Marketing: Toyota Prius: green or geek machine - Essay Example

In case of Toyota’s Prius launching, the company has developed its technological expertise. The primary aim of Toyota was to develop a fuel efficient car for consumers who are environmentally conscious. Prius is an efficient car with multiple facilities which attracts a large number of consumers. However, due to lower economies of scale, Toyota was unable to restructure its internal value chain activities to reduce the cost of Prius. However, Toyota has efficiently controlled its target consumers by implementing successful promotional strategies.

Dealers were also major factor that have influenced the introduction and sales of Prius. Toyota included the dealers and salespersons in promoting the car in market. It provided proper training to salespersons and they were responsible for educating the consumers. Overall effort of Toyota in promoting and introducing Prius in market was efficient and applaudable. Question-2 Outline the major macro-environmental factors that have affected the introduction and sales of the Toyota Prius. How has Toyota dealt with each of these factors?

Marco-environmental factors are external forces that affect the growth of an industry and its players. These factors are also knows as the PESTLE which stands for political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal and environmental (Drews, p.6) . In case of Toyota’s Prius, these six factors were very crucial for the company. The primary concern for Toyota was the technology. The technological advancement was the most important strength in introducing the eco-friendly car, Prius. The tech-savvy consumers were the major buyers of Prius as it offered latest technological advantages.

However, due to higher price and higher servicing costs many consumers were unable to afford this car although it was very fuel efficient. In this respect, government plays crucial role as it offers incentives to consumers for encouraging them to buy hybrid cars. Besides, hybrid car manufacturers including Toyota approached to governments for reducing taxes on hybrid cars. The primary objective of hybrid cars like Prius is to maintain healthier environments and Toyota’s technology for producing Prius was efficient in this purpose.

Question-3 Are most consumers ready to buy hybrids from now on? What are the main driving factors? What are constraining factors? There have been significant changes in consumers’ thought process and in their buying behaviour. The twenty-first century consumers are more tech-savvy and environmental concern. People have realized their responsibilities towards the environmental protection. Besides, government and international organisations like the Environmental Protection Agency have become stricter in controlling global-warming.

Hence, they are constantly pressurizing and encouraging buyers to use hybrids and other eco-friendly cars. However, in the global car industry, the demands of cars with high speed are higher. Besides, the prices and services cost is prime concerns for them that hinders the popularity of hybrid cars. Hybrid cars are as efficient as other cars in offering comfort, value spaces and power. Therefore, proper strategies and policies taken by governments and manufacturers may lead to increase the demand of hybrid cars.

However, the consumers are now becoming conscious regarding hybrid cars. Toyota has experiences a hike in its hybrid cars’ sales during 2010. “Toyota had sold 15,237 Auris cars by the end of the year, nine per cent more than