Toyota Motor Corporation



Toyota Motor Corporation

Introduction

Every product and service has its own product life cycle that comprises of similar stages which remain the same for all products and services. The product life cycle consists of four stages that are Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline. It is very important for the businesses to be familiar with the PLC of the products and services being manufactured or provided by them, as the entire marketing strategy which includes Price, Product, Promotion and Place immensely depends on the stage of the PLC.

Market trends fluctuate every now and then and predicting a stable market is not very likely to be possible. With a massive increase in competition and innovation the market trends change rapidly. It is important for the businesses to understand the market trends in order to succeed and maintain their market share.

Discussion

Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the leading car manufacturers in the world and grabs the number one position in the list of top 10 companies in terms of revenue and is followed by a Volkswagen AG and Ford with a vast difference (Anderson, 1998). The revenue for the year 2009 was US$ 205,295.7 million. The company has its headquarters in Japan. The company offers a very wide range of vehicles for target market ranging from minivehicles to SUVs. The company has a global presence and caters to customers in 140 countries across the globe through its quality human resource of 264,000 people.

Market Conditions

An increase in the rate of inflation and a decline in the standard of living have been noticed in almost all the economies. Similarly, the U.S. Census Data has highlighted a prominent decline in the American economy. According to the information collected it can be said that between the years 2007 and 2011, the average income has fallen with a percentage of 7.7, with an increase of 15 percent in the poverty rate and an increase of 45 percent in the level of unemployment. The global automobile market has seen a downward trend. The growth in the industry has been fluctuating.

The major reasons for this are the change in the global economic conditions over the years, the adverse hit on the financial market and the inevitable volatility in the commodity and exchange markets. As concerns the volume in the industry, the compound annual growth rate for the industry between the period 2005 and 2009 has been 1.9%. When it comes to volumes sold in terms of demand for products, it has been viewed that the most dominating product category is passenger cars which account for 80.3% of the global automobile market. The remaining market is covered by Light Trucks and Motorcycles that have a share of 13.7% and 6% respectively.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Toyota is the biggest car manufacturer in the world. Hence, its position in the global market is secured.

The company has created an image for itself whereby the customers view it as highly responsible and high quality company. The company has not only created this image ...