Mkt00720 Marketing Strategy And Plan Assessment Answers
Questions:
Basing your arguments on the academic literature that you have studied in the first four topics of this unit, write a report on the ways two different organisations have been able to compete in their markets. Your report should discuss the following points about each of the two organisations:Answer:
Introduction
The purpose of this following report is to find out the different facts that are associated with the marketing strategies. In this report, several fields will be covered like the marketing strategies of the selected companies and analyzing how they have gained the advantage. The success of the company depends on the ways how they can cope up with the problems they face in the competitive business environment of the current times. The companies that have been chosen for this report are Toyota and Ford (Ferrell and Hartline 2012). The marketing strategies for these companies are very important since they will like to make more profits by implementing some successful strategies. This will place them to a better position in terms of their market success. The organizations selected here are very reputed global car manufacturing companies and they have to make their profits. The marketing strategies will be analyzed here and highlight the pros and cons. The ways they can improve will be discussed as well (Ferrell and Hartline 2012).
Brief background for the first company
Toyota is a Japan based car manufacturing company that operates within the automotive industry (Toyota.com 2018). The headquarters of this country is situated at Aichi in Japan. They prepare the automobiles, engines, commercial vehicles and various types of luxury vehicles. Toyota is considered to be the market leaders in the hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. One of the major strategies for marketing that Toyota has taken up is brand equity. The company is the sixth most valuable brand in the world (Toyota.com 2018). Some of the areas that they have focused are improving the customer service standards, maintaining the price safety. They have stressed on the automotive financing strategies for better outcomes. The product portfolio of Toyota is very strong (Baker 2014). This is why they gain the competitive advantage in this competitive environment. The production system of the company is globally recognized. The cost control system also helps them to stay ahead of their competitors (Toyota.com 2018).
Brief background for the second company
The second chosen company for this report os Ford. The company is an international automotive company based in United States of America. The organization was founded in the year 1903. The headquarters of this organization is situated at Dearborn, Michigan in USA. Ford has come to be one of the biggest organizations in their respective fields. The organization uses the differentiated targeting strategy for the various types of customers offering them a very huge range of products. The value-based positioning strategy has yielded good results for them indeed. Thus they can feel more associated with the customers (Fifield 2012). The Ford Motors has a very strong hold in the developed nations all around the world. The company has more than 60 plants all over the world so they can provide their customers with a wide range of products, that too, with a low price. Thus they achieve the global competitive advantage (Tidd and Bessant 2014).
Marketing success evidence for Toyota
Toyota is a globally successful organization in the automotive company. The implementation of the proper strategies will lead the company like Toyota to achieve the market success. As they have completed the marketing activities in a proper way, this has been their major issues in attaining the proper success indeed (Fifield 2012). The basic desire of the higher managers is to evolve the marketing process that will lead to the success of the company in a better way indeed. The analytical tool that will be used here to understand the marketing success of Toyota is the Four P’s. The nature of products that Toyota provides to their customers is very complex indeed. Therefore, it needs proper marketing strategies that should be implemented (Fifield 2012).
Toyota has provided several types of products into the global market that will let them gain the attraction of the customers (Toyota.com 2018). The global motor industry has been largely motivated by the variety of these vehicles. These intangible products have really catered to the growth of Toyota on a large level. They have gone on to innovate new sorts of products that will lead to customer satisfaction on a new way (Coelho and Henseler 2012). The effectiveness of these vehicles has brought in the customer satisfaction in a better way indeed (Fifield 2012). They always look to enrich the quality of their products properly indeed. The new designs of cars will surely please the customers (Toyota.com 2018). The company has set the price of their products as per the income levels of the customers. The quality of the products has always been the foremost priority for the company. The price segmentation for the different products has always been friendly for the consumers indeed. (Singh 2012).
Toyota has been highly successful in finding the areas for identifying the different market segments (Hill and Brierley 2017). This has added to the competitive advantage of the company. The promotional activities of this company have been much advanced (Armstrong et al. 2015). They use the digital marketing strategy to gain the attraction of the customers in a better way instead. Some small changes could be addressed in their promotional activities as well (Toyota.com 2018). The television and news print are also used in their promotional activities as well. The selection of the skilled workforce has been very much important in their marketing activity (Singh 2012). The employees of the company are very much creative and they treat the customers with much friendliness as well. The link between the upper and lower management has been smooth and this is why the organization has achieved such high growth indeed (Armstrong et al. 2015).
Marketing success evidence for Ford
The marketing success of Ford has been a very important factor for the success of this company on a global basis indeed (Ford.com 2018). The competitive advantage can be achieved by the company for the betterment of the process indeed. One of the main things that could be done for the betterment of this process is that of the advertising campaigns (Gordon 2012). The analytical tool that will be used to assess their market success and gaining competitive advantage is the SWOT analysis. Some of the strengths of Ford are its customer loyalty and the brand reputation that they have. (Ford.com 2018).
This is very important for them to get the ultimate result in terms of number of the customers. The various kinds of cars and commercial vehicles can be taken as one of the biggest strengths for the company. The quality of the products for Ford has been extremely high indeed. The relationship with the employees has been their very strong point as well. The company has around hundred plants all over the world that helps them to produce enough number of cars and commercial vehicles so they can gain the customer satisfaction indeed (Gordon 2012). Ford has suffered a great loss because of their product recalls in all the areas indeed. This has been their major weakness in the last few years indeed. The company has lacked a innovative design that has been their main problem over the years. The global recession has also left a negative impact on the products of the organization. The total market share of Ford is less than other car manufacturing companies as well (Ford.com 2018).
Ford does not have a cost management system so this will be very important for the image of the company. Very recently it has been seen that Ford has been manufacturing some standard cars that have not been able to deal with the current competitive market indeed. The expansion of Ford into more diversified geographical areas so this has been a major drawback for the company as well. Certainly there are many opportunities for the organization to come up and make the proper changes. This will lead to the best profits within the industry as well. They can make their vehicles environment friendly if their vehicles emit lesser oxygen. This will not make that much harm in the environment (Ford.com 2018).
The company can use the hybrid electric engines that will be consumer friendly and cost friendly. (Hill and Brierley 2017). Thus their best efforts to become successful in their marketing scenario can really come to be true. They can use the renewable energy sources like the solar powers and bio fuels. Thus their place in the competitive business environment will surely rise as well. There are many competitors in this industry so they will have to provide better best efforts in order to cope up with the challenges. The weaknesses in both the internal and external environments should be managed properly as well.
Conclusion
This paper can be concluded by saying that both the companies mentioned here are very much competitive. These companies will look to provide better opportunities for the customers to believe in them. Toyota has always provided the best systems and quality products to their customers. This is why their products have gained a competitive advantage throughout the world. Ford has also been very much influential in terms of their customers. Their products and the fewer prices of the products have laid the organization to gain more customers. This is why both the companies will need to improve on their weaknesses and utilize their strengths in this ever changing market condition.
References
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Baker, M.J., 2014. Marketing strategy and management. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Coelho, P.S. and Henseler, J., 2012. Creating customer loyalty through service customization. European Journal of Marketing, 46(3/4), pp.331-356.
Ferrell, O.C. and Hartline, M., 2012. Marketing strategy, text and cases. Nelson Education.
Fifield, P., 2012. Marketing strategy. Routledge.
Ford.com (2018). Ford – New Cars, Trucks, SUVs, Crossovers & Hybrids | Vehicles Built Just for You | Ford.com. [online] Available at: https://www.ford.com/ [Accessed 3 Aug. 2018].
Gordon, R., 2012. Re-thinking and re-tooling the social marketing mix. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 20(2), pp.122-126.
Hill, N. and Brierley, J., 2017. How to measure customer satisfaction. Routledge.
Robson, W., 2015. Strategic management and information systems. Pearson Higher Ed.
Singh, M., 2012. Marketing mix of 4P’s for competitive advantage. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 3(6), pp.40-45.
Tidd, J. and Bessant, J., 2014. Strategic innovation management. John Wiley & Sons.
Toyota.com (2018). New Cars, Trucks, SUVs & Hybrids | Toyota Official Site. [online] Toyota.com. Available at: https://www.toyota.com/ [Accessed 3 Aug. 2018].
