Toyota’s Marketing & CRM Strategy
Toyota might have gotten its start in auto making by being a speedy follower, but it is now the innovator. In the year of 1936, Toyota accepted following Chrysler’s landmark Airflow and patterning its engine after a 1933 Chevrolet engine. But by 2000, when it introduced the first hybrid electric-gasoline car, the Prius, Toyota was the leader. In 2002, when the second-generation Prius hit showrooms, dealers received 10,000 orders before the car was even available; GM followed with announcement that it would enter the hybrid market with models of its own.
Toyota’s strategy for Prius was to build an environmentally friendly car which diminished the footprint on the environment by reducing energy consumption, greenhouse gas emission rates, and smog emission rates. Toyota president Fujio Cho sees environmental performance as necessary to the prospect of cars. Toyota offers a full line of cars for the U.S. market, from family sedans to sport utility vehicles to trucks to minivans. Toyota also has products for different price points, from lower-cost Scions to mid-priced Camrys to the luxury Lexis.
Designing these dissimilar products means listening to dissimilar customers, building the cars they want, and then crafting the marketing to reinforce each make’s image. For instance, Toyota spent four years carefully listening to teens before launching the Scion for first-time car buyers. It learned, for instance, that Scion’s target age group of 16 to 21 year olds wanted personalization. To meet that preference, Toyota will build the car mono-spec at factory and let customers at dealerships choose from over 40 customization elements, from stereo components to wheels and even floor mats. Toyota markets the Scion at music events and will have showrooms where young people feel comfortable hanging out and not a place where they just go stare at a car, said Scion vice president Jim Letz.
Toyota’s sales rose in every region of world in 2003, and the company earned $146 billion. It edged past Ford Motor Co., to become the world’s second-largest carmaker, and its market cap of $110 billion is more than that of GM, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler combined. Toyota is now eyeing the top spot, with a goal of surpassing GM as the world’s largest carmaker by 2014.
Required:
Question1. Define the following term with the help of authentic examples:
i) Total Customer Value
ii) Customer Satisfaction
iii) Customer Relationship Management.
Question2. Explain how Toyota can make use of information technology to develop and manage customer relations.
Question3. Describe the significance for Toyota to respect the privacy of its customer information.
Question4. Explain how Toyota can measure the success of its customer centred initiatives.