Marketing Strategy Report: Evaluation of Toyota's Marketing

This report provides a critical evaluation of Toyota's marketing strategy, encompassing a detailed analysis of its current market position and future prospects. The report begins with an executive summary and an introduction to the core concepts of marketing strategies, emphasizing the importance of the marketing mix and its influence on company performance. The main body of the report is divided into two parts. Part 1 delves into a situational analysis using the PESTEL framework to evaluate the external factors influencing Toyota, including political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal environments. It also assesses the impact of the epidemic and Brexit on the company, analyzes its competitive advantage using the USP, and evaluates its current marketing strategy. Part 2 focuses on market segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP), and recommends specific objectives and goals using the SMART framework. Finally, the report suggests marketing strategies based on the marketing mix, providing recommendations for expanding the business in the automobile industry, such as investing in social media advertising and diversifying the market to attract more customers, all while maintaining Toyota's commitment to quality and customer loyalty. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations, supported by a comprehensive list of references.

Marketing Strategy

Executive summary
In the marketing strategy repot the included part is critically evaluation of the Smart
objective, STP model, Pestle analysis, Swot analysis, USP analysis and marketing strategy.
All this things explain the importance of the marketing mix and their strategies which help to
evaluate the company to know better about the company. And this report get to know about
the success and threats which is faced by the company in the market. Various
recommendation is given in the report which help the company to expand the business more
likely in the automobile industry. Like burn the cost on social media advertisement as the
company already gain lots of prosperity in the market and build the major brand image in
comparison to other competitors. They also needed to diversify the market to attract more
customers as Toyota main mission is to earn the customers with loyal and good quality of
services.

Table of Contents
Executive summary....................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................4
PART1........................................................................................................................................4
Situational analysis- PESTEL................................................................................................4
Evaluate the threat of epidemic or Brexit on your chosen organisation................................6
Analyse of the competitive advantage (USP)........................................................................8
Evaluation of current marketing strategy...............................................................................9
PART2......................................................................................................................................10
Analyse Market Segmentation Targeting & Positioning (STP)...........................................10
Recommended objectives and goals for the choosing organisation (SMART)...................11
Recommend marketing strategies, based on the application of the marketing mix to your
chosen brand.........................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Marketing strategies is the selection of the planning which includes alternatives
related to the specific customers, communication methods, distribution channel and pricing
structure. Marketing strategies is the combination of the target markets and marketing mixes.
The market structure include the three type of environment in any industry; internal, micro
and macro. In these three environment there are various factors which can influence the
marketing strategies of the company (Rust, Moorman and Bhalla, 2010). These include
demographic factors, technological factor, political factors and legal sectors. Another factors
are; suppliers, competitors, publics and marketing intermediaries. Marketing mix is include
controllable factors which have been to chosen for satisfy customers need. All these
marketing strategies help the companies to achieve the targets of the company. For this
assignment the chosen company is Toyota Motor Corporation, a leading auto manufacture
company in the world founded in 1937, started its operation with the Koromo plant. And it’s
headquarter is set up in Japan. This assignment gives details about the marketing audit of the
external and internal environment and evaluate the organisation’s competitive edge including
market growth, sales trend and profitability.
MAIN BODY
PART1
Situational analysis- PESTEL
Automobile industry is one of the largest and valuable industry in the market with
having hundreds of top brand using the market share. This industry has major witnessed for
their sharp growth from the nineteenth century. The growth of this industry including
revenue, profitability etc. are influenced by the various factors are influenced by the various
forces. Hence, the PESTEL analysis helps the company to evaluate the external factors which
makes the huge impact on the company’s internal decision and especially on the Toyota’s
business model, growth strategies and market strategy (Papadopoulos and Heslop, 2014). The
PESTEL analysis help to understand the different influencer like; political, environmental,
social, technological, economic and legal environments.
 Political factors: Toyota starting their expansion of the market in the demand of the
vehicle. In 1992, Toyota starts its production in the UK and at that time all the
European market comes together for giving Toyota a much wider market to offer,

make and sale their products in the European markets. Different plants were set up in
UK to avoid the extra cost like transportation, tariff charges and others taxes. As the
European market was at the booming stage, so the political factors are stable and give
access to the new business industry like Toyota to come and make the market. So
Toyota make the right decision to move to the right country at right time. This
political stability give the opportunities to grow with the minimum political issues
occur by the government. Also free trade of agreements with the japan, UK and
Thailand gives the opportunities to expand more. In addition to the opportunities of
Toyota, government support for eco-friendly products used by the companies gives
the way to produce new and innovative products to satisfy the environmental need
and expectation.
 Economic factors: In the context of economic factors, Toyota has the opportunity to
improve the export currency in comparison of Japanese Yen with UK Dollars. Also
they can elaborate their business in the US market and rapid growth in the
development of economies gives the chance to make the revenue based on these
developed market. As Toyota face the major competition not only in the home
country japan but in the other countries also like Ford and BMW (Smilansky, 2017).
As in order to face the battle related to the performance, services, customer’s
satisfaction and research are worked for make the position in the market. Although the
recession in the economies affect the major companies like Toyota and BMW. So to
follow the rules and restriction about importing the foreign vehicle parts and whole
body will make effect the Toyota to stand out in the market.
 Social factors: In order to complete the wealth gap will increase the threat to the
company as correspond to the decline rate of middle class people. Whereas the super
increasing interest in hybrid and electric cars will give the major opportunities to the
company to expand their business. At the same time Toyota is not free from the
manufacturing debacles. They have to pay penalties and fees regarding the car
malfunctions. Many of the customers are complaining about the Toyota automobiles
are running out of control and make many accidents (Steenkamp, 2017). And when
the customers set their minds regarding Toyota then the company start thinking about
that social issue and work on it and make valuable solution to their customers.
 Technological factors: The biggest opportunity for the company is rising use of E-
commerce facilities and mobile technology trends. This help to the company
regarding sale and purchase of the spare parts of the vehicle and it will also help the

Toyota to make the loyal customers and interact with them on the daily basis by
providing them mobile facilities. All these technological factors affect the company’s
internal decisions as well. But the increasing rate of cybercrimes will gives the threat
to the company as it make the reason of loss having in the company. Toyota has the
first company who launch the hydro power vehicle and provide their services to their
customers. For this company puts their massive efforts on research and development,
looking for alternatives ways for using fuel. Innovation is the critical thinking for the
automobile industry but Toyota refuses to become a brand who catch-up with others
while other industry are paving the way into future.
 Environmental factor: With the help of changing climate and decrease in the global
oil reserves, Toyota make an amazing opportunities to work effectively in the market
by applying these environmental factors (Chirumalla, Oghazi and Parida, 2018). This
show the fate of the customers on the company and for this company make Research
and development department for using infrastructure and human resource capital in an
efficient manner. They encourage their employees and minimize the waste which is
producing during the production. And all these activities help the company to become
more aware and conscious about the environment.
 Legal factors: In the legal factors laws related to the industry of automobile covers,
as Toyota make the opportunities to fulfil the intellectual rights, environmental laws
and consumer laws in the market. With the high satisfaction need and completing the
demand of the customers with concern of environmental laws and legal laws help the
company to grow in the market. Toyota drafted policies and regulations which is
follow by the company and their suppliers also they have the strict norms regarding
the sexual harassment and discrimination among the employees of the company on
the different ground.
Evaluate the threat of epidemic or Brexit on your chosen organisation
Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the leading automobile industry in the world.
Strong market position and brand image are the major strength of the company. And the trade
receivable are the only threat to the company (Williamson, Vieira and Williamson, 2015).
Growth in the incentives, new models, new products and electronic vehicle gives the
opportunity to expand their business. Whereas intense competition, changes in environmental
regulation, brexit regulation and major technological changes are the threat to the company.

 Strength: Toyota has sharing the strong market position at the different areas across
the world. In the local market Toyota sharing approx. 45% market share in financial
year 2019-20. In addition to that Toyota share market in North America, Asia, Europe
and Africa. Such a strong market positions allow the company to gain the competitive
advantage and also expand the market at international level. Also the constant revenue
earning pursue its growth and expansion of the initiatives and correcting its liquidity
position. Furthermore Toyota focus on the various innovation which help them in the
competitive advantage (Bhattacharya, 2016). A strong return on equity gives the
access to the company for the profits and maintaining the qualities.
 Weakness: Increasing trade receivables will adversely affect the company’s cash
flow, as this amount shows the company’s inefficient credit management facility.
Which affect the company’s image in front of external stakeholders of the company. It
may affect the economic slowdown, the decrease in profit ratio due to these trade
receivables and it also impact the overall financial position of the company.
 Opportunities: Company can use various opportunities by taking initiatives which
may impact on the growth of the company. In January 2020, the company invested
approx. 394 united state dollars in Joby aviation, a US-based aerospace company
which launch an electric air taxis. There are more initiatives taken by the Toyota in
last few years to just get the opportunities to expand their business across the world.
And being a leading automobile company make electronic vehicles which operate in
the company and this increase the sales of the company at high rate. Furthermore,
launching new products in the market against their high competitors will help the
company to expand and invest more in the business.
 Threats: The automobile industry is influenced by the government regulation
regarding the emission of the fuel, guidelines regarding the carbon dioxide, noise
level limitation, recycling regulations and many safety standard regarding the use of
vehicle. To follow all these regulation at a same time is much difficult for the
company like Toyota which is already spreading all over the world (Deepak and
Jeyakumar, 2019). Another threat is the high competition with the little margin of the
other company’s market share and revenue generating stage. The global competitors
are Nissan, Honda, BMW and many others companies. Another most important threat
is the epidemic which is face by the all over the world; Covid-19 which slow down
the growth of the company’s revenue at the global level. This epidemic gives the
major threat to the company as it reduce the purchasing power of the customers and it

also impact the government growth. Furthermore the Brexit gives the insecurity in the
business investment in UK and EU areas. UK’s market become the single market
which gives the inadequate demand of the customers. Brexit and epidemic gives the
threat to the Toyota, as it reduce the impact and expansion of the company.
Analyse of the competitive advantage (USP)
Toyota is using their research and development department for gaining the
competitive advantage in respect to their competitors and to motivate their employees to
become the largest automobile company in the market. The six factors which affect the
competitive advantages are Price, location, selection, speed, turnover and services. All these
things help the Toyota to make them different in respect of other competitors (Wu and
Naidoo, 2016). And its best competitive advantage is their efficient production at low cost of
production but the quality is remain same. The point which are used by Toyota to make the
success in the competitive advantage are; their unique production system, as they produced
the goods and services according to the need of the customers and to complete this they
follow the synchronisation and standardization in the process of completing the production.
Another aspect is avoiding errors they are using their technique with full of research and
evaluating that the risk of errors is decrease. Furthermore the improvement in the production
line, proper training and continuous improvement in the company will gives the best
competitive advantage and make the strong position by capturing market share. They always
care about their partners and employees which gives another reason to get success.
Their Unique Selling Propositions which highlight the Toyota’s special features in the
products which gives the market segment in the automobile industry. Toyota market strategy
is market penetration. As Toyota has been always the leader in the technology sector of the
automobile industry and also their excellent customer’s services gives the way to make a new
market competitive advantage in the market. As the company believe to serve the customers
and their client with their best services so that they can visit again and again in the company
and purchase their products (Mirzaei, Carter and Schneider, 2018). Their price skimming
strategy and market penetration will leads the low price of their products compare to other
companies with the best services provided by them to their client. These strategy help to
increase the demand of the client and their expectation is rises with the company and as
above stated Toyota believe in serve the customers what they actually want. If the client is
requested than the vehicle is shipped by the company to the doorstep of the customer. This
humanity and amazing services by the company earned the fame and prosperity in the market

compare to other competitors. With the hard work and success strategies Toyota make their
position in all over the world and their business is increasing rapidly. They compete with the
other competitive companies like BMW, Honda and many more globally expanded
companies. Not only in competition they collaborate with the many companies also, have
which helped the company to make the reputation in the market. Now at present company
operates in more than 13 countries in all over the world and compete with the various big
companies of automobile industry (Christofi, Leonidou and Vrontis, 2017). With using latest
technologies and upgraded production techniques they become the world famous company of
automobile industry. This is how the Unique Selling Proposition help the Toyota to make the
strong competitive advantage in respect of other competitors and help the company to expand
the business more and generate the revenue at high rate of return.
Evaluation of current marketing strategy
The marketing strategy of the company gives a fare view about the company and how
the company must show their products to the customers. Marketing strategy include the four
p’s of the market; Price, Promotion, Place and Product. To understand the more market
strategies the whole procedure is done below:
 Products: Toyota provide their customers both type of products and services i.e.
tangible and intangible. A product with the high quality and low cost is self-marked
and make the customers attract towards the company. They divided the products into
four parts they are; Passenger, which are small, medium and large vehicle for example
Aurion and yaris. Next category is SUV’s and 4WD another one is Hybrid and last
one is commercial vehicle. Apart from the vehicles they sale the spare parts of the
cars also, like gears, seat covers and many more. And intangible services like
warranties, road assistance and car services.
 Place: Toyota’s first target is their audience and they are very well know about it is
very important to make their products available to the target audience. They sale their
products through dealers and then that dealers sale that to the customers one by one.
Toyota serve their products to the customers at their doorsteps or wherever they
needed (Colbert, 2020). In the company there are teams of sales representative who
shows the model to their customers and covert the visitors into their valuable
customers. In the western countries they try to decrease their supply chain and provide
the services at the reasonable cost.

 Pricing: Due to the most innovative design and amazing promotional techniques they
become the second most carmaker company in the world. The selling price of the
products usually depends on the cost price and profit making. Increase in the cost of
production or any expenses will lead the direct impact on the price of the products. So
Toyota always tried to make the products with full efficiency, great techniques and
proper research (Al-Zyoud, 2018). This will help to minimize the expense and leads
to the less cost of production and less price of the products. With the differentiation in
their products help the company to applying the lowest price in the market comparing
with other competitors and this make the image of the company in the market.
 Promotion: They are using different promotional techniques to increase the sales
revenue in the company. They advertise with television, radio, newspaper, yellow
pages and broachers. With all the different techniques they make themselves unique
in the automobile industry. They are using strategies like extra bonus, welcome back
offers, cashback offers and so many more new techniques to promote their products.
Although they are already established a great image in the market so they don’t want
to put extra efforts in the promotion. By promoting they can reach the more audience
and attract new customers who can help them to expand more.
PART2
Analyse Market Segmentation Targeting & Positioning (STP)
It is essential for organisation to consider effective segmentation, targeting and positioning
strategy in order to successfully for effectively performing business practices. This is very
important marketing strategy which needs to be correctly implement by Toyota company in
order to attain its goals and objectives (Chou and et.al., 2020). Segmentation, targeting and
positioning marketing strategy of Toyota Company is mention below –
 Segmentation – This can be describe practice in which company can classify its
market area into several part. Segmentation is the process of dividing large market
area in to sub parts so that company can easily target its customers and carry out its
marketing practices. Toyota organisation is offering high quality car and other related
products in order to meet with the demand of customer. In segmentation step
respective company is classifying customer base into demographics, interest, and
location and so on. This process assist company to classify customers on the basis of
similar needs and characteristics so that organisation can easily carry out business

practices. It is targeting customers on the basis of income group, gender, life cycle
stage, need or desires and other elements.
 Targeting – Once organisation successfully or effective segment its customer bases
on the basis of their needs and wants. It is crucial to target its customers in order to
offer its high quality products. Targeting can be describe as the strategy in which
company can successfully target its customer base as well as provide its products to
potential customers (Varadarajan, 2020). Toyota Company is targeting customers that
have family who have potential to purchase car products. Its targeting group includes
customer group that have medium or high income. Customer who have living in city
as well as require car to transporting is major targeted customer group for Toyota
Company. This will be significant for enhancing revenues of business as well as
increasing sales of organisation.
 Positioning – This is refer as the marketing activities that is conducted by company in
order to place positive image of company in mind of customers. It is essential for
respective company to successfully or significantly position its products and service
sin market group with the motive of increase sales or profitability. This involve
marketing activities which is perceived by end customers with related to the
marketing strategies. Positioning of Toyota Company and its products will assist
organisation to attract more and more customers. These marketing activities are
related to the escalation of bran image so as to fix in the mind of potential customers.
This stands for placing products and its specification in the mind of prospect
customers. Toyota company is positioning its products by marketing it as a high
quality products that includes innovative technology in order to enhance overall
experience (Peterson and Crittenden, 2020). This company is positioning its fuel
efficient hybrid cars and it is developed as per the needs and wants of customers.
Recommended objectives and goals for the choosing organisation (SMART)
It is crucial for Toyota Company to develop or create SMART objective in order to
successfully of effectively conducting business practices. SMART objective stands for
specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic and time bound. It is important that all
objective or goals that are set by Toyota Company is specific as per the need of business and
it should be easy to measure its accomplishment. Set goals should be realistic and needs to be

attain in set time frame. Recommendation for Toyota Company for developing objective
includes –
“To enhance customer service with the motive of improving its sales and revenues by 20
% in 4 months.”
This objective of organisation is significant for improving overall sales and profitability
of business as well as leads to improve relationship with customers by increase customer
services. Respective company will be benefits by accomplishment of this objective as well as
gain competitive edge over other rival companies.
Recommend marketing strategies, based on the application of the marketing mix to your
chosen brand.
Marketing strategies will lead to enhance overall functioning or performance of business. It is
essential for Toyota company to successfully or effectively conducting marketing strategies
in order to successfully achieve business objective (Poulis, 2020). Marketing mix is effective
tools which is significant for determining different aspects of business. Through this
respective organisation will be able to take better decision for overall growth and
development of business.
 It is recommended for Toyota organisation to consider new and innovative technology
for successfully performing organisation task. Innovative technology will lead to
improve overall functioning of business as well as conducting organisational
operations in effective manner. Toyota Company will be able to increase the quality
of products and services offered to customer with the consideration of high
technology. This will assist respective company in gaining edge over other rival
business along with this increase revenues.
 It is important for Toyota Company to use creative promotional activities in order to
increase the sales of business. Promotion is one of the essential part of business in
which company is able to advertise its products to customers with the motive of
attracting more and more customers towards business. Toyota organisation will be
able improve the awareness about products in market area by successfully conducting
promotional practices. It is recommended to Toyota Company to consider both
traditional as well as modern approaches of promotion. This is significant for
influencing large customer base as well as increase sales of business.