Toyota Prius

Toyota Prius

Toyota manufactures cars, which has a wide coverage from economic minibus to luxurious cars, SUV. The brand on sell includes Crown, Reiz, Vios, Corolla, Coaster and Prius. And Prius is the brand or car that Toyota has made a significant success in American market. It is a hybrid vehicle. What are the characteristics of it?

Hybrid vehicles have both a gas engine and an electric motor. When starting up or at very low speeds (under 15 mph), the auto runs on the electric motor. At roughly 15 mph, the gas engine kicks in. this means that the auto gets power from only the battery at low speeds, and from both the gas engine and electric motor during heavy acceleration. When starting up and operating at low speed speeds, the auto does not make noise, which seems eerie to some drivers and to pedestrians who don’t hear it coming!

Then, have a look back at Toyota’s history to find new Toyota has made its way to America. In 1957, Toyota exported to America at the first time and established the selling company. In 1984, a joint venture was established with General motor. Co. And in 1997, Prius was first in production and had a launch in America. It was such a great success that Toyota conquered American market. To dig into the reasons, it was largely contributed to the micro and macro environment at that time.

First, let’s have a look at micro-environments. We all know that American love cars so much. And due to oil crisis, Americans changed the need structure for cars, converting their needs to oil saving cars. While American car manufactures lacked producing such cars, then Toyota caught that opportunity and tried to occupy this niche market.

Toyota’s competitor at that time was Honda. It started to develop the hybrid car almost at the same time as us. It introduced the insight. Afterwards, but It didn’t sell well because of its poor design. As a result, Toyota got the first place in America. However, Toyota had no competitors in local at that time. GE and Ford were followers later.

In the macro environment there are many young men who love technique and pursue new technology products. And they are also highly educated and so have a strong environmental protect spirit. And Prius is just the combination of the concepts of environment and technology. Other factors are natural resources and pollution. Before the environment problem and energy crisis come into people’s attentions, Toyota began to research and develop the hybrid cars with a long term view, which was designed to reduce oil consumption and gas emissions.

In a country where everyone was ecstatic when governments raised speed limits above 55 mph, why would the Prius be so successful? For the first model, the answer lies in Toyota’s clever marketing campaign. To begin with, it wasn’t aimed at the mass market. Instead, Toyota thought that the first hybrid buyers would be “techies” and early adopters (people who are highly likely to buy something just because it’s new). The company was right. Once Toyota identified the target market, it was able to educate the right consumers 2 years before introduction. The company established a Web site to distribute information and set 3-brochures to 40,000 likely buyers just before the introduction. The press was also excited about the technology. Auto magazines, and even general interest media, ran articles describing, enthusing, or belittling the hybrids. All of this coverage helped Toyota sell 1,800 cars immediately.

In all, Toyota spent $15 million in 1997 touting the Prius. There were print ads in magazines such as Newsweek and Vanity Fair, but the bulk of the campaign was in television advertising on channels such as Discovery, the History Channel, the Learning Channel, and MSNBC. These ads helped to position Toyota as an “environmentally concerned” company and more subtly stressed the technology aspect of the car. After all, Americans love technology and are quick adopters of it.

After introduction, the ads appealed more to emotion with taglines such as “When it sees red, it charges”——a reference to the recharging of the battery at stoplights. Such ads are based on ambiguity where the headline attracts attention because its meaning is not clear. The consumer must process the information in the ad in order to interpret it. The result is higher ad impact and longer ad recall. Toyota also took advantage of the environmental appeal by sending out green seed cars shaped like Toyota’s logo to prospective buyers on Earth Day. They also wrapped some Priuses in green and gave away cars at Earth Day events.

Much of the Prius’s success is based on correct identification of the target market. Many early purchasers were attracted by the technology, began to modify cars, and shared their experiences through chat rooms such as Priusenvy.com.

Even though the Internet played a major part in the Prius launch, Toyota does not sell the car from its Web site. Buyers go to www.prius.toyota.com online to look at colors and decide on options such as CD players and floor mats. After that, the dealers get involved, but it takes specially trained salespeople to explain and promote the Prius. Therefore, Toyota is planning to launch and educational campaign aimed at salespeople and consumers.

Strategies after the year 2004.