Essay Sample on Product Offering

Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japanese multinational automotive company that engages in the manufacture and sale of motor vehicles and parts (Volti, 1991). The company's primary automotive segment includes the design, assembly, manufacture, and sale of passenger and commercial vehicles, minivans, and associated parts and accessories (Liker, 2004).

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The Volkswagen Group is a German multinational automotive company that engages in the manufacture of both passenger and commercial vehicles for its brands. The company sells its commercial vehicles under the brand names Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche, Skoda, and Volkswagen. The company's passenger brand names include Volkswagen, Neoplan, Scania, and MAN (Mullineux, Southworth, & Davies, 2000).

These two competing companies use a variety of strategies to maximize profit and ensure their growth and development. This essay compares the product, distribution, price and promotion strategies of these automotive companies before evaluating their relative effectiveness. This essay also assesses the integrated marketing programs applied by the two competing companies and identifies development opportunities to raise economic success.

Product Strategy

Toyota manufactures a wide range of fuel-efficienyt vehicles of various designs and makes (Nkomo, 2013). The company's product lines include Toyota and Lexus automobiles, Welcab series of vehicles, engines, spare parts and accessories, and marine products. Toyota manufactures this diverse set of products to meet the needs of different people across the globe (Liker, 2004).

Just like Toyota, Volkswagen's product strategy consists of a blend of variety, design, and warranty in its products (Mullineux et al. 2000). This company also offers different cars to meet the varying needs of its customers. Volkswagen's products include Golf, Polo, Beetle, Passat, Jetta, Tiguan, Sirocco and Touran.

Toyota's product strategy has helped the company penetrate the market and reduced the market-based risks, which in turn has increased the company's market share (Liker, 2004). Volkswagen's wide range of products has mainly contributed to its growth. Developing products with warranties has helped maintain the loyalty of its customers (Mullineux et al. 2000).

Distribution Strategy

Toyota uses retailers and dealership outlets to distribute its products but relies heavily on the latter to sell its products to existing and potential customers (Nkomo, 2013). The company has a global distribution network of around 170 distributors worldwide which act as the primary sales channel for the company (Volti, 1991).

Volkswagen also involves dealers and distributors in selling its products (Mullineux et al. 2000). The company does not relinquish complete control to its dealerships but treats them as a franchise. This situation means that the dealerships have power, but must follow the company's rules and guidelines.

The use of dealerships has helped Toyota and Volkswagen become two of the largest companies in the automotive industry across the world. This strategy has helped the companies maintain their product quality while the distribution networks have increased the number of customers and ensured mobile accessibility and availability of different products.

Price Strategy

Toyota is famous for maintaining quality and affordable prices for its vehicles (Liker, 2004). Toyota uses a combination of market-oriented and value-based pricing strategies. The company's reduced cost has helped it gain a competitive advantage over companies such as Volkswagen in the automotive industry. This strategy has also marketed the brand and boosted profits by increasing the number of units sold.

Unlike Toyota that focuses on minimizing the price of products, Volkswagen has consistently operated with a premium pricing strategy. Volkswagen has, however, recently seemed to change its pricing strategy by reducing the costs of some products. This change of strategy has attracted more customers and helped the company to catch up with market players such as Toyota.

Promotion Strategy

Toyota combines promotional activities such as personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, and direct selling to ensure effective communication with its target market (Liker, 2004). This strategy has created the positive brand image witnessed today (Nkomo, 2013).

Volkswagen also engages in personal selling, advertising, and sales promotion to gain a competitive advantage. Advancements in technology have forced the company to embrace the use of online platforms and social media networks in its promotion activities. This action has helped Volkswagen to remain at the top of the promotional game (Rugraff, 2012).

Integrated Marketing Program

Toyota's integrated marketing program aims at promoting the company's product, brand, and financial position using different forms of media. The company's program involves conducting advertisements in newspapers, radio, television, magazines, events, and social media (Nkomo, 2013). One concern surrounds the number of ads on social websites, and Toyota can improve by increasing advertisements on Facebook and Twitter.

Competitor's Integrated Marketing Program

Toyota's competitor, Volkswagen, is aware of the great deal of time that people use to surf the internet and have therefore placed small advertisements on popular websites and blog sites. Volkswagen also uses popular social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to market its product. Volkswagen can improve its marketing program by increasing the number of advertisements on YouTube.

Conclusion

The marketing mix of both Toyota Corporation and Volkswagen AG reflects the strategies that these two multinational automotive companies use to penetrate the automotive industry. The pricing, distribution, promotion, and product strategies of these two companies are effective in ensuring the success, growth, and development. Both of these companies have embraced the use of technology in marketing by increasing their online advertisements. The implemented strategies only differ slightly with a majority of them being similar. This similarity perhaps explains why these two companies are constantly battling for the top spot in the automotive industry.

References

Jurgens, U. (2002). Corporate governance, innovation, and economic performance: A case study on Volkswagen.

Liker, J. K. (2004). The 14 principles of the Toyota way: an executive summary of the culture behind TPS. The Toyota Way, 14, 35-41.

Mullineux, N., Southworth, A., & Davies, G. (2000). The Volkswagen Group. London, U.K.: Informa Pub. Group.

Nkomo, T. (2013). Analysis of Toyota Motor Corporation.

Rugraff, E. (2012). The new competitive advantage of automobile manufacturers. Journal of Strategy and Management, 5(4), 407-419.

Volti, R. (1991). Toyota: A History of the First 50 Years. Technology And Culture, 32(2), 423.