Company Case MKT 202 Essay

1. Microenvironmental factors involve actors, who remain close to the company and they affect the company’s ability to serve its customer. The company, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customer market, competitors, and publics all of these are part of microenvironment. Toyota Prius introduction and relaunch were affected by several microenvironmental factors. These factors are discussed below: a. Firstly, the Toyota Company itself was a major microenvironmental factor that affected its product at the very beginning. The marketing department of Toyota didn’t do enough promotional activities for its new vehicle. In a country like U. S. where as we all know all SUVs sell likes hotcakes, no one would really be interested to buy a dull hybrid car. Also the department involved in designing the product was too weak to attract customers at first. When it was launched people considered Prius to be small, cramped compact with a very dull design. Also due to its low horsepower, the pickup time was very long. The car took 14. 5 seconds just to go reach a speed of 60km/hr. No matter how much environmental friendly and energy saving the car was due to low promotional efforts by the company and also the dull design, the introduction of Prius was highly affected. Also, even if the car was worthy enough of a purchase because of its environment friendly quality and fuel saving, enough people didn’t hear about it. But later on, Toyota did make its new version and the marketing of the product was raised as the brand image developed. b. Secondly, as we all know, the presence of a competitor can really make it hard for a company to position its product well. During the time Prius was being launched it had to face, Honda as its competitor. Honda successful launched its insight even before Prius came to the market. Of course not to mention, vehicles like Hummer, Ford were already there before Prius to keep customer’s attention towards them. But Toyota did differentiate its product from its competitor on providing benefits which other competitors weren’t able to provide at a cheap cost. c. Third factor was the customer themselves, who were totally inclined towards the brands which they have been using all their lives like General Motors, Ford and others. So the international markets for Toyota in U. S. were pretty weak at first. But then again, as new version was developed with new style a design and as the car’s horsepower was improved it did get customer’s attention. 2. Macroenvironmental involves larger societal forces, which includes demographic, economic, natural, technological, political, and cultural forces. There were several macroenvironmental factors, which played a role in affecting the introduction and relaunch of Toyota Prius. The factors are discussed below: a. Firstly, demographic factors played a part in affecting Prius. Even though Baby Boomers and Gen X had people who were middle aged and old and were potential customers for Prius. But the Gen Y included the young bunches who were more into sporty and stylish vehicle, attributes which Toyota Prius lacked. Toyota simply didn’t speak Gen Y’ers language. But Toyota had been able to deal with it since people from Gen X’ers had environment conscious people who were a big market for Toyota. b. Secondly, cultural factors played a big role too. American culture has been prone in using 4-wheel drives and they simply didn’t want a weird looking car to be a part of their lives. Also, people view of society, under cultural factor, played a part too. A patriot American would buy his countries product rather than buying products from other countries. Another factor under culture is people’s view of organization. Companies like General Motors, Ford, Audi had a stronger brand image then Toyota during that period of time. As the time went, new version came out, Toyota was able to fit in the culture and the U. S. government on introducing various incentives on hybrid vehicles also helped it. c. Thirdly, technological factor. Technology has always been there making our lives a better and there has been so much competition in the market on providing superior technology that, some company have trouble to establish a image against those companies who have already established a strong position in the competition. Toyota was technologically inferior compared to its rivals like Audi, Ford, and GM. Also, Prius at its very initial stage was not the car which people took interest in driving because of its technical lacking. Low horsepower, high pick up time, dull design all of these affected its image. Toyota was able to deal with it on its new versions. 3. Toyota market strategy was first used on people who were techies. It focused on early adopters, techies who were attracted to the advanced new technology. Techies were so into the Prius that they started modifying it technically and paying a great deal of attention to it. Toyota was able to differentiate its product in a way that no other company could with such a low cost. That’s why Prius became the best car ever used in US. After absorbing large revenues from the techies, it used it second version to target a wider market segment. Toyota was able to serve the bigger segment which consisted of those people who were environmentally conscious and as well as those desirous of fuel efficiency. Toyota did an immense amount of spending on media to let people know about its second version. In future Toyota can improve its strategy by introducing the hybrid feature into several models of car it has and thereby making a greater sales in return. But it shouldn’t introduce the hybrid feature in all the cars, since if other competitors starts making the same kind of car and has better brand image, then Toyota can no longer differentiate its product. But as demand for hybrids go up, Toyota should maintain a steady production and invest on making other new types for serving other segments and maintain a balance.