Marketing principles: segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies

Toyota Marketing Strategy

What marketing exactly is?

Marketing is a very unique set of activities which show a great and valuable impact on the entire organization. A company cannot sell its all products to a single customer or at a same market. There are numerous markets and they all are diverse according to their demand and buying requirements. That's why each company needs to identify its market segmentation, market segmentation procedure, pattern of segmentation, basis of segmenting consumers and business market. Many companies use to be target oriented and they develop a target-marketing. They first identify their segments, and then set targets for each segment. After this, they manufacture their products according to their targeted market (Armstrong & Kotler, 2003).

Three Important Steps of Target Marketing

Identify and profile distinct groups of buyers who might require separate products or market mixes is known as "market segmentation" (Sun, 2009).

Select one or more market segments to enter which is known as "market targeting."

3. Establish and communicate the product's key distinctive benefits in the market which is known as "market positioning."

In this research "Toyota Motors" has been selected in order to understand the segmentation concepts and to know about the target market and market positioning followed by this company. In this paper, I will discuss how important is marketing strategy and segmentation for a successful company, like Toyota, to achieve what it wants.

Company Profile

Toyota Motor Corporation started its business in Japan in 1937 and it had introduced its first U.S. based product in 1965 and the product was Toyota Carona (Toyota Motors, 2012). Soon the company succeeded to promote its brand in different countries particularly in USA. After getting fame in U.S. In 70s, it started manufacturing its vehicles in the U.S. At the start of 80s. After 59 years of its corporation, it was a globally recognized brand till 2006, and was the second most selling vehicle brand of the world. But every one guessed it at that time that Toyota is soon going to capture the number one position. And in 2008, Toyota came up as the "Number One" car manufacturer and seller not only in the U.S.A., but in the entire world. This was just a start of Toyota's journey to success and there is much more to happen in the future (Toyota Motors, 2012).

Mission statement of company:

Toyota's mission statement is as follows:

As published on the official website of Toyota, (2007) "To sustain sustainable growth by providing the best customer experience and dealer support."

It is clear from the statement from Toyota that its main focus is "Customer's satisfaction" and this inspires Toyota to provide high quality products along with the leisure and peaceful drive. Toyota is working on a single word which is "Kaizen," the word Kaizen means "Continuous Improvement" not only in its products, but also in its technology, value added services and other services (Peter, 1996).

Elements of Marketing Strategy for Toyota:

Toyota's segmentation and target market are based upon the philosophy it believes and that is, "Right Car in the Right Place" and also for the right person. Toyota is using different segmentation classifications i.e. Demographic, Psychographic, Geographic. For instance, Toyota has segmented almost all the countries of the globe to make its market over there. While doing this, Toyota has also identified its mainly focused markets, for example U.S., Canada, EU, Australia, China, Indonesia, etc. However, USA is one of the major markets of Toyota where it has up to 30% of its total consumers. In the U.S., it has targeted its markets. Toyota has targeted from Economy class to lower class. Toyota has also developed specific car for middle class people and for those who love luxury cars like the Lexus. Similarly one of its brands the Prius is produced for the environmentally sensitive people. In fact, the marketing strategy, market segmentation, market targeting, and market positioning of Toyota cars is based on the "care" of its users and it can be clearly seen in its variety of offers and product attributes (Dobni, 2002).

Market Segmentation:

The marketing strategy, market segmentation, target market, and market positioning of Toyota cars is based on the "care" of its users and it can be clearly seen in its variety of offers and product attributes.

Currently Toyota is focusing on two segmentations:

Demographic Segmentation

Psychographic Segmentation

In the first segment of Demographic, Toyota has targeted the family size and in this segment people of Upper Middle High Income group is kept in view by Toyota. Land Cruiser, Parado, Camry is some major cars of this segment which are designed for those who have the willpower and buying power to purchase these cars (Drummond & Ensor, 2005).

In the second segment of Psychographic, Toyota has targeted the family size and in this segment people of the high class, a high income group who have sporty attitude, is kept in view by Toyota such as Toyota Altis Sport model and Toyota Fortuner. SUV, MUV and Sedan are its examples (Toyota Motors, 2012).

Market planning:

Toyota has adopted three basic fundamentals to develop an effective and efficient market planning and those three elements are:

Green

Safety

And low operating cost.

Toyota has also invested heavily on safety in their cars. As the globe goes green and clients call for an appropriate response from their car manufacturers, Toyota have responded by investing in hybrid cars like the Prius. With the help of these three important factors, Toyota has become successful to gain maximum advantage from the market base. On the whole, there seem more opportunities for Toyota than threats. However, there are some threats that cannot be denied (Armstrong & Kotler, 2003).

Segmentation Criteria:

Toyota is using "Adjacent Segment." It is a segmentation strategy which allows a company to continuously increase its market share and grow its customers. At the start, subcompact cars were the targeted strategy adapted by Toyota, which were small and easy to buy vehicles. Now, with the use of adjacent segmentation strategy, Toyota is able to move from one specific car manufacturing to another, relative to large cars, such as a station wagon. Toyota first expands its market by introducing Sedan cars which are large and luxurious than its previous cars (Armstrong & Kotler, 2002).