GROUP PROJECT MARKETING MANAGEMENT II

MARKETING STRATEGY FOR TOYOTA

GROUP-B ALOKIK JAIN 2012PGP006 ANKITA KUSHWAHA 2012PGP011 ANURAN MUKHERJEE 2012PGP016 ARNAB PRAMANICK 2012PGP019 BHASKAR.K 2012PGP024 HRISHIKESH MUKHERJEE 2012PGP039 SAVITHA.B 2012PGP050

Title of project: - Designing marketing strategy for TOYOTA to win back customer loyalty after 2010 recall of Lexus and Prius cars Marketing decision problem:In early 2010, Toyota recalled 10,000,000 cars due to accelerator pedal problem. Toyota faced the immediate problem of drastically reduced sales and people shying away from Toyota models leading to the following marketing decision problems: a) b) c) d) Rebuilding customer loyalty To reach out boldly to customers and rebuild its brand Creating awareness about the improvement in quality in the newly rolled out batch of cars Come up with creative marketing and advertising strategy

Justification:Toyota, under the leadership of Okuda, in 1998 pushed hard toward the target of doubling its global market share to 15%. It means that Toyota has to surpass GM as the global volume leader. It is difficult for any organization which aspires to be a Numero Uno in the global automobile segment and simultaneously hold on to a focus of providing the highest quality. Toyota managers put great pressure on suppliers to increase their capacity without listening to their concerns about the possible effects on quality. One factor in their growing listening difficulties arose from Toyota's rapid expansion; relatively inexperienced Toyota managers, with greater frequency, were put in charge of supplier relations. Along with Toyota's rapid growth came an expansion of its product line, incorporation of more and more complex electronic systems, and a great increase in the use of common parts across models on a global stage. In addition, there was unrelenting pressure on engineers to cut costs. All these changes and pressures required a huge increase in engineering man hours. Without sufficient growth in engineering resources, Toyota's development engineers became spread too thin. Overworked engineers make errors. In January 2010, Toyota had to recall 10 million vehicles because of a faulty accelerator pedal design. New-car sales were down in January, 2010 and the report states that the number of people seeking to buy Toyotas has dropped by a third since the recall. So, Toyota has to win back the customers in order to achieve its target of becoming global leader. Though they fixed the problem, Toyota had to devise a marketing strategy to reach out to the consumers and rebuild its brand.