Marketing Strategies for Toyota UK: A Detailed Analysis

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MARKETING ESSENTIALS
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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
LO1.................................................................................................................................. 4
LO2.................................................................................................................................. 7
LO3.................................................................................................................................. 9
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 14
References.....................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
Marketing Department plays a significant role in Toyota, UK. Without marketing, the
company cannot bring their products and service to the public. In this plan, it is
suggested that the endorsements of the brands service and products should be carried
out in such a way that drives customers towards it. The study also shows how the gains,
targets and customer base can be achieved. It also provides much relevant information,
which proves beneficial for the organization at large. The marketing of Toyota should
serve as the profile of the company and it is this department’s job to find funds, promote
and creating an overall unimpeachable image of the Toyota, UK in the crowd which in
way create a new growth and expansion of the market (Martensen and Mouritsen,
2017).
Toyota, UK was established in 1989 for manufacturing in UK. It has its plant at
Burnaston, Derbyshire and Deeside, North Wales. It is the world’s largest supplier of
hybrid electric driven vehicle (toyota.co.uk, 2019). The net worth of both plants in UK is
£2.75 billion and employs 3,800 people. The first car produced by Toyota was Carina E
in 1992, and then was the Avensis in 1997, Corolla in 1998. In 2007, Auris came, which
has been leading the company since then with its hatchback and hybrid.
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LO1
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Marketing function is an essential process involved in the business organization
(businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2019). The roles of marketing function in Toyota, UK are:
Collecting and concurring market information:
The first and foremost responsibility of marketing department of Toyota, UK is to gather
and analyze the customer information, the demands of the customers, the present
scenario that will affect the product/service. The external information collection includes
determining the available nooks in the market, the competition the brand will face the
undeveloped market potential and thus, overall external market research. The internal
factors about which the information is gathered is the intangible resources, the company
culture and the competency the company holds. After analyzing this information, the
whole brand image is created comprising of the mission, vision and objectives.
Creating the blueprint:
The head of the marketing department together with the company head, enumerates
blueprints. It gives an overall idea of what the company will and should be in the coming
time. Based on these findings, they create a strategy for the organization i.e. should the
shares be increased, sold or kept and other such market decisions (TAN and Reddy,
2018).
Product Development:
The marketing team based on the macro and interior factors designs the product
suitable for the market. If a new product is required, it tries to produce a new one and if
any updates are required to the existing products relating to the market requirements,
the upgrades are made. It determines the errors or drawbacks the customers are facing
with the product and detects the opportunities available to the organization. Marketing
squad supplies the product related information and customer’s need to the development
team, which makes required changes.
Communication:
The department plans and initiates campaigns which will help them in reaching to new
customer’s better. It also plans campaigns for the existing customers, which will help
them retain the customers for long. If the budget allows, the team also plans a
proposition for marketing on digital platforms, invest in printed product release, such as
leaflets and company brochures for the customers. They may also hire an advertising
company to design promotional banners (Illeris, 2009).
Sales Team Support:
The advertising department of Toyota, UK can provide huge help to the sales team by
granting them customer-related surveys by running campaigns. It can help sales team
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by providing coupons or attracting the clients to the website and then providing free
newsletters and subscriptions.
Providing Customer Support Service:
The marketing team also provides customers with after-sales-service, handling
complaints, providing technical installation, and troubleshooting support, which keeps
the customer satisfied and always bound to the company. This ensures customer
satisfaction, which in turn leads to a recurring customer base (Vormann, 2018).
Pricing of Product:
The marketing manager of Toyota, UK is solely responsible for fixing the market price of
the product taking in consideration the analysis conducted by the marketing team. The
price of a product is influenced by the production cost, the profit, which can be earned,
price of competing product, the changes in taxes by the government etc. These all have
to be considered. The manager should set a price in such a way that it is not too high
from its competitors as then the customers would be lured by its competitors and also
not so low that the company will have to face any loss. It should be in the median, which
provides a profit to the organization in every way (Mahdavi and Daryaei, 2017).
P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider
organizational concepts.
Marketing department of Toyota, UK cannot work alone for an organization’s growth but
it should work in synchronization with other departments. The ways in which marketing
department links with other departments are:
Production: The close relationship between production and marketing departments of
Toyota, UK is important in amplifying the overall growth and gains of the organization.
The marketing department needs to work adjacent to the production department so that
it can monitor that adequate research and development is done according to their
analysis. The product, which is to be manufactured, should converge with the
expectations laid down by the customer to meet maximum market capability. The most
important part is that the quantity of supply and production should be adequate as per
the market research and cannot be more or less than the market necessity. If there is a
lack of communication between these two departments of Toyota, UK problems may
arise in fulfilling the needs of the customers required at that time. If the production
department is not aware of the timely needs, it can lead to a huge loss to Toyota, UK
and it can result in creating a bad image for the Toyota, UK (Bairam, 2018).
Finance: The role of finance department is to strategize financial activities for Toyota,
UK. With the advancement in markets, Toyota, UK has started taking finance
departments in key strategies. They provide a regular number to Toyota, UK, which is
achieved by the assistance of marketing department. The marketing department should
work alongside the finance department, as they are the ones who research the whole
market, its competitor’s product, the amount of profit, which can be made. Therefore, it
should help the department so that perfect money is invested in promotion,
manufacturing and distribution. Being the most important department, it would like all
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departments to work as close to it as possible and there may be an opportunity in the
market which would require more finance for marketing the product. The reaching of the
products to the customer is more important and it may require much income, so finance
department should be aware of these situations by staying close (Mora et al., 2018).
Human Resource Department: Human Resource Department plays a vital role as it
hires the work force required by the Toyota, UK. They do the training, staffing and
deciding payrolls of the employees. The marketing department of Toyota, UK,
researches the required workforce for each unit, which helps the human resource in
hiring adequate number of persons. The marketing department also analyses the salary
provided by its competitors, which in turn help the human resources decide the payroll
of the new employees. The meeting of product targets is important to the company,
which is done by both marketing and human resources department. A ambitious and
proficient sales squad is necessary for the market capture and magnification which is
assessed by the human resources department (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
IT Department: This is the era where every brand focuses on social media marketing
and digital marketing. It is done on the web or mobile phone. Most of the organizations
are shifting from a linear way of marketing to mutual way of marketing. The social media
marketing has created a new wave of marketing as products are gaining great markets
in a lesser span of time and with minimum investments. The IT Department of Toyota,
UK prepares this type of marketing, as they are the ones who design websites, monitor
customer traffic to the organization’s website and do all the technical stuff required. So,
market department researches on the various websites and trends followed by the
company and they prepare a report and handle it to the IT Department, which then
creates the website or the required ads and applications.
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LO2
P3 Compare the ways in which different organisations apply the marketing mix to
the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.
Elements Toyota, UK Ford, UK
Product Toyota makes the hybrid
electric vehicles and is the
world’s greatest dealer of
hybrid electric vehicles. It
focuses more on electric
vehicles but produces all
the categories of vehicles
available in the market. It
relies heavily on its hybrid
vehicles. It does not take
much interest in developing
racing or sedan vehicles.
Toyota, UK produces and
sells its products in the
local market giving a lower
price.
Ford, UK concentrates on
making all the range
vehicles from small
compact cars, SUVs and
racing cars. It does not rely
much on electric hybrid
vehicle for its expansion but
concentrates on all the
varieties, which can be
made available to the
customers. It focuses on
every variant rather than
concentrating on just one
variant. Ford, UK produces
and transports it products
elsewhere other than UK
(ford.co.uk, 2019).
Price Toyota, as it focuses mainly
on hybrid electric vehicles,
it produces only affordable
pricing vehicles. It follows
affordable market pricing
policy.
Ford, on the other hand,
produces affordable, luxury
and vehicles of every
variant. It follows a
competitive market price
strategy.
Place Toyota has two operational
plants in UK. The first plan
is the vehicle-
manufacturing plant. It is
situated at Burnaston in
Derbyshire. The other plant
is the engine manufacturing
plant (toyota.co.uk, 2019). It
is situated at Deeside in
North Wales.
Ford operates on three
production sites in UK. The
petrol engine production is
situated in Bridgend. The
diesel engine production
plant is situated at
Dagenham and for the
transmission, it uses
Halewood.
Promotion Toyota is an old brand and
focuses on its promotions
from older styles (Hines, P.,
2016). They do not run
much campaign. They do
not use digital marketing for
advertisement. They use
Ford is growing with time. It
does not rely on old
traditional methods for
promotion. It uses digital
marketing, TV
advertisements and does
personal persuasion of the
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dealers and retailers only
for promotions and provide
their customers discounts
on the spare parts so that
the customers would stick
with them.
people by dealing with
people at the retails and the
dealers. It also has been
seen to apply direct selling
methods to the corporate
clients who rent the
vehicles. It also has done
partnership with good
brands, which promote it
highly (ford.co.uk, 2019).
People As UK is the fifth largest
economy in the world. The
people there are
expenditure friendly but
Toyota relies more on
affordable pricing which
makes its sales among the
teens a little lower. With the
higher ages, Toyota has
been the most affordable
brand and they prefer
Toyota better than any
other brand. Toyota
employs 3,800 people in
UK.
Ford produces all range
and varieties of vehicles.
The people of UK
especially the teens prefer
ford racing and sedan
vehicles due to its
appearance and structure.
Whereas in the older
generations, it is not
preferred much as they
want more resilient and
reliable vehicles and more
environment friendly. Ford
employs 3,000 engineers in
the UK.
Process Toyota follows six sigma
manufacturing model. This
model offers unbeatable
quality, low price and
shortest time by eliminating
wastes (toyota.co.uk,
2019).
Ford uses lean
manufacturing methods.
This improves customer
service, reduced waste an
helping the company
financially.
Physical Evidence Toyota has been carrying
its brand image from long
ago. Its logo consists of 3
eclipses overlapping. The
two eclipses mean the
strong bond of the
customer with Toyota and
the space in the eclipses
and the third ring means
the technological growth
and opportunities it carries.
Ford emerged as a great
brand in the market for
sedan and SUVs. Its logo
consists of the signature of
its founder, Henry Ford. It
consists of two colours blue
and white. Blue indicate the
strength and excellence
and white symbolises the
purity and elegance of
Ford.
Table 1: Comparison of 7 P’s of marketing between Toyota and Ford, UK
(Source: Created by the learner)
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LO3
Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organization
Executive summary
This plan deals with the market traits of Toyota, UK. It depicts the vision of growth, the
ways in which the organisation can grow. The plan enumerates the ways through which
it can expand its customer base and profits. These have been taken in consideration to
the coming years in market. The external factors analysis is done for the coming years
using PESTEL and the internal factors have been analyzed using SWOT analysis. The
plan also includes the segmentation, targeting and positioning part of the market, which
will help it increase its market and gains.
Vision
Toyota’s, UK vision is to enrich the lives of people by providing the safest and most
affordable automobiles. By the organization way to excellence, it will make the world a
better place.
Objectives
The objectives of the organisation are:
 To magnify the profits of the organisation in the present market and build a
reliable customer base
 To hold a distinct level of shares in the market
 To allow a soaring dividend for shareholders
 To make a stable as well as higher profit in the market in the coming years
External
The PESTEL Analysis is used to identify the external threats to an organization and in
helping to provide a marketing plan for an organization (Theaker, 2017).
Political Brexit has caused a sudden disruption in
whole of UK as the immigration laws and
VAT is increasing but Toyota prices will
not be affected by it as it intakes all it
products locally but there may be a talent
decline to strict immigration laws (Lamas
et al., 2017.).
Economic UK is the fifth largest economy in the
world. However, the Brexit issue will lead
to a higher VAT, which is expected to be
minimum 5% on any product, and like
previous years, this will cause an increase
in the price of Toyota vehicles overall and
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spare parts. The pound value is also
expected to boggle down by 20 %. This
will cause a tight end expenditure on the
people of UK so they will buy more
affordable vehicles than luxury, which will
increase the sale of Toyota vehicles
(Nurmi and Niemelä, 2018).
Social UK has a high standard of living. The
people spend more than many states and
are in huge numbers, which is also a
factor for the high business income.UK is
going to be under harsh immigration laws
from the Brexit issue. This will cause less
people to migrate and this will detoriate
the talent in the country .Toyota has great
talents from outside, so it will cause a loss
of talents due to harsh VISA laws and high
standard of living.
Technological UK is an economically developed country.
The government always believes in
technological advancement and always
supports new and innovative technology.
Toyota should take it as an opportunity
and try to implement more digital
technologies and marketing structure
within them.
Environmental UK has a good weather condition but due
to global warming, there has been a
sudden change in the weather conditions
causing trouble to the local people. The
focus will shift from fuel to less emission
energy. Toyota, being an expert in
producing these types of vehicles will
highly benefit from it (Lehmann et al.,
2018).
Legal The legal terms in UK have been good in
the past times but as the Brexit issue is on
the rise, there will be more and stricter
laws. The immigration laws will be much
strict which will cause the people coming
to work from other countries will not be
able to live there and continue their work
due to strict VISA laws and there will also
be a tax increase by 5-10 %.This will
make the cost of living higher. Toyota will
have to find a way to keep its employees
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coming from foreign markets to
themselves (Pan et al., 2018).
Table 2: PESTEL Analysis of Toyota, UK
(Source: Created by the learner)
SWOT Analysis:
Strengths
 Concentrates strongly on producing
less carbon emission vehicles
 One of the most famous automobile
brands in the world
 It has created a strong brand image
for itself (Futagami and Helms,
2017).
Weakness
 It does not focus much on digital
marketing.
 Always depends on retailers and
dealers.
Opportunities
 Green Vehicle Movement will pave
a great way for Toyota as it has
been emphasizing on clean fuel.
 It should now start to popularize its
eco-friendly vehicles.
Threats
 Toyota faces a tough competition
from its competitors.
 The company relying on low pricing
earns a lower profit than other
brands.
Table 3: SWOT Analysis of Toyota, UK
(Source: Created by the learner)
Segmentation
Segmentation is done based on the gender of the people using vehicles. It can also be
done using the age groups of people and the spending habits i.e. the expenditure of the
people. These have been divided based on all the 3 factors and how they will affect
Toyota, UK and help it to meet its targets and financial gains. Toyota, UK should divide
the market into 3 parts , they will be on the basis of age which will be 18-30 years will
constitute one segment, 30-50 years will constitute the other segment and the rest will
fall from 51 years accordingly. Then, the division should be based on the economic
scales of people. The middle class as well as the higher class of people should be taken
as a fragment before strategizing (Dietrich et al., 2017).
Targeting
Targeting is done in the plan relating to the age factor and economic expense ways.
The people with different age groups follow a different way and comfort relating to them.
The middle-aged people would love luxury and looks so Toyota needs to produce
stylish and sporty vehicles to persuade them. The old-aged people will concentrate
more on the comfort and suspension of the product and long age of the product.
Therefore, it should continue making affordable and resilient cars for this group of
people (Dietrich et al., 2017).
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Positioning
Toyota, UK should focus more on automatic or self-driven vehicles. The organization
should focus on making a traditional well selling product much better. They should try to
cut the cost of the outdated vehicles, which are manual or stop its production. It should
try to eliminate the products, which are not useful to the customers. It should stop
making old models, which are not profitable to the company and recycle them to pave a
way for newer products. Toyota should try to educate the customers about the product
so that they tend to make a recurring customer base for themselves.
Marketing Mix
Product UK being a high-end market as it is the
fifth largest economy in the world. The
people there can afford luxury cars so
Toyota, UK should focus on luxury cars. In
the other aspect, they can move their pivot
to mainly automatic cars.
Place Many investors have warned the industry
about the climatic change as the global
warming is increasing. Toyota, UK should
focus more on low-carbon vehicles or
electric vehicles (Liu et al., 2017).
Price UK is the fifth largest economy in the
world. It has a rich lifestyle in every aspect.
Toyota, UK should bring in vehicles, which
will be more comfortable in every way and
can risk increasing the prices, as the
consumers are willing to spend more.
Promotion As this is a digital era, Toyota, UK should
invest more on social media marketing and
digital marketing. They should hire a firm
or hire the IT people on whom they can
rely for digital marketing (Stead and
Hastings, 2018). They should try more to
give discounts to the customers on spare
parts or servicing which will promote the
brand. Toyota, UK should run campaigns
to promote their brand and expand its
customer base.
People The people of UK are comfort loving, polite
and expeditious. They love to spend on
what is required and comfort. Toyota, UK
should focus on comfort of the people.
They should try to take some risks on the
pricing if it is related to risks, as they are
willing to spend on these.
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