Introduction
Without a doubt, Toyota is a trailblazer in the automotive industry. Toyota is among the leading motor corporation in the universe. It is a multinational automotive manufacturer with its main headquarters in Japan. Its production rate is approximated at 10 million cars per year (Ito, 2019). Kiichiro Toyoda established the company to improve Toyota industries, started by Sakichi Toyoda, father to Kiichiro. The company’s expansion is marked during the 1960s and 1970s, and it was in the period it recorded the highest number of exports. It also acquired such companies as Nippondenso, Hino, and Daihatsu.
Toyota’s great success rate is definitely due to some of its key strategic marketing strategies. The company uses Google ads to share its products with viewership to capture their interest. Among the adverts that help me understand our online ads. It involves a short video or copy that briefly explains the features of the company. At times the ads are streamed to be specific on a single brand. For instance, it can be based on explaining the features of the Toyota land cruiser SUV (Nkomo, 2019). The ads are restricted to Google and can be on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Strengths
- Toyota’s dominance in the automotive industry has been enhanced by its strategic marketing and management.
- The company has employed a market-oriented pricing technique. This strategy is more notable in most of its products, especially trucks and sedans (Ito, 2019). Such a strategy sets prices as per the actual and perceived value of the vehicle it is advertising. This works by pricing the normal vehicles at a relatively low price, and high-value vehicles such as Prius and Lexus cars are sold at high prices.
- Toyota uses high-level technology in the production of its vehicles and its advertisements. Toyota vehicles have high-capacity engines that can sustain rough roads. The warranty period of the vehicles is also guaranteed, making it a better option for most people.
- In its ads, the capacities of its vehicles are shown in the form of videos. The diversity in the services and products they produce makes the company w global icon. The company produces cars that are affordable to buy and maintain by all economic classes.
- The loyalty of most customers serves as a strong pillar of the Toyota company. Most people globally prefer to use Toyota cars always, and when changing from one car to another, they still opt for Toyota products.
Weakness
Though the Toyota company is highly profitable, it has its shortcomings that, to some extent, hinder its efficiency in production, promotion, and selling the products. As such, they include:
- A reduced amount of expertise in the various departments of the company, especially the production unit. This is due to the smaller number of trained engineers than the demand required. The company, therefore, has to slow its production rate.
- The company at times lacks adequate resources in terms of equipment, cash, machinery, and equipment to ease production (Nkomo, 2019). This affects the ability of the company to produce, advertise and sell the vehicles.
- Customer loyalty is questionable as some complain about the vehicle they buy from the company. Some raise concerns about the materials used that make the car sustain severe damage on a slight hit. This can lead to the company losing customers to competitors such as ford.
Opportunities
- Toyota’s main competitive strength is its brand whose performance has increased in an attempt to maintain a reliable reputation. Toyota is positioned in five strengths out of the seven strategies for building a superior brand.
- Toyota also is a global company whose aim is to enter international markets and expand its business. Its productivity is therefore expected to increase with the expected growth. It will also help it improve its business by extending its global production networks. It is also to expand aggressively into new market segments. The launching of a new model intends to take the market shares mainly from the youths.
- The company has also entered into collaboration with other leading companies to expand its business. BMW, and Mazda, among other companies, help it produce other car parts, thus helping in reducing production costs (Ito, 2019). It has also collaborated with other companies to produce diesel engines, thus enabling the company to increase its market shares and competitive advantage.
- Technology and innovation are also opportunities for development and growth for the company. It is always considered the pioneer of innovation spirit and commitment. The story of highbred cars, fuel-efficient cars, advanced communication systems for automatic driving, and the introduction of technologies in the manufacturing of vehicles are some of the innovations in the company.
Threats
- There exist intense market campaigns that grow the competition pressure. For this reason, they rarely advertise their products globally to maximize profits.
- The cost of raw materials and profit rates are affected by shifting exchange rates. Due to the high advancement of technology, the company also needs to advance at the same rate, thus making Toyota less competitive.
- Household funds are tightening, leading to a deterioration in car transactions and the possibility of rationalizing authorizations. Additionally, the number of family members is reducing, thus undermining the demand for family cars.
- Families are also using cars less frequently to take their children to school and home deliveries. Businesses are also restricting business travel and prefer teleconferencing.
- Increasing oil charges and the expenses of keeping cars due to fuel shortages affect the company’s operations.
- The possibility of dropping fuel prices owing to the mining of shale gas creates fuel-efficient hybrid cars as not as much of effective and good-looking.
- The government requires most investments to produce engines that are cleaner according to the new emission standards. This will mean less profit for Toyota due to more investments.
- Raw material prices are increasing significantly for automobile manufacturers. Higher prices will mean increased costs, thus fewer profits for the company, for they depend on plain metals as the main component in vehicle manufacturing.
- The company has been paying taxes, which is approximately a corporate tax rate of 37%. This means that the weak performance of the company leads to high tax payments and high employee payments (Ito, 2019).
- Manufacturing facilities in Japan, Indonesia, and China face many natural disasters that disrupt manufacturing, thus decreasing the company’s production volume.
- The depreciated yen conversation rate. Utmost of Toyota’s income originates from overseas sales. The company is forced to sell its cars to China, which is affected by the yen depreciation. The dollar value of the vehicles has been increasing, though, which means that Toyota will import more cars, making it difficult to overcome its crisis.
Conclusion
Over the company, over time has grown to be among the best in the automotive industry with the highest sales. In 2008 it was ranked the largest automobile manufacturer globally, surpassing General Motors (Nkomo, 2019). The company’s growth and popularity are due to its low-cost, fuel-efficient, and reliable cars such as the Toyota Corolla. To date, the company remains to be a family property currently under Akio Toyoda as the CEO.
References
Ito, H. (2019). Analyzing Toyota City’s eco-policy through strategic marketing tools. Asian Social Science, 15(4), 23-36.
Nkomo, T. (2019). Analysis of Toyota Motor Corporation.