Buyer Behavior and Communication Strategies Applied Management

The Toyota Motor Corporation

The Toyota Corporation, a Japanese organization of automotives, is popular for the successful innovations and manufacture of the Toyota vehicles and other products. The Toyota vehicles have many profound advantages and benefits. The Toyota users, who are beneficiaries, have agreed that the Toyota product has always observed the sustainability issues, of economical use, society and the care of the environment. Toyotas vehicles are designed in favorable state that is to ensure they are not privy to encouraging of the rapid depletion of the scarce resources of nature. The most recognized benefit of the automotive is, therefore, its ability in preventing any degradation of the environment, including pollution. The production of the suitable vehicles has made Toyota a company is reputable, for its endless effort of stabilizing Japan's economy, as a result of reducing environmental costs. Environmental costs have always been a tragic issue in any country's economy (Cortez & Cudia, 2010).

With its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, the company has always focused on the production and sales of motor vehicles and their spare parts. The company runs a global market, with its products in use all over the world. Known for their well finished designs and economical maintenance expenses, the vehicles have earned market for all classes in the society, ranging from the middle class to the wealthy, with all classes getting their test and preferences prioritized. This explains why there was a tremendous increase of imported vehicles from Japan to the states, from 2005. In fact, the Toyota firm based in North America is getting larger by the day, as a result of greater demand for their cars, compared to those manufactured in America. The users of Toyota are both the middle size and the rich, but most of its users have the economical traits, as Toyota vehicles have proven to beat economical constrains, in terms of purchase and maintenance.

The company is self-driven by the right motivation and governance, to ensure its performance. The values treasured most include innovation and learning. Employees, who are over 60,000, are educated on the power of innovation as a strategy to succeeding. The company also values simplicity, as an element in solution reaching. Creativity and elegance are mentioned as the running force of the organization (May, 2007). The functional objective of Toyota is to produce a car that is dependable, and not prone to frequent mechanical problems. Other objectives include ensuring global domination in supplies, providing cars that are reliable and very comforting to the users. The organization's objectives have been reached in the past years, due to the innovation value. The company has an edge over its incumbents like Mazda and Ford, but the president of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, has always been optimistic about competition, because the organization has competitive favor in automobile. The organization has ensured manufacture of products that the consumers demand, making them the best sellers for many years (Amason, 2010).

The Segmentation Theory

Before any company undergoes segmentation, there has to be an understanding of the consumer behavior. This will assist in clustering the Toyota users based on their attitudes towards the cars, and the most similar clusters become of segmentation interest. The company then decides to choose a segment where there is the greatest business chance. The process is tricky, due to the dimensions used in segmenting automotives. This can be done by country (geographical), by the value of product (Small cars compared with big, luxurious cars) and even the service type. Most car companies like Volkswagen and Toyota have different segments but most of the segments are related due to utilization of facilities (Whitehead, 2012). Toyota's segmentation was targeting the executive markets, which offer the users with intimacy in quality.

The segmentation was to succeed the Mercedes and BMW. The organization differentiated through branding of an executive car, Lexus. The advantages of segmentation, like for the sport cars, the users value comfort ability, the size, how economical the fuel consumption is, and the car's carrying capacity. The design and appearance matter, but not to a big extend. The advantage is that the Toyota Company knows the tests of the users, designs what they need, and dictates the price they want. The disadvantage comes when for instance, Toyota design the Lexus, aimed at the executive segment then the other middle-class users are locked out, as they hardly afford the car (Cheetham & Nicla, 2007).

Toyota's total market and Target market

Toyota has maintained a mass total market, which provides for much segmentation according to their needs. The corporation has adopted the differentiated targeting strategy where there are vast segments,...

This has borne fruit at the Corporation, because the varied marketing mixes aim more users, hence more sales of the cars. The entire market capacity for Toyota has increased over the years, due to integrating the total market strategy (Ferrell & Pride, 2008).
The target market for Toyota has been determined by the differentiation target, as the company has fought tirelessly to ensure it provides different segments with what they need. The target market for Toyotas has been mostly the middle class, who treasure capabilities and durability of the cars. Recently, competition from the other automobile companies like BMW has forced the Toyota Corporation to target the executive market, where the users do not worry much about the vehicles' price, but rather the comfort, capacity and quality that come with it. The corporation also targets the segments of the geographical areas where environmental costs are regulated, like Europe. An example is the Toyota Prius sedan, which is specially designed to counter environmental costs. In fact, the car's target was the U.S. market (Wilson, 1999).

Target profile

The target profile will focus more on the 'executive quality' segment, which has been Toyota's most current target, due to high competition levels from incumbent organizations. Toyota has used consumer research to determine the most appealing designs for executives and what advertising messages would be appealing to the users. For instance, the target for Toyota scion, a differentiated brand, was the youth between twenty and thirty, who were ready to spend money as long as the car was stylish and distinctive from the other brands. The scion possesses the elements of self-image and just like the Lexus; it is specially designed for the executive's qualities (Maclnnis & Hoyer, 2008).

As its competitors dismissed any possibility of a good performing, high mileage and environmental friendly motor car, Toyota manufactured the Prius and decided its market target. The car which had integrated a hybrid technological design, sold out well. The Toyota quality has ensured the executive qualities are addressed, and as other organizations broke even, Toyota was making huge profits and expanding its opportunities elsewhere (Spear, 2009). The label, 'Executive Qualities' is a summation of the characteristics which involve self-image and stylish traits.

Toyota's Positioning Strategies

Toyota's success is traditionally focused on the positioning of the "reliable, quality cars at competing prices" (Nijssen & Franbach, 2001). The corporation had a strategy to penetrate the luxurious segment, and they did this through the use of differentiation of their brand, to the executive Lexus brand. This car was intended to compete with the other companies that manufactured cars of the executives like BMW. The Lexus was to serve the executives well due to its stylish designs and comfort ability. The company ensured it provided a car that would change the landscape of its markets, with its ability to provide its users exactly what they want, quality.

The perceptual map

According to the simple illustration, the map evidently shows that the differently branded Lexus, from Toyota, is probably appreciated as not only luxurious, but also of desired and high quality. The car is used mostly by the executive segment consumers, who prioritize quality, regardless of the prices.

The appropriate positioning statement, according to the company's segmentation and objective, is that to ensure delivering quality vehicles, according to the segmentation requirements at competitive prices'.

Appropriate Marketing Mix

Unlike the product marketing mix, which takes care of only the 4 P's of product, pricing, placement and promotions, Toyota Motor Corporation adopted the 7 P's marketing mix, because it is also a service rendering organization. The other P's include the people, the physical evidences and the process. An analysis is provided below, to help demonstrate and link the mixes to the organization's goals.

Product

In the service marketing mix, the product is a service, hence intangible. Toyota's case is different, factoring in that its product is cars but also provides services to its customers and clientele. The Toyota's products are designed with great care and capability, to enforce the quality perception by users. When the product is attractive to the users, regardless of their segmentations, the company earns credit through big sales, which is one of the organizations objectives, profitability.

Place

Strategizing the best location for business is important for any business organization, including Toyota. For Toyota, once they decide on a segment, like the executives, and realize their product is highly demanded, they are quick in taking advantage to expand at…