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Assignment on Toyota Motor Corporation in more than 60 countries including Japan, China, Pakistan, the US, and Oman

Category: Business & Management Paper Type: Assignment Writing Reference: APA Words: 3100
  1. 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.

    References of Toyota Motor Corporation in more than 60 countries

          Bhasin, H. (2018, 03 06). Marketing Strategy of Toyota – Toyota Marketing Strategy. Retrieved from www.marketing91.com: https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-strategy-toyota/

          Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of marketing, 6 (80), 69-96.

          Madoh, A., Alenazi, J., Alkhamees, L., & Panwar, A. (2019). Case Study on Market Mix Strategies of Toyota Motor Corporation. Asia Pacific Journal of Management and Education, 3(2), 70-78.

          Marksberry, P. (2012). The Modern Theory of the Toyota Production System: A Systems Inquiry of the World’s Most Emulated and Profitable Management System. CRC Press.

          Medium.com. (2017). How Toyota Became The Most Valuable Car Brand Worldwide. Retrieved December 2019, from https://medium.com/the-mission/how-toyota-became-the-most-valuable-car-brand-worldwide-ef11a7838544

          SINGH, P. (2018, 06 11). Toyota Business Model – Managing Business Operations. Retrieved from pradeepsingh.com: https://pradeepsingh.com/toyota-business/

          Taylor, J. (2017). Toyota’s Supply Chain Management. Retrieved from www.essaytyping.com: https://www.essaytyping.com/toyotas-supply-chain-management/

          Zandi, G., Sulaiman, M., Atiyat, H. M., & Naysary, B. (2013). The Strategic Planning Process and Current Practices: A Comparative Empirical Study of UMW Toyota Motor and Chemical Company of Malaysia. Asian Social Science, 9(9), 1-12.

          Text Box: Stages


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