Effect of Recall on Toyotas Brand Image and Consumer Confidence - Research Proposal Example

Effect of recall on Toyota’s brand image and consumer confidence Table of Contents Introduction 2 Toyota 2 Research Question 4 Research objective 4 Literature Review 5 Research Methodology 5 References 9 Bibliography 10 Introduction Automobile industry is one of the largest industries in the world. It is often said that automobile industry is the “industry of industries”. Over the past decade several researches and studies have been conducted on the industry in order to know it more closely. Toyota, one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world has been an important subject of research over the past decade. Number of researches has been conducted to find out the reasons behind the success of Toyota. However this time a research will be conducted on the failure of Toyota. It is crucial to prepare a proper research proposal before conducting the actual research. This paper is all about a research proposal regarding Toyota that has recalled millions of its cars from the market due to some technical problems in some the car parts. The chosen title of the research is “Effect of recall on Toyota’s brand image and consumer confidence”. The research proposal includes the research question, research objective, literature review and research methodology. This proposal also provides a brief overview of Toyota Company. Toyota Toyota, founded in 1937 is the largest automobile manufacturer in the world in terms of number of sales. It is a Japan based company that employs almost 3, 20, 808 people throughout the world. The company has its presence in almost all the major markets in the world. In the last financial year the total amount of sales of Toyota cars is found to be 20,529.5 billion yen. Total number of Toyota cars that were sold in this financial year was 7,567,000. 397.05 billion yen, is the total capital of the company (Toyota, n.d.). Recent global financial meltdown has badly affected the company’s performance. Its sales figure has significantly gone down because of this meltdown. Recently Toyota has recalled more than 5 million cars because of defective accelerator pedals, floor mats and brakes. According to ‘The Independent’, 5.3 million Toyota cars are recalled in North America. These cars have defective floor mats. Gas pedals in these cars have been jammed because these defective floor mats. Moreover 2.3 million cars are recalled because of having sticking gas pedals, but these are not related to floor mats. This is the biggest recall in the history of Toyota. According to the company, problem arises when accelerator pedal cannot be controlled because of having an incompatible and unsecured floor mat. This actually makes the cars difficult to control as well as to stop. In order to resolve the problem, the company has decided to replace the floor mats. It has also decided to reconfigure the gas pedal’s shape (The Independent, 8 February 2010). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of America has already criticized the company (Seligson, n.d.). All these activities have badly affected the brand image of Toyota. Being the market leader, Toyota must maintain its brand image. However more than maintaining, restoring of brand image is more important for the company. Consumer confidence has gone down due to the massive recall by the company. In order to restore the previous glory, the company must find out ways to improve the consumer confidence. This research will find out the effects of recall on the brand image of Toyota. The research will also identify ways through which Toyota can improve consumer confidence and restore its brand image. Research Question Research question describes the research problem. In this research the principle question would be “what is the effect of recall on Toyota’s brand image?” Another important question that the research will be answering is “what are those changes that have taken place in the consumer confidence after this recall?” Research objective Research objectives describe what is aimed to be accomplished by the research. Major objective of this research will be to find out the impact of the recall of Toyota cars on the automobile industry and Toyota itself. Another major objective will be to identify the effects of this recall on the consumer confidence. The research will also aim to find out the reasons behind the damage that has taken place on the brand image of Toyota. Brand image is one of the most important aspects of a global automobile company like Toyota. As a result if the brand image is affected, performance of the company will also be affected. One of the major objectives of this research will be to identify the impact of damaged brand image on the performance of Toyota. This impact can be understood when the present performance will be compared to the previous performance. Generally performance of an automobile company is reflected by its sales figures. So, performance can easily be evaluated by comparing the sales figures. Present brand image can be identified by interviewing both the customers as well as the dealers. One of the main objectives of this research will be to find out the present consumer confidence by interviewing them. It is also very important to identify the effect of recalling of the already launched cars on global automobile industry. Literature Review An automobile company is identified by the outside world through its brand. Brand and brand image are two most important factors that greatly influence the performance of an automobile company. Brand image is measured by the consumer confidence. As a result it is crucial to find out the consumer confidence in order to have a clear understanding regarding the brand image. In order to find out more about brand, brand image and consumer confidence it is very important to know all the theoretical aspects of them. A well structured literature review will include all the relevant theories regarding brand and consumer confidence. This literature review will be prepared by adopting the theories from the well known books on branding, scholarly articles and academic journals. All the relevant theoretical aspects of brand and consumer confidence will be included in this literature review. Research Methodology Success or failure of a research greatly depends on the methodology of the research. Research methodology is referred to the method in which the research would be conducted. It includes research approach, research strategy, research philosophy, time horizons and data collection methods. Research Approach Any research can be identified by the approach of it. There can be two types of research approaches, deductive and inductive. In this case of this research deductive approach will be followed. According to Hussey a deductive research is “a study in which a conceptual and theoretical structure is developed which is then tested by empirical observation; thus particular instances are deducted from general influences.” (University of Pretoria, n.d.). In this approach initially the research remain generic in nature and then gradually it becomes more specific in nature. Sometimes this approach is called as top-down approach. The approach of this research will be deductive in nature. Initially this research will focus on the branding and consumer confidence in the context of entire automobile industry, then gradually its focus will be shifting towards the Toyota. Such an approach will be helpful to understand the significance of brand, brand image and consumer confidence in the global automobile industry as well as impact of these factors on the automobile leader, Toyota. Research Strategy Researches can be classified into two distinct categories based on the strategy that is adopted. These two are empirical research and non empirical research. This research will be empirical in nature. As a result data that will be collected will also be empirical in nature. Empirical evidence of these data will be crucial. According to experts empirical evidence is “data based on observation or experience.” Data, in this research will be practical and experiential in nature. Research Philosophy Research, from philosophical point of view, can be classified into two different categories. One is positivist research and another is phenomenological research. In the first type researchers keep their focus on facts whereas in case of second type focus remains on the meanings. In positivist research philosophy, phenomenons turn into simplest elements. This research will be full of positivism. It will be based on facts and figures regarding the recalling of Toyota cars. However some parts of the research will focus more on meanings than facts. A portion of the research will focus on the brand and brand image. In this part ‘meanings’ will be more important as compared to hardcore ‘facts’. Time Horizons The time period during which the research will be conducted, is from July 2010 to April 2011. It will start from the month of July, 2010. Preparation of questionnaire and data collection will be completed by the end of November, 2010. After that, analysis of the findings will be done. Preparation of research report will start from early 2011 and the entire project will be completed by April, 2011. Data Collection Methods Data can be collected through two different types of research. These are primary research and secondary research. In primary research data are collected by taking direct interviews of the sample or by direct observation of the sample. Questionnaire is one of the most common tools of collecting primary data. On the other hand secondary data are collected from research articles, books, reviews etc. These can be available through internet, newspapers, televisions and magazines. Primary data is much more reliable in nature as compared to the secondary data. However collection of secondary data involves less cost and time (Kelly, n.d.). This research will be based on both the primary as well as secondary data. Primary data will be collected by interviewing the customers and dealers of Toyota. This interview will be conducted with the help of a questionnaire. Questionnaire will include both close ended as well as open ended questions. Close ended questions are usually easier to analyse than the open ended questions. All the questions will be on the recent recall decision of Toyota. They will also be made by focusing on the effect of this recall on the brand image of Toyota and on consumer confidence. Main objectives of the research will be kept in mind at the time of preparing the questionnaire as any wrong selection of question will lead to wrong results. As a result research objectives will be difficult to achieve. Secondary research will also be conducted in order to gather the required data. Secondary research will be conducted because it is a cheaper way to collect relevant and reliable data. In case of this research secondary data will be collected from various books, scholarly articles and research articles. Internet will be considered as the principle source of collecting secondary data. Apart from internet, traditional libraries will be visited with the purpose of collecting relevant data from books and journals. Once the required data are collected they will be thoroughly analyzed in order to achieve the desired research objective. References Kelly, M. No Date, Primary and Secondary Data, McKinnon Secondary College, [Online] Available at: http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au/vceit/infodata/primarysecondary.htm [Accessed on March 20, 2010] Seligson, S. No Date, Can Toyota Repair the Damage?, Bostonia, [Online] Available at: http://www.bu.edu/bostonia/web/toyota/ [Accessed on March 20, 2010] The Independent, 8 February 2010, Facts and figures on Toyota's massive recalls, [Online] Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/facts-and-figures-on-toyotas-massive-recalls-1893216.html [Accessed on March 20, 2010] Toyota, No Date, Overview, Company Profile, [Online] Available at: http://www2.toyota.co.jp/en/about_toyota/overview/ [Accessed on March 20, 2010] University of Pretoria, No Date, Deductive / Inductive, Research methodology, [Online] Available at: http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-07302006-065725/unrestricted/05chapter5.pdf [Accessed on March 20, 2010] Bibliography World News, 19 March, 2010, Recall may dent Toyota's brand image, say analysts, [Online] Available at: http://article.wn.com/view/2010/03/01/Recall_may_dent_Toyotas_brand_image_say_analysts/ [Accessed on March 20, 2010] Read More