Toyota Case Study

Toyota is a Japanese automaker company founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937. It has been known for the quality vehicles with reasonable prices. Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) group companies are Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu, and Hino motors. TMC is part of Toyota group, one of the largest conglomerates in the world.

        Toyota was one of the successful automaker company. In a 2010 worldwide ranking of automakers, Toyota was ranked on the list with 8.6 billion units produced globally.

        However, in the past few years, Toyota has been facing the tough crisis. The Toyota incident of improper installation of mat and accelerator pedal made Toyota’s sale dramatically dropped and eroded the brand image.

1. Toyota had achieved the pinnacle in the US market by creating reliable, high-quality, fuel-economic cars. The past three years have seen that brand’s superiority erode. What can Toyota do now to recapture its market share? With Toyota’s new brands Venza and Yaris, can Toyota attract a new, younger market with new social media? How does Toyota break out of the stodgy styling of past brands―or should it?

In the past few years, Toyota’s sale has dropped significantly after the recall trouble. This situation eroded Toyota brand superiority. The report came as Toyota’s profits fell 39 percent in the December quarter (2010). The sale was hurt by the recalls and continued worries about its vehicles’ safety. One of the reason that caused this hard time for Toyota was the sticky accelerator pedals which provoked very high vehicle speeds. The company needed appropriate respond to recapture its market share and to rebuild customers’ trust. Toyota was delay in identifying and addressing the problem.

Firstly, It took them quite a long time to admit that the problem was their false. Moreover, the president, Akio Toyoda, made a delayed public announcement. This led the customers thought that Toyota hadn’t taken the problem seriously. To recapture its market share, Toyota should show the public how serious they see this problem as fast as possible.

Secondly, Toyota blamed some of its suppliers for the problem. This ruined the relationship between Toyota and its partner. Toyota had to care about the relationship with its partners.

With Toyota’s new brand Venza and Yaris, I think that Toyota can attract a new, younger market with new social media. Venza relied on personality and humor. Yaris relied on simplicity. These 2 new brands helped Toyota break out of the stodgy styling of past brands and attract new customers, especially the younger market such as students and first-jobbers because the price is affordable for this customers. Moreover, attracting new younger customers with social media seemed to be effective since younger people mostly spend their time on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter nowadays. These are vey useful channels to reach their targeted customers.