1.
Introduction of Company, Brand Background, and
Industry
Toyota Motor Corporation is the world-famous
vehicle manufacturing company. Toyota Motor Corporation was found in 1937 by
Kiichiro Toyoda in Japan. In the beginning, the company's operations were
limited to Japan only. However, later on with success in the selected market
and high customer satisfaction towards offered products company decided on
expansion in the geographical segments. Toyota Motor Corporation is now
operating in more than 60 countries including Japan, China, Pakistan, the US,
and Oman.
Toyota
Motor Corporation has established assembling plants in different countries having
low-cost manufacturing resources e.g. labour and raw materials (such as steel,
cotton, cork materials, rubber, and resins). Toyota Motor Corporation's vision
is to provide innovative products in the targeted market to outpace in a
competitive environment. According to the current market reports, Toyota Motor
Corporation annually produces 10,634,000 units.
Toyota works in the automobile
industry which is highly competitive and dynamic as advancement in technologies,
changes in the economic condition of the consumer market and changes in
consumer behaviour bring changes in overall customers’ requirements and
preferences. Considering such a situation, Toyota Motor Corporation is focused on
customer’s satisfaction and experiences towards offered products and services. In
the present work, customer segments and profit for Toyota are discussed in
detail. Moreover, current customer experience and journey maps are also
presented for both selected customer segments.
Brand Background of Toyota Motor Corporation in more
than 60 countries
Toyota has been famous as the
world's market leader in the context of manufacturing and distributing hybrid cars,
as well as one of the biggest companies that have motivated the mass-market
implementation of hybrid cars throughout various countries around the world.
Toyota has, indeed, turned out as a market leader in the context of hydrogen
fuel-cell cars. Increasing worldwide sales of Toyota hybrid passenger car
prototypes has accomplished the 10 million breakthroughs by January 2017.
Toyota cars have been popular along with their durability and consistency,
quality, trade, as well as value. In fact, Toyota has become the first and
largest in the Japan automotive industry and has gained its second place in
whole over the world. Toyota also has a big market share in both the European
countries and the United States, in addition to its market shares amongst the
south-east Asian countries (Medium.com, 2017).
This brand recognition of
Toyota has supported by the principles performed by the company which is:
·
Taking part in
social development throughout the cars’ manufacture
·
Contribute to
society
·
Produce the automobiles
that could reach the needs of society as well as supplements the society’s
lives
·
Convey a source
in the societies that the company serve by producing jobs, generating profits
as well as paying all of the taxes, in that way, elevating the local economies
wherever the company operates
2.
Customer Segments and Profiles for Brand of Toyota
Motor Corporation in more than 60 countries
Toyota Motor Corporation deals with
a wide geographical segment. Therefore, its targeted market includes customers
belonging to quite different characteristics. Toyota Motor Corporation produces
different kinds of products with different features and pricing strategies to
meet customer expectations and fulfill their needs. Toyota vehicles are not
limited to household customers only. The company also provides heavy vehicles
for commercial transportation purposes. Considering variance in the
characteristics of customers, Toyota Motor Corporation has divided its general
market into various market segments and customer segments. The basis of
segmentation is demographic segmentation. The company has defined groups of
customers based on age, income, and social status. For instance, customers
belonging to middle-income families are grouped in a separate segment from the
customers belonging to high-income families (Marksberry, 2012).
i.
Middle-Income Customer Segment
In this customer segment, middle-income
families are selected for low price vehicles and some cheap automatic mini cars.
Customers are segmented based on demographic characteristics such as gender,
age, and income. Moreover, geographical segmentation is used to select
appropriate locations for the establishment of services outlets in Oman. Customer
profiles for this segment in the market of Oman are presented below:
Customer Profile for Middle-Income Customer Segment
|
Age
|
Above 18 to Adults
|
Gender
|
Male
|
Income
|
Middle Income in the index
e.g. OMR 23,000 to OMR 40,000 in Oman
|
Location
|
Developed Cities of Oman
|
Pricing Strategy
|
Affordable Prices
|
Feature for Vehicle
|
Mini Cars with some
automatic systems and attractive colours.
3-4 passenger seats, Reasonable quality, Useful life at least 15 years,
proper repair services, cheap rate spare parts.
|
Sample Models and Cars
|
Avanza and Vios
|
In this customer segment, Toyota Motor Corporation
will provide vehicles similar to Avanza and Vios that meets the customers’
requirements in affordable budgets. Customers belonging to this customer
segment in Oman are usually culture and social norms focused. Among middle-class
families of Oman, mostly females are not allowed to drive therefore company targets
males as potential customers for advertisement and selling purposes (Bhasin,
2018; Zandi, Sulaiman, Atiyat, & Naysary, 2013).
Current Customer Experience and Journey Map
Customers of Toyota Motor Corporation
are satisfied with the offered products and services as Toyota is meeting the
expectations of its potential customer segments. The customer journey with the
brand starts with the awareness stage and ends at the service stage. At the
awareness stage, potential customers get information about newly launched
vehicles of Toyota Motor Corporation. For instance, in the presented case of Saad
(a potential customer selected for journey mapping and experience mapping), he
got information about the newly launched car from an advertisement in a
magazine. In the second stage, he conducted research through the use of the
internet and analyze websites to obtain information about price, quality and
features of in-range vehicles offered by Toyota Motor Corporation. Then, while
visiting a local outlet he tried a free ride in the selected model of Avanza
and Vios. In the selection stage, he selected a car after evaluating and
comparing its features with alternative options. Then in the next stages, the
purchase is made by paying the price of the car. The last stage in the customer
journey is services that related to after-sale services such as repair and
maintenance services (Taylor, 2017; SINGH, 2018).
In these stages, various teams and service
providers of Toyota Motor Corporation facilitated Saad to accomplish this
customer journey with an excellent experience. Teams involved in this customer journey
to facilitate customers are the marketing team, sales team, accounts team, and
service provider’s team. Regarding this customer journey, Saad's experience is
presented as a customer experience map. Some emotions selected for this customer
experience map are excitement, happiness, unhappiness, angry, and neutral. Saad
as a customer was unhappy at the research stage as different websites presented
him with different details and opinions. While in the third stage of the test,
the customer was excited as sales teams provided him full opportunity to drive
the car for the free test. Although, at the purchase stage he was neutral. While
regarding the services stage, the overall experience of Saad (customer) was excellent
as he was given additional services for repair and maintenance onward to
purchase.
Recommendation
of Toyota Motor Corporation in more than
60 countries
Regarding the customer
journey and customer experience some recommendations are presented for
betterment in customer experience:
Research Stage
of Toyota Motor Corporation in more than
60 countries:
In the research stage, the
customer has unhappy because of conflicting information presented by websites
regarding products of Toyota Motor Corporation. The customer experience at this
stage can be improved by developing a website or creating a blog as an
authentic source of information for customers.
Payment Stage
of Toyota Motor Corporation in more than
60 countries:
At the payment stage, the customer was unhappy because
of the time taking process of documentation. Documentation related to the
purchase of a car should be prepared effectively in relatively less time.
ii.
Family Segment
Toyota has also targeted the
family-size, and in this context, this segment includes the population of
Middle High Income has been kept in view by this huge automotive company. The
biggest selling reported from this segment is the Toyota Avanza. For an
enormous family, Avanza provides for a total of 7 seats. On the other hand, for
a little family, Avanza provides loads of gear to stay with a few change
options. Right before propelling its vehicle (Avanza), Toyota has examined
rivalry on 4x2 low and 4x2 medium vehicles market place. Toyota's small vehicle
(Avanza) would confront straight contenders such as a number of city vehicles.
The market pioneer in 4x2 low vehicles segment around then was appeared to be
Suzuki. In Oman, the customers of Avanza are possibly been demographically
married, at youthful age (typical around 32.5 years old), along with high
education, whether they are workers or business owners. They have acknowledged
the fact that relationships with others, as well as satisfaction, are
significant things and they also eventually like doing some singular
activities.
The customer’s profile in the
context of Oman can be seen from the table below.
Customer Profile for Family Segment
|
Age
|
Parents at the ages of 18+
(adults) and their kids
|
Gender
|
Females & Males
|
Income
|
Middle Income in the index
e.g. OMR 23,000 to OMR 40,000 in Oman
|
Location
|
Developed Cities of Oman
|
Pricing Strategy
|
Affordable Prices
|
Feature for Vehicle
|
Minivan car with durable
materials, certain automatic systems along with the family-friendly features,
7 passenger seat requirements, best quality, long-lasting for at least 15
years, proper repair services, affordable rate for its spare parts.
|
Sample Models and Cars
|
Avanza
|
Observationally, the motives
behind what type of cars that they have purchased were: financial (price, oil
utilization for every kilometer, upkeep costs, along with the selling price),
exhibitions, limits (the total number of passengers’ capacity and complete
weights of the car itself might convey this explanation particularly referenced
by MPV purchasers) or else size and style (referenced by the customers of city
cars), as well as validity derived from the brand of cars. These typical
consumers needed a classy minivan car that provides the safety highlights,
features of its capacity, as well as comfy with less expensive expenses and
price. Avanza has been known as the Toyota hybrid product. The market
segmentation of Toyota for the hybrid vehicles would principally rely on the
features, as well as the services of the focused item. These hybrid products
are for the most part have got their own value from the eyes of consumers, as a
result of their low fuel utilization along with the capacity to utilize various
energy sources. This enables Toyota to target the family in the upper-income
salary category who have the choices which depend on the car’s utility, and of
course, the value for money (Madoh, et al., 2019).
Current Customer Experience and Journey Map
A journey that the customer
has with the brand would typically begin with the awareness stage and then ends
at the service stage (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016). Right at the
awareness stage, the prospective customers only getting some details around the
vehicles that they really want from the Toyota brand. As an example here, we
will present the case of Al Mahdi family which is the prospective consumer we
have also selected for the journey mapping as well as experience mapping), the
family has more detail pieces of information around the car that the whole
family wants from a television advertisement.
Next, at the second stage,
the family carry on the research by browsing on the internet, and then
investigate certain websites, with a purpose to get more information regarding
its price, quality as well as all of the features offered by the typical car
that they want offered by Toyota Motor Corporation. Then, at the time the
family eventually visit a local showroom of Toyota, the family got an
opportunity to try out a free ride in their selected model of Avanza. Then, in
the stage of selection, the family finally selected their favorite car right
after they explore more and also considering certain features offered by the
specific car, along with some other alternative selections. In the next stage,
the family purchases the car by giving the payment exactly as the price
required. This customer journey’s last stage is the services that related to
the standard of after-sale services such as overhaul as well as other
maintenance services.
Recommendation
of Toyota Motor Corporation in more than
60 countries
From the customer journey
along with the customer experience of a family as one of the market
segmentation of Toyota, there are some recommendations can be made, with a
purpose to improve the customer experience which are:
Research Stage
of Toyota Motor Corporation in more than
60 countries:
In the research stage, there
is a big possibility that the family might have experienced a little bit of
confusion. The reason might due to the fact that there are various types of
cars offered on the official website of Toyota. In addition to this, the Al
Mahdi family might also have browsed from other websites that provide some
pieces of information regarding a number of cars, and hence, the family found
more difficulty in choosing the most suitable one to fit all the
requirements.
In order to solve this issue,
firstly, Toyota could consider improving its official website to become easier
for all of its consumers to find the most suitable car that they really want.
Secondly, this giant company also should apply the proper Search Engine
Optimization to make its official website comes up as the first on the result
when its customers search for it. This would definitely influence the customers
and make them to only browse on the official website of Toyota rather than
searching for the car on other different websites.
In the selection stage of Toyota
Motor Corporation in more than 60 countries:
In this selection stage, the Al
Mahdi family might also get more confusing due to the fact that they need to
consider some features and capacity provided by various different types of
cars. For this issue, Toyota could improve its customer service to become more
excellent in helping out the customers to find the typical car that they really
want. The customer services could ask the specific requirements from the family
regarding the car that they want to purchase. Then, they could offer some
options for cars that will meet all the requirements of the family.
Payment Stage
of Toyota Motor Corporation in more than
60 countries:
In the stage of payment, the Al Mahdi family might get
a little bit unsatisfied feeling due to there might be some complicated
documents that they need to submit to Toyota before they would finally get the
car that they want. This would happen more potentially in case if the family
does not have enough time to do this documentation process in the showroom.
In order to solve this, Toyota could offer Al Mahdi
family to serve them at their own home. This simply means that Toyota would
assign some of its customer services or staff to visit the house of the family
and perform the process of documentation, along with the payment as well. This
could make the family happy since they would not have to make time to visit the
showroom for this process. In addition to this, once the entire documentation
processes have completed, then Al Mahdi family would be able to get the car
that they have been dreaming, and therefore, they would be satisfied with the
services provided by Toyota. One thing to be noted here is that it is extremely
important for any type of company to maintain the satisfaction of its customers
since it would surely lead and maintain the customer loyalty to the brand
itself.