With the current economic turmoil, car sales in the United States and the rest of the world for that matter have been very sluggish. The big three car manufacturers (General Motors, Chrysler and Ford) are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Not to say that Toyota has done considerably better than the big three, Toyota has managed to strategically market its products to its target market better than the big three, in this case the Toyota Prius. Toyota`s hybrid market has been segmented according to the buyers behavior, in this case, buyers who are pro environmentalists. The car has been readily accepted in consumers’ minds and most consumers see the car as an environmentally friendly and efficient car. The 2010 Prius gets an estimated 50 miles per gallon .The Prius has an official capacity of 11.9 gallons, and according to the above estimate, the car has a maximum range of about 595 miles.[1]21,750[2]I absolutely love our Prius. In addition to being obviously economical and environmentally friendly, they drive great and are just plain sexy. There’s no reason all Americans shouldn’t be driving hybrid cars.”[4] . .Toyota has used the penetration pricing strategy instead of the skim pricing strategy because the demand for hybrid cars is elastic, and the quantity of cars bought will increase as prices decline plus the car itself will gain mass appeal faster . With Toyota`s strong balance sheet, Toyota is also able to compete with other car makers by offering competitive financing and lease rates throughout all its 1200 distributors in the United States alone. [3]Currently Toyota controls about 16 % of the market share in the United States and has five major assembly plants in the United States which support its distribution(place) network. The Prius is promoted in many different ways, mainly through advertising ,sales promotions and personal selling . Of interest might be the fact that the Prius has been featured in dozens of movies and TV shows as the car driven by the main actor, such as CSI Miami, Weeds, Evan Almighty, and Superbad. To top of the list, a few notable Hollywood stars have been raving about the Prius, for example, Will Ferrell says ” In terms of the product itself, Toyota has “masterfully redesigned, the Prius making it more stylish than its predecessors. They have even added optional accessories that are “revolutionary” in the auto industry such as a solar powered moon roof that can cool the car on hot days, and also added the intelligent parking assistant, similar to the one we see on Lexus commercials. Essentially the car automatically parallel parks itself. The Prius has a very competitive Price , with the base models starting at $
Lastly , it is also important to note as a marketing student how Toyota has responded to Robert Lauterbons 4 C`s of marketing. The Prius, is the customer’s solution to the current spike in gas prices, and lack of alternative fuels to enhance gas mileage and reduce emissions. The Prius pricing answers the question of cost and with 1200 distributors nationwide, Toyota is conveniently located to its target market and has a well designed promotional strategy that communicates the product to its target market.
[1] Peterson, Thane. “Review:2010 Toyota Prius”. Business Week. 5/27/2009 .
[2] Peterson, Thane. “Review:2010 Toyota Prius”. Business Week. 5/27/2009 .
[3] Maynard, Micheline. “Toyota May Make Prius a Brand and Widen the Model Lineup “. New York Times 10/9/2008: B1-B8
[4]Celebrity Hybrid, Will Ferell. “Celebrity Hybrid”. 5/22/2009 .
