How Toyota Conveyed Different Communication Styles - Essay Example

?Introduction Communication is a two-way process because it involves the source and the receiver (Weiten et al., . Once the receiver will receive the message he or she eventually creates a response to the speaker and vice versa. Communication is not only done verbally but non-verbally which includes human gestures in general. In business communication involves speaking, reading, listening and writing (Guffey and Loewy, 2010). All of them can be together or simultaneously done at one specific point in time. In this essay, the proponent chooses to expound some remarkable issues or challenges when communicating in writing particularly in the case of Toyota. The key issues facing managers when communicating in writing are tremendous and in this paper some important issues about them are presented. This paper also includes a brief comparison how Toyota and some of its competitors conveyed communication styles in their marketing strategy. How Toyota conveyed different communication styles There are various types of communication. Based on communication channel, communication can be verbal or non-verbal (Wood, 2011). The verbal communication includes oral and written. The good thing about oral communication is the existence of spoken words that eventually would include voice level apart from facial expression. This means that this type of communication primarily gives great importance on the words spoken. On the other hand, writing as another verbal communication includes written words that are effectively conveyed through letters, emails or snail mails. On the other hand, the non-verbal communication includes hand gestures, body posture, facial expressions and body movements. This specific type of communication focuses on conveying the message without applying words or written information. At Toyota, both verbal and non-verbal communications are employed. The company tries to use these types of communication in order to effectively obtain its success in business operation. Emails In the advent of internet and high-speed internet connection, Toyota tried to maximize the full potential and advantage of emails. Under verbal communication, the company is most often using emails or other related methods of conveying information to both its staffs and customers. Emails are necessary especially in Toyota’s highly complex business structure. This is one of the fastest ways its personnel could communicate and respond to the company’s business operation. Website Toyota uses its website in order to promote its offered products and services. In it, various specifications and other related information about its products and services are stored. Furthermore, it also stands as the company’s gate way to promote and create its marketing advantage all throughout the world via internet. Business letters Toyota is also remarkable when it comes to using business letters and other related formal letters for the purpose of implementing new policies and procedures. In this way, customers and employees are properly informed about the existing policies and procedures that are currently implemented by the company. Mobile phones Having the communication done through mobile phones is the daily scenario at Toyota on how its business operation performs. Mobile phones have become everyone’s easy way to have access to life’s vital need for communication on a day to day basis. This does not only apply to Toyota’s employees but more in particular to its prospective and existing customers. At Toyota, it is easy to conduct follow ups and other related prior and after sales services via text messages or calls through mobile phones. Social network sites Today, various marketing strategies are implemented in order to convey different information to prospective target audience. For instance, there are various ideas about Toyota and its offered products and services that could be obtained in various links from social network sites like Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and more. These are created by the company in order to convey specific information regarding with its business in general. Memos and written corporate communication Toyota primarily uses newsletters and other related written corporate communications that are vital to its success. In using them the company is not only communicating with its personnel but directly to its individual target customer. However, such strategy should not be purely relied on because in the first place, people most likely do not have much time to read all about news. Thus, there is just a small amount of chance that Toyota will be able to promote its products and services with its newsletters. On the under hand, written memos on the bulletin boards have become one of the most important sources of information among its employees especially on how they will be guided with their respective functions. For instance, most of the time written memos had specific subjects about the policies and procedures of the company. In this, employees are widely informed about the subject matter required for their better guidance and function at work. The good thing about written memos is the fact that people are eventually informed about its importance for the company’s success and eventually in their performance. The memorandum of agreement in the case of Toyota is a significant tool how an individual should be guided accordingly to come up with efficient and effective performance. Whatever that matters to people is mostly given with significant focus or attention. This clearly explains the fact why newsletters for instance can be less important than a memorandum of agreement for some people. The memorandum of agreement from the point of view of an employee specifically needs to be critically considered due to the fact that it is in line with his or her chance to stay longer in the company. On the other hand, newsletters may not have so much impact on some individuals because of time constraints and other related factors. The good thing about newsletters is the thought that it could stand as the company’s marketing strategy in order to promote its offered product and services. However, its impact does not necessarily be equal with the memorandum of agreement. Oral corporate communication The other types of communication used by Toyota can be based on style and purpose. Under this classification, there are two broad categories which specifically include formal and informal communication (Kansal and Rao, 2006). Toyota uses business or corporate communication that for many years have been proven reliable or effective. This type of communication requires specific format in order to consider it formal. As it is renowned company in Australia and all over the world, Toyota is remarkable with its corporate identity as one of the most effective companies when it comes to organizing things and putting everything in order. As a result, the company uses formal communication process in order to be consistent with its image as an international icon carrying a remarkable reputation as being organized together with its quality and cutting edge technology. In particular, Toyota’s formal communication approach may include the use of formal letters or other formal verbal communication approaches such as formal monthly or quarterly meeting in which the head personnel in-charge usually expresses the most important points for the company’s success. Such of this would include formal discussion on how to effectively reach the bottom line. Most managers are able to bring forward the issue on how to penetrate the products in the market by constantly analyzing competitors’ strategies and understanding customers’ needs. These two specific considerations on how to penetrate in the market usually are discussed in Toyota’s formal and corporate meetings. In the same way, it cannot be denied that this approach is constantly used because the current trend in the market is to understand customers’ needs and on how to create them (Kotler et al., 2006). This is evident in the current market trend in which companies are trying to create needs or demand for their product offerings. As a result, a company like Toyota is always willing to create needs for their product offerings in a more specific and formal way. Such move usually went through deliberation using a formal communication process among stakeholders, managers, and company’s concerned personnel. The deliberation process includes formal meeting approach in which every concerned has the right to formally voice out his or her opinion of the subject matter. This only shows that formal communication is playing a great part on Toyota’s success. On the other hand, the other category in communication based on style and purpose is an informal communication. Unlike the formal communication, an informal one does not specifically follow formal rules or guidelines. There is no specific boundary so as to what are the topics to be discussed but for as long as two or more individuals agreed to have discussed them in an informal manner. This communication therefore requires a strong rapport between concerned persons. At Toyota, employees or staffs are encouraged to contribute their best for the success of the company. One specific case is engaging the whole team in communication. One particular example is a conversation among staffs or employees on how to increase product quality. At this point, it is important to brainstorm information or ideas, and thus there is no specific requirement of how much time should be allocated for it, for as long as the whole teams will eventually come up with one specific idea that will turn out to be profitable for the company. At this specific process, the entire activity is just about communication and it does not necessarily require that the team should be formal about addressing their opinion or ideas. The point is just to come up with specific idea that is feasible to be transmitted into profit. Brainstorming of ideas does not need to be formal in the case of Toyota because the purpose is just to discover another quality related issues based on experience and the ongoing market trend. In this case, the marketing personnel and production team may well coordinate but the communication process does not need to be formal because it might not be necessary to set some rules or guidelines on what to address in a group. The whole activity may happen among individual even if they are on the process of doing a specific task and so on. One specific scenario may happen in the production department. A certain personnel may eventually voice out specific discovery in the middle of development a product. This may instantly be shared with other personnel and eventually they may be engaged with informal communication in an instant. Analysis Communication eventually connects people’s lives. Its impact varies depending on what level or type of communication is conveyed. Formal communication has its way for formal events and in the same way the informal one. The verbal communication has its way to varying receivers in the same way with non-verbal one. Toyota substantially combines all of these basic communication styles in order to create remarkable impact. In today’s fast-changing world where complex changes are everywhere, Toyota has proven its worth in great detail by the quality of communication it provides with its target audience. The first remarkable point to prove this is its ability to integrate written and oral communication may it formal or informal into its management and marketing strategy. The second point is its ability to integrate non-verbal communication in both of its management and marketing strategy by understanding the social context of communication. Toyota connects with the things that are part of being human. In this way, its communication has eventually created a great impact on the human experience as it tries to promote its cutting edge technology. This would have been impossible if Toyota does not have much great effort placed on understanding the importance of communication for its success. As it can be observed, the written communication cannot be eliminated in the company’s communication process (Stuart et al., 2007). This is widely seen at Toyota’s case. This implies that the written communication specifically plays an important role in the company’s success may it be formal or informal. As stated earlier, communication process may also include reading. It is important to understand that not all individuals are able to read smoothly. Furthermore, not all individuals have the affinity towards reading. It is in this regard that communicating in writing has become a challenge. Furthermore, not all individuals are motivated to read and communicate in writing. However, not all individuals can freely express themselves in writing. Thus, communicating in writing especially if it demands a reply in the same manner can hardly be appreciated by the receiver. It is rather good to have it in verbal communication in a personal manner. A close door meeting perhaps will do. In writing, the whole emotion of the one who writes may be expressed, but it is hard to impart it in great detail with someone else. For instance, in an oral communication, the tone of voice can signify the mood of the speaker. However, this cannot be simply clearly illustrated in writing for the reason that it substantially requires one to be creative enough in order to specify the tone or mood. However despite of these, writing proves to be essential in business communication for many years. In fact, plans need to be written in order to effectively communicate them during the implementation process (Smalley and Kato, 2010). In business communication, an organization learns to come up with clear, concise and purposeful business messages through its writing strategy (Guffey, 2007). Toyota for instance is able to use business letters in order to convey information effectively to its employees and even prospective and current customers. Memorandums of agreement are mostly initiated as the company’s way of organizing its entire operational activity. Excuse letters are normally used as a formal way of informing the company about the whereabouts of an employee. Letters of request and other related business writing activities are just some of the most important ways of the company in order to effectively contribute to its success in its operation. However, it is important to understand that it is not only written communication that is effectively used in an organization particularly in Toyota Corporation. There are different types of communication that Toyota eventually applies for its success. However, not all written communications have the same impact in all situations. The written communication has to be in line with people’s way of living, situation and function and the level of its connection with the concerned target audience. At Toyota for instance, the memorandum of agreement, and emails would matter a lot among its employees than newsletters. However, in marketing strategy, newsletter or the company’s website would matter a lot to other people because they could be used as external communication of the company, connecting it to outside source of information and its receivers. In either way, the impact may vary depending on the response of the receivers. In addition, as also discussed earlier, written communication may also have varying impacts depending on the needs of the receivers. However, what is significant in this case is to understand that not all written communications may work out well for Toyota due to varying circumstances. As presented earlier, there are situation when oral communication may it be formal or informal is preferable at Toyota. Thus, it is necessary that there is a need to clearly identify varying situations so as to understand why it is more appropriate to use written communication than any other types of communication and vice versa. How Toyota’s competitors conveyed different communication style The very obvious way to depict how Toyota’s competitors conveyed different communication style is through their marketing strategy. Advertising is a broad concept and it is successfully used by Toyota and its competitors for many years in order to promote their offered products and services, to gain significant market share, and ensure its competitive advantage in the long run. Advertising has remarkable impact on Toyota’s success considering that that it is consistently using it for many years. The same thing applies in its competitors. The thought that it is not only Toyota which is remarkably using advertising strategy but also its competitors proves that there are substantial benefits that advertising can provide with companies, which chose to use it for their advantage. Advertising is a form of communication (Kotler et al., 1999). In the case of Toyota, its advertising strategy needs to be in a written, oral form or both. In the case of its written advertising, there are various billboards, and websites for Toyota in all over the world and in the same way with its competitors such as Honda, Chevrolet, Kia, Ford and others. Their point of doing this is to provide the target customers with written communication about the existence of their new offered products and services. In other words, the written communication through websites, emails, internet links, billboards, tarpaulins and other related marketing paraphernalia stand as these companies way of promoting their products and services in the car industry. The more they promote their products through these marketing media, the more they have great chance in obtaining their market share. However, these companies eventually do not just rely on written communication. TV commercials for instance are very interactive because they may involve both oral and written communication in a formal, informal way or both. For example, in billboards the information or image is only two dimensional and without voice over or any other special effects. However, in websites, and other interactive product commercials, written communication is presented and further enhanced with voice over and other special effects. Toyota and its competitors are good at choosing verbal communication for years in both formal and informal way. This can be clearly observed how they organized their websites and various advertising or promotional activities. However, what is important is the point that they usually enhanced written communication with other related verbal communications. This only shows the fact that the written communication cannot just stand alone by itself but it needs to be integrated with other types of communication in order to enhance the quality or value of information. For many years, this has been one of the important strategies that Toyota and its competitors are using in order to specifically enhance the value they offer to their target market. The only difference in their approach in conveying different communication style is influenced by the kind of message they impart with their target market. For instance, Honda has specific target market and in the same way with Toyota. This has become the basis of what information they would impart and the corresponding communication style they should use. This is evident in their websites, ads and other related marketing strategies. Recommendation There are many things to be learned about communication. Thus, Toyota should include communication as a separate subject for the company’s learning and growth. It is not only enough to enhance its personnel with the new techniques and discoveries about cutting edge technology, but the very basic which is to understand how communication works for the success of the company is essential. In this regard, each employee of the company must be able to undergo further trainings about different types of communication so as to enhance their communication strategy in line with dealing with the fast-changing world. References Guffey, M. E. (2007) Business communication process & product. 6th ed. Connecticut: South-Western Cengage Learning. Guffey, M. E., and Loewy, D. (2010) Business Communication: Process and Product (with Meguffey.com Printed Access Card). 7th ed. Ohio: Cengage Learning. Kansal, B. B., and Rao, P. C. K. (2006) Preface to Management. New Delhi: Ganga Dhar Chaundhary. Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Saunders, J., and Wong, V. (1999) Principles of Marketing. 2nd European ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Smalley, A., and Kato, I. (2010) Toyota Kaizen Methods: Six Steps to Improvement. New York: CRC Press. Stuart, B.E., Sarow, M. S., and Stuart, L. (2007) Integrated business communication in a global marketplace. England: John Wiley and Sons. Weiten, W., Dunn, D. S., and Hammer, E. Y. (2011) Psychology Applied to Modern Life: Adjustment in the 21st Century. 10th ed. California: Cengage Learning. Wood, J. T. (2011) Communication in Our Lives. 6th ed. Massachusetts: Cengage Learning. Read More