Promotional And Advertising Strategies Essay Examples

Introduction

The automotive industry boomed at around 1980, where The United States of America was the largest producer. There arose many companies, all producing automobiles, and distributing their products all over the world. The automotive industry is a major sector of the economy in the world and is crucial for growth and economic stability. The existent competition over the last few decades is among China, which is the leading country, United States, and Japan (Hortlik, 2014). Over the years, China has been leading the industry in terms of productivity and distribution. However, among the leading car producers, Japan and Germany can be termed as the leaders, owing to Toyota and Volkswagen companies respectively. In this outline, the comparison involves the two giant corporations, which are the leading companies in terms of productivity and popularity respectively. The automotive industry is highly competitive, and there exist constant innovation and creativity to maximize productivity in the industry.
The Japan-based organization, Toyota Motor Corporation, is the largest corporation in the country and ranks as the twelfth largest corporation in the world, in terms of revenue. The company is the first automobile company to reach ten million units in terms of annual sales in the world. The data's source was the OICA in 2012 and the company data in 2013 (Iyer, Seshadri & Vasher, 2009). The company is the leading automotive company as of the 2014 rankings, beating Volkswagen Group and General Motors. Toyota is among the most productive companies in the sector, owing to the major brands produced by the company, among them Toyota, Lexus, Hino, Scion, and Ranz. It also has major investments in other automobile organizations, among them Sichuan FAW and GAC Toyota.
Volkswagen is the largest automobile company in Germany and Europe as a continent. The company started in the year 1937, and its location is Wolfsburg, Germany. Among the company’s leading brand are the Volkswagen Golf, Beetle, and Passat. The name “Volkswagen” refers to “people’s car (Hortlik, 2014).” Over the years, the company has remained very competitive and has topped the list of major automobiles, beating giants like Toyota and General Motors. The company focuses on constant innovation and product differentiation as its competitive advantages.

Promotional Strategies Comparison

The automobile industry is complex and requires utmost creativity and implementation of the best marketing strategies to achieve profitability. For this reason, most of the companies must ensure that they constantly improve their promotional methods and gain competitive advantages over rival corporations. The submission involves the comparison between Toyota and Volkswagen, the world’s automobile giants.

Comparison and Contrast of Promotional Strategies

Toyota is a Japanese based company that possesses a lot of market knowledge, enabling it to dominate the industry with its products. One of the major backings of its success is the company’s mission and vision. Among Toyota's objectives are the creation of future mobility, constant innovation, commitment to quality, and enrichment of lives across the globe (Iyer, Seshadri & Vasher, 2009). The strategies have helped it maximize its market share and outdo the competition set by rival organizations.
Toyota applies numerous forms of marketing in all its target markets. In North America, for example, it has a variety of phrases used to maximize its sales. The slogans aim at encouraging vehicle ownership, such as “you asked for it! You got it!” “Oh! What a feeling,” “Get the feeling,” “I love what you do for me Toyota” and “Moving forward.” These slogans help in tightening the organization’s bonds with its customers. It also attracts the prospective customers, widening the market for its products. The company has a major focus on the pull strategy of attracting consumers.
Toyota holds a different marketing approach in Japan, where it has subdivided sale channels to better the supply chain. Vehicle differentiation is in terms of size and comfort, where cars are put in different stores, enabling the customers to access products easily and at a variety of locations. The channels add up to five, easing congestion and maximizing service quality. Toyota also embarks in extensive advertising, pointing out the advantages of their vehicles, both in terms of efficiency and environmental conservation.
On the other hand, Volkswagen has a quite different marketing approach in relation to Toyota. The organization embarks on innovative advertising and the social media. The company uses creative methods to entice prospective customers into buying their products. An example is in India, where the company set audio chips in each newspaper, catching Indians by surprise with an announcement of a new model and its features (Hortlik, 2014). Volkswagen has also embarked on social media advertising by constantly informing their followers on new models, their features, and advantages over previously produced vehicles. These strategies have improved sales of the company, enabling it to outdo some of its rivals in terms of sales, productivity, and profitability.

Marketing Recommendations

Marketing in the automobile industry is vital for maximum productivity. For a company to gain competitive advantages over its rivals, it has to maximize the use of its marketing and promotional strategies. A recommendation for a company in the automobile industry is the use of digital channels for marketing. The company can start up a YouTube channel where it posts videos of the cars and their unique features. In this way, customers will be in a position of making informed decisions on the car to purchase, maximizing the company’s profitability.
Another marketing approach is the creation of emotional connections with prospective customers on why to purchase the company's brand. In the automobile sector, a company should focus on showing the customers how they will benefit from purchasing that brand, regardless of the competition or price. Factors such as comfort and safety are vital in bettering an organization’s marketing strategies. Consumers develop emotional connections with the brand, making them loyal and thus maximizing competitive advantages over rivals (Belch & Belch, 2012).

Consumer-oriented promotions

The pull strategy is an effective tool for maximizing sales through building consumer loyalty. One of the major short-term promotions is issuing of discounts and coupons. A company in the automotive industry can indulge in issuing discounts to its customers, which will boost sales for a short period (Belch & Belch, 2012). A rather long-term approach is the use of value-added promotions, where the organization embarks on promotional activities such instructional courses offered free after purchases, issuance of bonus points usable in later purchase, and free trials.
The rationale behind the long and short-term increase in sales owes to the effects of the promotional effects on the consumers. For instance, discounts and coupons are only for a short time, for example during the festive season. At this period, sales improve but return to normal after the end of the period. However, value-added promotion is rather long-term than short-term. It helps in creating customer loyalty, enabling the company to retain its customers.

Toyota’s pricing decisions

Toyota uses a variety of price decisions before deciding the retailing price of its products. Owing to its large market share, much of its price decisions base on status quo, sales, and profit. The company seeks to maximize its sales and yet retain its attractive public image. The mass production and high demand of its products eliminate the concern of survival, and profits are certain. The company has massive demand for its products, easing its profit making system, and allowing focusing on other aspects other than profit. It is notable that most of the company’s cars a lowly priced, enabling purchases even to the financially unstable individuals (Liker & Meier, 2006). Evidence to this is the popularity of Toyota in developing nations, mostly in Africa, where Toyota is the number one seller (Iyer, Seshadri & Vasher, 2009).
The company accounts for the cost of production, marketing costs, distribution, and other miscellaneous costs incurred during the production process. With only inclusion of minor profits, the company can then come up with the retail price of the vehicle. However, most of the considerations are made with the aim of retaining the market share and the good public image has been upheld for a long period. Such factors have made the company very profitable, enabling it to remain at the top in the automotive industry worldwide.

Suggestions for gaining competitive advantages

For a company in the automotive industry, gaining competitive advantages over top rival organizations requires critical analysis of the competition. Based on the promotional strategies, supply chain management, product differentiation, pricing, among other factors, a company can plan on its competitive approach to rival organizations. In this case, a company in the attempt of gaining competitive advantages over Toyota and other automotive companies can develop ties with its consumers and keep them informed of the latest products and their features.
In the industry, the number of customers is very large, and maintaining ties with them is quite difficult. However, any company that may overcome the accompanied challenges can better its productivity and maximize sales through customer retention. The strategy is a vital approach in terms of achievement of a competitive advantage over rival organizations. Adoption of this strategy amounts to increment in the market share. The consumers gain ample knowledge about the company's products, enabling them to inform and argue out with friends in regards to the best car brands and their features. In this way, more customers are attracted to the brand, maximizing organizational profits and bettering the company’s public image.
Another applicable competitive approach is pricing, where a company can lower its prices to gain a competitive advantage. In the automotive industry, consumers are often driven by prices, making pricing a key competitive aspect. With lower prices, the company can gain consumer loyalty, and then raise the prices later to match the intended retail price. In this way, they have gained a competitive advantage over rivals, retaining their loyal consumers.

Advertisement media

In the automotive industry, the most efficient advertisement medium is via online platforms. The findings of Nielsen’s Media Consumption prove that consumers opt for online platforms when seeking to purchase cars, owing to the availability of detailed information (Taneja et al. 2012). Unlike other media such as televisions, radios, newspapers, and magazines, online platforms offer a more detailed review of vehicles, enabling the consumers to make informed decisions before the actual purchase. Among the examples of supporting evidence is the ease of access to YouTube videos and Google searches for the car features before making a purchase.
Online media also allow the consumer to check past reviews and discussions on aspects such as performance, comfort, and safety of the vehicle prior the purchase. Toyota, the largest producer of automobiles, has a vast focus on online media as a marketing tool. It is through its description videos and articles that it has managed to top the list in terms of sales and productivity (Liker & Meier 2006). Volkswagen, the second largest producer also uses online platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to widen its market share. So far, the two companies have been successful, and thus they remain at the top in the industry. All automotive companies have detailed websites, which add to their promotional strategies, allowing customers to view vehicle aspects and efficiency before making decisions on purchases.

References

Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2012). Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Hortlik, J. (2014). International Communication Strategies of Volkswagen.
Iyer, A. V., Seshadri, S., & Vasher, R. (2009). Toyota supply chain management: A strategic approach to the principles of Toyota's renowned system. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Liker, J. K., & Meier, D. (2006). The Toyota way fieldbook: A practical guide for implementing Toyota's 4Ps. New York: McGraw-Hill
Taneja, H., Webster, J. G., Malthouse, E. C., & Ksiazek, T. B. (2012). Media consumption across platforms: Identifying user-defined repertoires. New Media & Society, 14(6), 951-968.