Toyota Prius: Green or Geek - Essay Example

? Toyota Prius: green or geek machine? Table of Content Answer1 3 Answer2 4 Answer3 5 Reference 7 Bibliography 8 Answer1 Microenvironment factors with respect to Toyota are research and development of the company itself, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customers, competitors, and also the public. After the successful launch of hybrid family car Toyota Prius, the company started facing several micro environmental factors that affected their business with respect to this car. Consumers of car always have been drawn to horse power, vehicle size and fuel sippers that were not likely to be seen on the roads. So, the company would think that this behaviour of the target customers may affect the company’s decision making for investing in this vehicle or not. Apart from the consumer preferences, another important factor is that the supplier of resources for manufacturing this hybrid car is more expensive. The company required to find out those suppliers who have enough time to build the hi-tech equipments, expertise and valuable resources for manufacturing of Prius. Demand of the new product among the target customers is also one of the most important factors as lack of demand would result inadequate return from the investment to this project. Toyota dealt with these micro environmental factors to make it hottest car in the market. The company started selling huge number of this hybrid model as price of gas increased at that time. This also helped the company to achieve higher economies of scale with the increasing of sales volume. Toyota spent €15 million for effective advertisement of the Prius. They have developed one blog site named as Priusenvy.com for this new hybrid car where many Prius owners and many potential buyers share their experience and queries. Apart from internet based marketing, there were print ads in magazines, newspapers, television ads. The company uses effective taglines foe the prelaunch promotion of the car which make the potential buyers more demanding of this car (Kotler, Armstrong, Wong, & Saunders, 2008, p.231). Answer2 Many macro environmental factors also affected the business of Toyota Prius like demographic, economic, environmental, technological, political and cultural factors. Demographic factor is that acceptance of the car by different demographic people. Prius is a car which can be positioned as a first car of people. So, potential buyers are the people who want to get a technological and advanced fuel efficient car. Price is also higher compared to first car that people buy. So, a niche segment of people is targeted for this hybrid car. But Prius became popular in its own segment of people who are early adopters of new technology (Lake, 2009). Economic factors can be related to the price of the car. Though the price is high but till 2007 there were no such external economical factors that affected the sale of this car. Global financial crisis after 2007 might also affect the automobile companies where demand of this model might also declined. Major environmental factors would be the emission of CO2. This is more environmental positive as it very much fuel efficient and also it need gas not petrol. This is the fast car that runs in gas and battery alternatively. But always want their neighbour to have environment positive car rather buying for themselves. So, this positive feature of the car might not boost the initial demand but in few years this features highly influenced its demand (Grewal, 2008, p.149). Toyota focused on the technology of the Prius and this is the USP of this car. The company expected the potential buyers of this first hybrid car to be the ‘techies’ people and the early adapters who generally want to get something new for making differentiation. Technology is only the factor which can make substantial difference especially for the automobile company. After the launch of Prius, the owners immediately started thinking about the benefit of the cares computer systems. Toyota shared the technological features of the car in the website of Prius where they also provided instruction for optimum use of the hi-tech dash board and computer system of the car. Display screen of dash board show the files from laptop, co-riders can play video games, and also the driver can see a rear view image of the back from a video camera attached in back side of the car. People can hook up electronic gazettes like mp3 player, mini disc player, laptop, TV tuner card etc with the computer network of the car. So, Prius is really an advanced hybrid car but these technological advancements might affect many buyers decision making for not buy as they might perceive it as not a user friendly car (Noel, 2009, p.20). Political factors also affected the initial demand of Prius as fuel saving capacity was not the key feature of Prius to convince people to buy only for this because price of clean fuel for higher mirage car was very high. So, the car companies asked for tax incentives to boost the purchase of clean fuels. Many governments provide tax incentive to the customers to purchase hybrid car. US government offers $2000 federal income reduction and government of UK provides reduced tax on initial purchase of hybrid car. These factors boost the demand of Prius worldwide. Answer3 Toyota targeted a specific segment of people who are so called early adopters or techies who want to access new technology just after the availability in the market. This marketing strategy for Prius was suitable and the demand for Prius started increasing among this niche category of people who also environmentally responsible. Recently marketing strategy of Toyota likely has changed as the company target the potential buyers who want reliable, affordable and roomy vehicles with better mirage for family needs. Toyota has done very effecting advertisement by educating people for the features and benefits of Prius. The features of automatic switching to battery charging in traffic signal make the working people more attractive who spent more time in traffic. For improving Toyotas marketing strategy for Prius, the company can focus on the improvement of the body of the car to make it sporty, fun and even they can come up with SUV category that would get higher appeal in younger generation. The company would reinforce on safety features and advancement of technology which would make it differentiates more among its competitors (Hoyer, Macinnis, Dasgupta, 2008, p.39). Reference Grewal. (2008). Marketing. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. < http://books.google.co.in/books?id=lX1k4e9VFHYC&pg=PA149&dq=consumer+behaviour+for+hybrid+car&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YBgFUJT_H4nprAfcz9DEBg&ved=0CGIQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=consumer%20behaviour%20for%20hybrid%20car&f=false>. Hoyer, D. W., Macinnis, J. D. & Dasgupta, P. (2008). Dreamtech Press. < http://books.google.co.in/books?id=WkHv7JEvxSMC&pg=PA39&dq=consumer+behaviour+of+hybrid+car&hl=en&sa=X&ei=IxYFUIX8BojTrQeBtqWxBg&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=consumer%20behaviour%20of%20hybrid%20car&f=false>. Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Wong, V. & Saunders, A. J. (2008). Principles of Marketing. Pearson Education, Prentice Hall. Lake, L. (2009). Consumer behaviour for dummies – “Understanding the roots of attitude inconsistencies”. John Wiley & Sons. < http://books.google.co.in/books?id=TvzD62snedgC&pg=PT122&dq=consumer+behaviour+of+hybrid+car&hl=en&sa=X&ei=IxYFUIX8BojTrQeBtqWxBg&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=consumer%20behaviour%20of%20hybrid%20car&f=false>. Noel, H. (2009). Consumer Behaviour. AVA Publishing. < http://books.google.co.in/books?id=mfiAGv3mnz4C&pg=PT21&dq=consumer+behaviour+for+hybrid+car&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YBgFUJT_H4nprAfcz9DEBg&ved=0CFMQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=consumer%20behaviour%20for%20hybrid%20car&f=false>. Bibliography Boone, E.L., Kurtz, L. D. (2011). Contemporary Marketing. Cengage Learning. < http://books.google.co.in/books?id=-e0Yt7AxEV0C&pg=PA167&dq=consumer+behaviour+for+hybrid+car&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YBgFUJT_H4nprAfcz9DEBg&ved=0CEUQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=consumer%20behaviour%20for%20hybrid%20car&f=false>. Lantos, P. G. (2010). Consumer Behaviour in Action: Real-Life Applications for Marketing Managers. M.E. Sharpe. < http://books.google.co.in/books?id=JemkYebV5NYC&dq=consumer+behaviour+for+hybrid+car&source=gbs_navlinks_s>. Read More

 

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