Toyota company overview and business operations

¶ … marketing strategies of Toyota Motor Corporation. The writer explores the marketing strategies used in the U.S. And Japan and discusses why the market in China may be more receptive to the strategies used in the United States. There were five sources used to complete this paper.

The success of any product depends not only on the product itself but on the marketing of that product. If the public is not aware that the product exists or what the product can do for the consumer the product will not sell regardless of what a good product it may be.

Marketing is a crucial element in any company profit therefore marketing departments worldwide compete for consumer attention so that the product can be sold.

Toyota Motor Corporation has a worldwide consumer market therefore its marketing strategies are vital to its continued success. Anytime a company has a worldwide market it is important for the company to evaluate and understand various world cultures so that it can develop marketing plan for each area that will dovetail with the mindset and traditions of those cultures.

Toyota has recently struggled with the market for its motor vehicles in China and the time has come to evaluate and redesign the marketing strategies that it will use there.

While it has been leaning toward using similar strategies that it uses in Japan, possibly because they are both Asian cultures, the company would be better served if it were to begin employing the marketing strategies that it uses in the United States.

Marketing in U.S. And Japan

Experts in the field of marketing acknowledge there is a cultural and therefore mandated difference in the marketing techniques that are used in different areas of the world. Marketing in Japan is much different than the marketing that is practiced in the United States. Toyota sells in both Japan and the U.S. therefore it had to develop two different marketing plans to sell vehicles to the consumers in each area (Montgomery, David (2006) Comparative strategies in marketing (http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/community/bmag/sbsm624/sbsm62428a.htm).

When Toyota initially moved toward the vehicle marketing need in China, it made the mistake of assuming because China is an Asian culture it would respond more favorably to the marketing strategy that the company had been using in Japan instead of the strategy being used in the U.S.A. And that decision created reduced sales in China for several years. Recently however, the company made the decision start anew and begin using the same marketing strategies that it had been using in the U.S. And the sales in China exploded.

This example illustrates the importance of studying the markets and designing strategies that will dovetail with those markets for sales (Montgomery, David (2006) Comparative strategies in marketing (http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/community/bmag/sbsm624/sbsm62428a.htm).

For one to understand how the switch to U.S. marketing strategies worked for Toyota one needs to understand the basic differences in the two cultures with regard to business.

American business leaders tend to see a 7.2year horizon, he has found, while for the Japanese, the horizon is 8.6 years. American firms prefer alliances with other American companies, their second choice, Japanese firms, ranks far ahead of firms from Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy combined (Montgomery, David (2006) Comparative strategies in marketing (http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/community/bmag/sbsm624/sbsm62428a.htm)."

Studies have indicated that American firms and Japanese firms take completely different pathways when it comes to creating business alliances.

When Toyota went into Japan it made the decision to tie in the currently popular hip hop market to the vehicle market. It did so by blending several products into the marketing of the Toyota vehicle. One example was the use of a brewery product in a marketing plan for Toyoto. The idea was that the young adults in need of a vehicle would respond favorably to a blended marketing plan that utilized both products (Treece, 2002).

Toyota has stated that the strategy has helped it reach its target audience and that the concept was a success however when it tried to use similar strategies in China it was not successful.

In America however, the key to marketing strategy is aimed at attracting the baby boomer and the mother to the new products off the factory line. It is a concept that has proven to be successful both in sales and popularity of the various models of vehicles for sale.

Part of the success may be in the fact that the target audience of the United States consumer market is generally in a better financial position to purchase a new vehicle than the younger set that the Japanese market targets (Mazda Aims to Rev Up Sales With New Demio/Mazda2

Tags: Demio, Japan, Mazda Motor Corp, Sales, Sales Force Management, Sales Strategy

Research by David Montgomery (http://www.bnet.com/2407-13071_23-93482.html).

When it comes to the younger consumer Toyota moved to establish an air of secrecy around the Scion both designed and priced to attract the younger consumer. With ads that as:

Pssst... have you heard about Scion (Scion bbX concept (http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/1270196.html?page=2)?" Toyota created an air of mystery which attracts young adults in any area of life (Scion bbX concept (http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/1270196.html?page=2).

Toyota also began holding parties, providing music and using other elements that are attractive to young adults to market its products in the U.S.(Scion bbX concept (http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/1270196.html?page=2).

China

When it came time to market the Toyota Company in China, Toyota originally decided to move toward the marketing strategies it had been using in Japan. This decision may have been based in the fact that China and Japan are both Asian markets, however, the culture of China is moving much closer to the American culture than the Japanese culture, which is something that Toyota did not examine or recognize when it began its marketing campaign in China.

One of the strategies used in the U.S. And ultimately in China was a strategy that compared the sales of Toyota other company cars throughout the nation.