Toyota Prius Case Study
Jose Maya
October 5, 2012
Marketing 3301
Toyota Prius: The Power of Excellence in Product Innovation and Marketing 1. In what stage of the product life cycle is the Toyota Prius? Explain.
The Toyota Prius was in the market introduction stage then it matured into the market growth stage. In the Product life cycle there are four different phases. There is market introduction, market growth, market maturity, and sales decline. The Toyota Prius as explained by the book was a new experimental technology that Toyota wanted to test and introduce to the market to see how it would react. Toyota was at a point in their business where they wanted to innovate something new. Some of the ideas that Toyota was considering prior to the Prius were injection diesel engines, electric motors, hydrogen-powered fuel cells, and solar powered vehicles. This alone allows us to infer that Toyota had no prior market for these types of vehicles. This would automatically eliminate the three latter phases of the product life cycle. In a market introduction stage sales are typically low. Low sales are caused by limited quantity available and also market size for the product. With Toyota, they were trying to implement a new product to a new market so one could expect sales to be low because the market is not looking for the new product. Toyota was very careful about manufacturing the Prius. The first prototype Prius was introduced in 1995, and in December of 1997, the first production Prius’ rolled out of Toyota’s factory. Toyota manufactured only a limited amount of these vehicles as a test to see if the Prius would latch on to consumers or flop. 2. Describe the marketing strategies being followed by Toyota for the Prius
The marketing strategy specifies the target market that the producer is trying to target for their product and also a related marketing mix. When Toyota was designing the Prius its ideal market to target were leading edge buyers of the technological generation.
October 5, 2012
Marketing 3301
Toyota Prius: The Power of Excellence in Product Innovation and Marketing 1. In what stage of the product life cycle is the Toyota Prius? Explain.
The Toyota Prius was in the market introduction stage then it matured into the market growth stage. In the Product life cycle there are four different phases. There is market introduction, market growth, market maturity, and sales decline. The Toyota Prius as explained by the book was a new experimental technology that Toyota wanted to test and introduce to the market to see how it would react. Toyota was at a point in their business where they wanted to innovate something new. Some of the ideas that Toyota was considering prior to the Prius were injection diesel engines, electric motors, hydrogen-powered fuel cells, and solar powered vehicles. This alone allows us to infer that Toyota had no prior market for these types of vehicles. This would automatically eliminate the three latter phases of the product life cycle. In a market introduction stage sales are typically low. Low sales are caused by limited quantity available and also market size for the product. With Toyota, they were trying to implement a new product to a new market so one could expect sales to be low because the market is not looking for the new product. Toyota was very careful about manufacturing the Prius. The first prototype Prius was introduced in 1995, and in December of 1997, the first production Prius’ rolled out of Toyota’s factory. Toyota manufactured only a limited amount of these vehicles as a test to see if the Prius would latch on to consumers or flop. 2. Describe the marketing strategies being followed by Toyota for the Prius
The marketing strategy specifies the target market that the producer is trying to target for their product and also a related marketing mix. When Toyota was designing the Prius its ideal market to target were leading edge buyers of the technological generation.