. Australasian Marketing
Journal (AMJ), 20(2), pp.122-126.
Hill, N. and Brierley, J., 2017. How to measure customer satisfaction. Routledge.
Robson, W., 2015. Strategic management and information systems. Pearson Higher Ed.
Singh, M., 2012. Marketing mix of 4P’s for competitive advantage. IOSR Journal of Business
and Management, 3(6), pp.40-45.
Tidd, J. and Bessant, J., 2014. Strategic innovation management. John Wiley & Sons.
Toyota.com (2018). New Cars, Trucks, SUVs & Hybrids | Toyota Official Site. [online]
Toyota.com. Available at: https://www.toyota.com/ [Accessed 3 Aug. 2018].