Positioning and Branding Discussion

Positioning and Branding Discussion

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Positioning and Branding Discussion

The selected brand of choice is The Toyota Motor Corporation. Toyota is an automotive company whose headquarters are in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. It was founded in August 1937. They mainly produce luxury vehicles, automobiles, commercial vehicles and engines. In February 2016, it was listed as the 13th largest company in the world by revenue, a spot they held together with VW group. Initially in 1937, the name that appeared on the initial emblem was then made from the last name of the initial founder, Kiichiro Toyoda. This was written in red letters with the background of a diamond. Approximately 10 years later, it was replaced by a new emblem which had the Toyoda word, however, spelt in Japanese in a red circle.

In 1989, following expansion to foreign markets including parts of North America, the company sought a universal brand logo to reach out to more customers. This led to the development of the logo currently in use. The current brand image is made of two ellipses that overlap. This is meant to depict the hearts of the customers and the cooperation in a form of unity and respect, trust and partnership. The ellipses also form letter T, standing for Toyota. They are then covered by a larger oval shape. This symbolizes the world embracing Toyota. Of note is that the ellipses are formed from various brush strokes in appreciation of the Japanese culture and calligraphy. The space left between the ovals shows the infinite values cherished by Toyota. These include excellence, high quality, environmental concern, reliability and innovative technologies.

The main competitors of Toyota include Volkswagen, BMW, Audi. BMW Company has been in existence from 1916; Audi since 1932 and Volkswagen from May 1937. The Volkswagen group is an automotive industry whose headquarters are located in Wolfsburg, Germany. It currently boasts of 79 years of service. It is distributed across 27 countries with approximately 100 production facilities. It produces automobiles, commercial vehicles, motorcycles, engines and turbomachinery. The company has a total of 610,076 employees as of 2015.In the same year, it produced a total of 9.93 million motor vehicles, thus coming second after Toyota and ahead of general motors. The two companies of interest in this case were the Toyota automotive company and the Volkswagen automotive company. Both companies had annual revenues of $237 as of 2015.They do not however have a similar number of employees.

In terms of marketing and managerial strategies, The Toyota cooperation adopted a management philosophy in 2001 that looked at their values and business models to enable the company to grow. This was known as the “Toyota Way”. This then produced a stipulated guideline that was to be embraced by every single employee in the company. The Toyota Way is mainly divided into two sections, the first entitled respect for people and the second entitled continuous improvement. Thus all employees have to understand the conduct guidelines to foster development within the company. The values also ensure that there is mutual respect between the employees themselves, the employees and the managers and the employees and their customers.

These values make The Toyota Company not only an appealing employer but also it makes them more attractive to the customers thus drawing them more clients. There are some similarities and differences between Toyota companies. The similarities include the fact than they have almost equal annual revenues as of 2016. Also, both companies have previously been listed as employers of choice. The differences include a huge difference in the number of employees in both companies. Toyota has half the number of employees that VW has. Also, Toyota is extremely aggressive on their online platform. They address customer issues faster and accurately at the instant the question is posed. This makes it a more appealing company for clients as compared with VW.

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