Toyota's Marketing Strategy in China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Toyota's Marketing Strategy in China - Essay Example Toyota was very optimistic that it would succeed in the Chinese market without a problem (Bremner & Roberts, 2006). But therein lay the problem. Toyota used the same marketing strategies that it had used in Japan to capture the Chinese market, which in the end did not work out so well for Toyota in China. Â  In retrospect, Toyota decided to then use the strategy it had used when entering and marketing in the United States and found that it had more success than it had when using the same strategies that it used in the Japanese market. There are quite a few reasons why the strategies used in Japan failed and why the strategies used in the United States worked well for the organization when entering, marketing and penetrating the Chinese market. Â  In this document, the author will look at the marketing strategies used by Toyota in the Japanese and United States markets. Then compare and contrast the two different strategies, analyze what worked in China and what didn't work and finally conclude why the strategy used in the United States worked for Toyota in China but the strategy used in Japan didn't work for it. Â  The Toyota auto company was founded during the World War II era in Aichi, Japan and since then has been a leader in the automotive industry in the country. During the war years, the organization is known to have manufactured trucks to keep the war effort in the country going. Â  Being a homespun company the organization had no difficulty in marketing, competing and penetrating the Japanese market and used many traditional methods of marketing at the inception and even today it uses a conventional marketing strategy when marketing in Japan in comparison to what it uses in the United States. Â  For one thing, the organization has always positioned its products as small, economical and of high quality in the market. Further, the organization is a local organization and did not have to battle with other international brands in a foreign country when marketing in its own country but marketed the product as one that was manufactured at home and created brand loyalty in that manner. Â  The organization sells its products through its dealerships that are manned by 40 - 50-year-olds and emphasizes on innovation and technology that is now becoming more and more green friendly. The high-end models like the Lexus are positioned as high-end luxury vehicles and don't need to be aggressively marketed because they don't face tough competition from the likes BMW or Mercedes Benz (Pollack, 1996). Â  Further the organization has been in existence as long as its chief competitor Honda and has overtaken the market in fuel efficiency thanks to some of its models like the Toyota Prius, which has been touted for its excellence in the hybrid car market, which has led only to the increase in customer confidence and loyalty for the Toyota brand in the Japanese car market with every passing decade. Â