Case Study on Toyota Motor Company (Essay Sample)

Case Study on Toyota Motor Company
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Abstract
Kiirchiro Toyoda founded Toyota Motor Company in 1937. It was initially a machine making company that was owned by Sakichi Toyoda. The company later changed its brand name to Toyota. For the past years, the company has advanced to become a multinational business. It is one of the largest automotive companies across the world. This is in relation to its total revenue and number of units sold per year. It has its offices in the Nagoya city of Japan. The company turned into a corporation in 1982 after the merger between Toyota Motor Sales Co. Limited and Toyota Motor Co. Limited. This made the corporation increase its competition advantage in the global markets. It has surpassed major brands such as Volkswagen in the United States. Toyota is well known for its unique sport cars, luxury cars, trucks, and other form of vehicles. In 2008, the corporation was considered the largest automobile in the world beating General Motors.
Toyota Motor Corporation has employed approximately 320,590 numbers of employees with goals of increasing them in the future. This shows that the corporation is well positioned for the future success of the automobile industries. To attain higher competitive advantages, the company has maintained its good reputation on reliability and quality despite various natural disasters that have affected the country. Natural disasters experienced in Japan have made the company encounter high losses. For many years, the corporation has maintained its market share, financial stability, and higher total revenue. This is by maintaining continuous supply of vehicles to a vast number of customers across the world at an affordable price. Lower prices for its vehicles have made it become a major threat to the General Motors and the Volkswagen. In this modern era, Toyota Motor Corporation has aimed at expanding its market through continued productivity and value through innovation and technologies. 
Introduction
Toyota Motor Corporation has place Japan automobile at a higher competitive context in the world. This is because its vehicles have ventured in the global market getting high demand from a vast number of customers. The corporation operates in both automotive and non-automotive divisions. Automotive division of the corporation is involved in the manufacture of vehicles such as sport cars, trucks, luxury cars, and passengers’ vehicles. Non-automotive is involved in other sectors such as financial services, housing sector, business enterprises, and other services.
Currently, Toyota Corporation stands at number eight in a list of 500 largest companies on the globe. It also has a high market shares compared to other companies in the world. In 1998, the company had a market share of 11.07 percent while in 2010, this increased to 12.14 percent. The Toyota Motor Corporation has mainly ventured in the developing countries such as Africa. The market in Africa has been dominated by Toyota company because its low prices. Toyota vehicles from japan have acquired higher demand in African market due to low purchasing power of consumers in those countries. This has made the company make high revenue. The company is also involved in the production of high quality vehicles that meet the interest of their clients. This can be evidenced when the Vehicle Trend named two of the Toyota vehicles as cars of the year. This case study gives the analysis of the Toyota Motor Corporation in relation to its market share and contribution in the global market. Historical overview
Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japan company that was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1936. This was a family company that belonged to Sakichi Toyoda. In 1937, the name was changed to Toyota (Toyota Motors Co., 2011). The company was mainly used to produce light trucks and small cars for the japan market and other foreign markets around the world. The headquarters of the company is in Aichi Japan. To remain competitive in the market, the company was forced to open a new plant in the United States. This is because the company faced heavy import tax and other duties from the United States. In 1982, the sales and production division of the company merged to form the current Toyota Motor Corporation. The corporation is now under the brands such as Lexus, Scion, Hino motors, Daihatsu, and other businesses. Since this inception, the company acquired multinational success. This is because it was able to surpass Volkswagen the top import brand in the United States.
In 1990, Toyota Motor Corporation began engaging in the production of other vehicles such as sports utility vehicles, luxury cars, trucks, full fixed pickups, and others. This has allowed the corporation to broaden its products mix in order to satisfy all customers. High production of quality vehicles made the Toyota Corporation overtake General Motors in 2008 and became the largest manufacture of automobile in the world. Over the years, the company has engaged in the production of new vehicles making its two products named as cars of the year by the Motor Trend (Flaccomio, Heyer, Wardle, Gomez, & Waldecker, 2011).
Today, Toyota Motor Corporation has diversified its factories in japan and other parts of the world. The Corporation has 15 factories in japan in which 12 of them are located in the city of Toyota. The corporation also has seven factories situated in the United States. It has also ventured into other 13 countries around the world.
Product segmentation for the Toyota
Toyota Motor Corporation has three major labels of cars under which it produces its vehicles. The three labels include Toyota, Lexus, and Scion. These are the key ticker symbols of Toyota Motor Corporation. Toyota is the main brand with about 70 different models. Examples of these brands include the SUVs, hybrids, coupes, sedans, pick-ups, and trucks. The most popular models are Toyota Corolla and Toyota Camry. The two models have dominated the market for many years. Toyota models such as Camry and Tundra have been named the cars of the year by the American vehicle Trends (Rapp, 2000). Toyota brand has been highly purchased in the many parts of the world due to their high standards as compared to their low prices. This makes them the most popular brands in the world.
Lexus is a luxury division of Toyota motors that was founded in 1989. The design of this model is aimed at targeting high-class consumers because of its luxury nature. The luxury line of vehicles is characterized by high cutting edge innovations and technology, touch screen and outstanding leather interiors. This makes them attractive to high-income earners. Scion, on the other hand, was introduced into the market in 2002. This label was designed to target young consumers in their mid-20s and early 30s. Scion is a brand of small cars that are designed to appeal young consumers in the market (Toyota Motors Co., 2011). This is because it has trendy features and few customized options.
Major competitors
Toyota Motor Corporation faces stiff competition from other companies in the world. Honda motors Co. Ltd is one of the major competitors of Toyota Corporation. Honda is an automotive company that is located in Japan. The company produces similar cars with Toyota. It also has luxury cars under the brand name of Acura. A big segment of Honda company is dominated by motorcycles. This makes it have a higher competitive advantage than the Toyota. Although the Acura brand cannot be regarded as high quality than Lexus, Honda manufactures other high products that are not produced by Toyota. This means that it has high edge of various products compared to Toyota. This Makes Honda acquire 20 percent of the market share in Japan as Toyota takes 50 percent.
Volkswagen is another major competitor to Toyota Motors Corporation. This is the most prolific manufacture of automobiles in Europe. Volkswagen is popularly known for its high-class labels such as Lamborghini, Bentley, AUDI, VW, Beetle, and Bugatti. It also holds a 49 percent stake in Porche. These brands are more expensive compared to Toyota and the entire automobile industries. Most of the people in the European countries highly value Volkswagen brands thus reducing the sale of Toyota Vehicles (Rapp, 2000). This indicates that Toyota faces a stiff competition from Volkswagen in the European market.
SWOT analysis for the Toyota Corporation
SWOT analysis of the Toyota Corporation indicates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and treats it faces in the market. One of the major strength is its brand and size of the name. It is considered the largest manufacture of automobiles in the world. This is due to its high production and sale in the global market. The Corporation is known worldwide for its high quality vehicles at a lower price. It also has strength of being a pioneer in the technology and innovation. This has made it remain high in the competitive field due to its advanced technology. In 2002, it was the first company to produce hybrid electric vehicles that made a sale of about two million (Rapp, 2000). It has also provided integrated supply chain of its products. The corporation has maintained close relations with their suppliers. This is by creating efficient communications such as Kanban. These strengths have enhanced gr...