Case Study Of Toyota Prius

Toyota is currently the biggest car maker in the world. Toyota’s production model has been for long the envy of Detroit’s big three and the benchmark for the auto industry. The auto market in the US has showed signs of improvement, a sign of encouragement for the company (Toyota History: Corporate and Automotive, 2011). Toyota has invested billions of dollars to develop manufacturing capabilities and supplier networks to supply those markets. Toyota has many comparative advantages over it peers: a strong operational model that generates high margins; a strong global brand synonymous for quality and a

Once the market introduction stage was over for the Prius, other car manufacturers started exploring the hybrid market. These manufacturers consisted of Ford and General Motors. While they were new to the market Honda, an already existing competitor, was coming out with more hybrid models offering one of their best sellers the Civic in a hybrid model. Once this happened Toyota had to take a difference approach for the Prius, now that there was more competition, Toyota needed to distinguish the Prius. Positioning is considered to be what consumers think about your proposed or current products in the market. Toyota needed to come out with a new marketing strategy to distinguish them, in a now crowded market. Toyota decided to present their Hybrid Synergy Drive to the market in 2003. The Hybrid Synergy Drive powertrain was capable of operating on either gas or electric and also both together to give optimum performance and power to the hybrid model. The Toyota Prius earned s few accolades consisting of best-in-class fuel economy and best-in-market fuel emissions performance. Toyota also lowered the costs of their

Toyota grew at a record speed and could not keep up with the speed in which it was growing. They are a centralized company and Japan only made the decisions. This prevented the company to keep up with the safety problems. The process that Toyota external suppliers follow when improving product and making sure the product is functioning properly before shipping to Toyota needs to be improved before they release the product from their warehouse to be sent to Toyota. This problem began when the company started to rapidly grow. Toyota’s lack of communication led to the faulty gas pedal recall.

As we know, Toyota is a competing and leading in automobile organization industry, they have key success factor in the automobile industry. They are

Toyota was thought to be the best quality car in the 1970s and 1980s but, due to Japanese competition, American car manufactures soon began to close the rankings gap. At the top of their game in 2010, Toyota had to stop manufacturing and order a large recall of automobiles. While leadership was probably considered great at the height of Toyota’s success, changes were obviously needed during the recall period and management needed to be as adaptable to those changing conditions. The only thing regarded as permanent in a market economy is change

Exciting and fun to drive are not the first words that typically come to mind when the car of discussion is the Toyota Prius; but should they be? Most people associate the terms hybrid, conservative, and gas efficient solely with the Prius. However, is this simplistic general consensus of the car an accurate description of what the vehicle actually offers? Is the Prius just a “great car” because it is a hybrid or is it a great car that just happens to be a hybrid. Typically, the criteria used to determine whether a car is great or not is the performance, aesthetics, and the economic value of the vehicle. The Prius is a great car because of its exceptional performance, attractive aesthetics and great economic value.

The last several years were also tumultuous for the U.S. auto industry. After dominating the market for decades, American automakers had grown complacent about product development. At the same time, rising gas prices and uncertainty about the economy caused consumer preferences to shift from SUVs to more fuel efficient vehicles. Foreign competitors entered the U.S. market offering more reliable, higher quality and more fuel efficient vehicles at a lower price and began to steal market share away from American automakers. In order to remain competitive, U.S. automakers need to focus on increasing production efficiencies and developing innovative product offerings. Firm Analysis

Should the new Toyota president accelerate the launch scheduled for the Toyota Prius? The plan to introduce the car “at the end of 1998 with expected production of 1000 units per month…” (Reinhardt, Yao & Egawa, 2006) is an extremely aggressive and ambitious goal; but, is it in TMC’s best interest to speed up the planned launch? There is no doubt that the new president (Hiroshi Okuda) is under extreme pressure to compete in a global market, he believes the company should radically alter its image to attract new customers and gain a competitive advantage while systematically facilitating environmentally-socially responsible practices. It may very well be that TMC should push for a faster

The introduction of Toyota Prius was not just a short term goal. Toyota had much broader goals.

Toyota is often criticised for better at imitation than invention. As compare to its rivals Toyota focussed more on the factory floor rather than showroom i.e. process innovation rather than on product innovation.

Toyota is a key player in global automotive market. Its structure constitutes if various production plants in different locations and a very strong branding which helps it capture a major market share. Like other enterprises, Toyota has several strengths and weakness which makes it what it is now. Toyota heavily invests in Research and development which helps it come up reputable product line which is spread out throughout the world because of its strengthening global distribution network however its recent product recalling, loose grip in key geographic areas and wrong allocation of resources shows that even a strong brand like Toyota has its weaknesses.

Publics: The government encouraged the consumers to buy environment-friendly cars with tax incentives. Toyota spends only about €15m for promotion of the Prius from a €400m budget. The media spread the idea of environment-friendly cars and after a while it became a trendy to drive in environment-friendly cars. Toyota tried to build up a linked image between being environmentally friendly while driving the car.

Toyota advances the United States in motor vehicle production because the country has devised the proper strategies in importing valuable technologies for manufacturing; they have excelled in building the appropriate labor pool; along with skilled management professionals, as they have marketed their products successfully in the home market for Japanese transportation needs.

Providing the largest selection of hybrid vehicles in its make, carrying a reputation for reliable cars, and by being one of the first car manufacturers to enter the hybrid market, Toyota was successful in grabbing a large market share in the small segment. By capturing the largest market share for hybrid vehicles, Toyota will not face as much difficulties when we enter the market of electric vehicles because its hybrid vehicles have proved to be a leader in innovating new opportunities for drivers. Toyota is a great example of concentrated marketing because it has successfully dominated a large share in the small segment of hybrid vehicles.

Thus far, our product strategy of successively expanding our model range, from smaller cars to luxury sedans, full-sized pickup trucks, large SUVs, and crossover vehicles has proved successful. In a bid to further extend our customer base, we have established the Scion marketing group, which will develop a range of vehicles targeting young, first-time car buyers. With respect to environmental issues, Toyota’s hybrid automobile Prius, which was introduced to the North American market in 2000, has been extremely well received and development is under way to launch our next-generation hybrid car. The Company intends to