Toyota company overview and business operations

Marketing

Toyota Company

Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., was started in 1957. It established its headquarters in a former Rambler dealership in Hollywood, California. Sales began in 1958 and sold only 288 vehicles by years end. Enthusiasm waned when it was discovered that the Toyota's first offerings in American were underpowered and overpriced for the market. It introduced the legendary Land Cruiser, which quickly gained a status as a durable, all-terrain vehicle. This vehicle carried the Toyota Company in the United Sates until 1965 when the Toyota Corona was introduced. The Corona was the first popular Toyota vehicle in America. It was designed specifically for American drivers. "With a powerful engine, factory-installed air conditioning and an automatic transmission, Corona helped increase U.S. sales of Toyota vehicles threefold in 1966 to more than 20,000 units" (Toyota U.S. History, 2011).

As more Americans discovered the excellence and dependability of Toyota products, sales continued to increase. By the middle of 1967, Toyota had become the third-best-selling import brand in the United States. Since then, Toyota has established many vehicle and parts plants in North America. In 2010, Toyota had the annual capacity to build about 2.2 million cars and trucks and 1.45 million engines in its fifteen plants across North America. These plants were located in California, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Missouri and Mississippi (Toyota U.S. History, 2011).

As Toyota's presence in America has grown, the company has engaged in a larger role in communities across the country. "In 1987 in order to commemorate the company's 30th anniversary in America, Toyota established the Toyota USA Foundation with a $10 million endowment and a mission to make Toyota a leading corporate citizen. Today Toyota is one of the top-selling brands in America and is very committed to continuous improvement in everything they do, along with breakthrough products for the future" (Toyota U.S. History, 2011).

Situation Influences

"Situational influences are temporary environmental factors that form the context within which a consumer activity occurs at a particular time and place a set of factors outside of and removed from the individual consumer" (Environmental and Situational Influences, n.d.). Five situational influences that affect people's buying decisions include: physical surroundings, social surroundings, task definition, time and antecedent states.

Physical Surroundings

Physical surroundings are the tangible physical and spatial features of the environment that take in a consumer's activity (Environmental and Situational Influences, n.d.). When consumers look at buying cars the physical surroundings in which they live play a big role in the type of vehicle that they buy. For example, for people who live in areas where there is a lot of bad whether they would buy a different car than those who live where it is warm all the time.

Time

Time has to do with the effect of time on consumer behavior (Environmental and Situational Influences, n.d.). Where one is in there lives also has an influence on car buying decisions. A person who is single and either in college or just starting out would tend to buy a different car than someone who is at a different time in their lives, say married with children. The particular situation in time that one finds them self in when shopping for a car is going to heavily influence the type of car that they chose.

Social Surroundings

Social surroundings deal with the other people who are present who could have an impact on the consumer's behavior at the moment. These are the effects that other people on a consumer while on is partaking in a consumer activity (Environmental and Situational Influences, n.d.). Social surroundings influence people's car buying decisions depending on what groups have the most impact on a person. If they highly indentify with their family and friends then they are likely to listening to suggestions from these groups. On the other hand if they identity more with a particular culturally group or social class then that might be the biggest influence on their buying decision. These social connections tend to play a lot into what people buy, even if they are not conscious of it while it is happening.

Task

Task reflects the purpose or reason for taking part in the buying or consumption behavior (Environmental and Situational Influences, n.d.). How task influences people's decisions for buying cars has a lot to do with what plans people have for the car they are purchasing. If they are strictly looking for a car to drive back in forth to work then a small, fuel efficient car may be the right choice. On the other hand if they are going to be travelling a lot with their family a bigger car may be what is needed.