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Prius Essay Analysis of 4P’s – Product, Place, Price, Promotion f. SWOT Analysis of Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota Prius g. Competitors Against Toyota Prius h. Target Market of Toyota Prius 3. Objectives a. Corporate Objectives b. IMC Objectives 4. Time Frame 5. Promotion Strategies a. Print Advertising b. Internet Advertising c. Sponsorship Activity d. Exhibition 6. Promotion Budget 7. Appendix 8. References 1. EXECUTION SUMMARY This Integrated Marketing Communications Proposal is a one-year communications plan, which is to be launched in Hong Kong, for the Toyota Prius. It aims to further raise the awareness of the Prius and in turn increase the market share and sale. Market analysis identified the target market, which consists of two groups: private and corporate buyers. Consequently a communications strategy that makes use of various media has been created. Newspaper and car magazines as the print advertisements, the Internet, sponsorship activity and exhibition will be the main media. The Creative strategy is designed to emphasize the unique selling points of the Prius and weaken the target markets objections. The budget (HK$1,000,000) has been allocated for the events and advertisements this year. The majority of the budget will be spent on the 2 two-day exhibition, followed by the print advertising. 2. SITUATION ANALYSIS a. Background Information of Toyota Motor Corporation Toyota is a Japanese car manufacturing company founded by Sakichi Toyoda in 1937. They have four key strategies which aim at customer satisfaction, quality assurance, continuous improvement and reduction of waste. Toyota has manufactured various types of cars such as Corolla and Carmy. After continuous improvement, Toyota is likely to be the best seller in the world this year in terms of sales. . Communication History of Toyota Motor Corporation Crown Motors, the local agency of Toyota, has published various advertisements for its vehicles through newspapers, magazines, TV commercials, exhibitions and sponsorships, etc. However, there are merely few local sponsor activities and exhibitions for Prius and thus it is still new to local drivers. c. Background Information of Toyota Prius Toyota Prius is one of the worlds first commercially mass-produced and marketed hybrid automobiles. It released in Japan in 1997 and then worldwide in 2000. By the end of 2003, nearly 160,000 units had been produced for sale in Japan, Europe and North America. In Latin, â€Å"Prius† means before or first. Technologies applied in the Prius are brand new and advanced ideas so that the Prius suits the name for the series. The Prius has won a number of awards, which are shown below. d. Awards Attained by Toyota Prius †¢ 1997–98  ¦ Car of the Year Japan †¢ 2003  ¦ Scientific American names Toyota Motor Corporation as Business Leader of the Year (Scientific American 50; December, 2003) for its singular accomplishment in the commercialization of affordable hybrid cars. 2004  ¦ Motor Trend Car of the Year  ¦ Car and Driver Magazines Ten Best List  ¦ North American Car of the Year Award †¢ 2005  ¦ European Car of the Year e. Analysis of 4P’s – Product, Place, Price, Promotion The Prius was released locally in 1999. Apart from the large comfortable driving environment, it was the first vehicle that introduced the â€Å"Hybrid Synergy Drive†, which helps the car become exceptionally fuel economical. The distribution of the Prius is mainly located at the six local Crown showrooms. The price of the Prius is around HK$230,000 which is a bit higher than the ther series or Japanese cars because Toyota positioned it as advanced technology vehicle with the features of environmental friendly and fuel-saving technologies. The major promotion channels used were exhibitions, car magazines and sponsorships of environmental protection events. According to the previous brand promotion of Toyota, newspapers, television commercials and the Internet were also used. f. SWOT Analysis of Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota Prius i. Strength Toyota is Japan’s largest and the world’s third largest car manufacturer with assurance of reliability and high quality image. Toyota was one of the first manufacturers to introduce the concept of â€Å"Just in Time† production that allows to reduce operating cost and overheads and to respond to customer demand quicker. The yearly budget for RD is set at the highest amongst car manufacturers for various research centres around the world. This willingness to invest has brought Toyota an innovative image and created products such as the Prius. The Prius has advanced technologies which aim at environmental protection. It lets drivers save fuel and thus needs low maintenance cost in the long run at affordable price. i. Weakness Reputation of Toyota is not enough to convince buyers who like to express themselves with their choice of car, thus prefer cars with higher prestige from manufacturers such as Mercedes. Appearance of the Prius may relatively not as outstanding and attractive to potential buyers. According to Wikipedia, the Prius has been criticized for its aesthetics and handling characteristics. T oyotas life cycle assessment shows that the amount of energy required to manufacture a Prius is higher than that of a similar gasoline powered vehicle. iii. Opportunities Toyota’s new hybrid technology has proven very successful worldwide and already created several brand extensions and derived models. Toyota could obtain the benefits of being the first in the market, currently 90% market share in hybrid vehicles. The introduction of new models in growing segments offers opportunities. The Internet also helps the marketing of cars, thus improve communications and reduce operating cost by offering online showroom, online booking of test drives, nearest dealer locator, online purchasing and e-brochures, etc. Increase in fuel prices can also be treated as one of our opportunities as the Prius is fuel-conservative vehicle. iv. Threats Major threat comes from rich and big competitors. Indirect competition comes from alternative methods of transport. Other government incentives are also aimed at reducing the usage of cars, such as the increase in tax. These actions can reduce the number of car purchases and reduce eventual profits. g. Competitors Against Toyota Prius Toyota Prius being an environmental-friendly and energy-efficient vehicle, competitors will be defined as those which have similar technologies in the manufacture of fuel-saving engines. Honda Civic GX and Insight are energy-efficient vehicles but not for sale in Hong Kong. Also, General Motors FlexFuel series and Hybrids series are powerful competitors in the same situation. Hence, Toyota is the local pioneer in this product line. h. Target Market of Toyota Prius The target market can be split into two major categories: B2B customers and private consumers. B2B customers are fleet and corporate buyers, who buy cars either for hire or rental or for company fleets. The environmental features make the Prius particularly interesting for business buyers because of his low operating cost. Private consumer is either male or female and between the age group targeted at 25 and 39 years old. Some of them are likely to be married and with family responsibilities. They are affluent, well-informed and educated adults. They may be of upper middle class. They pursue environmentally-friendly lifestyle. 3. OBJECTIVES Objectives exist on three levels, corporate, marketing and communication, in which marketing and communication are regarded as the integrated marketing communications (IMC) objectives. a. Corporate Objective It can be summarized as shareholder wealth maximization and is ultimately achieved through higher profits and increased sales. b. Integrated Marketing Communications Objectives Toyota Prius is at the growth stage of product life cycle. As the environmental friendly technology of the Prius still being the pioneer in the industry, the objective is defined to be long term. It is important to further raise the awareness of this feature to the public by 30% at the end of this year, which in turn increase the market share aimed at 25% and increase the sales by 25%. It is hoped that by the proposed promotion strategies, it can fully reach the target market and make the potential buyers aware of the Prius. Then, during the events and in the advertisements, we can educate them and explain the technical knowledge and advantages of the Prius, so that they are excited about the Prius and develop the word-of-mouth. It is hoped to motivate buyers to find out more about the Prius by visiting our website to order brochures or a test drive. Visits to exhibitions and showrooms may lead to the act of purchase which is our ultimate goal. 4. TIME FRAME 5. PROMOTION STRATEGIES To promote the Prius, we have considered several means including the use of newspaper and car magazine as print advertising, Internet advertising, sponsoring activities and exhibition. a. Print Advertising i. Newspaper The main objective of newspaper advertisement is to perform the function of teaching consumers in the learning process. The next step is to attract the readers to the exhibitions and showrooms to do the feeling process. In the newspaper advertisement, we use the theme that the Prius only emits leaves but not pollution. It is a fresh car. We have two sets of advertisements. The first one is for advertising the Prius during the exhibition period. Another one is during the period without exhibition. The slogan â€Å"Prius, it’s fresh† is still used in these advertisements to make the whole campaign consistent. Here explains the two designs. The first one is used during exhibition period. It is published in a coloured full page. As the main theme of this set of advertisement is to connect the Prius with a fresh sensation, the main color of the page will be green. A white Prius runs down a green road. At the back of the car is a cluster of leaves. It shows the idea that the Prius would make the place it runs green. At the top left corner we can see the awards that the Prius got in the last few years. They tell customers that even professionals appreciate the Prius much. At the same time, three icons are used to conclude the main features of the Prius: low emission, high energy efficiency and the auto-charge function. The bottom of the page includes information about the exhibition, the venue and the time. At the bottom right corner there is a coupon. People can bring the coupon to the exhibition and get a model of the Prius. The plan is to attract more readers to come to our exhibition and feel the Prius. Another advertisement will be published during non-exhibition period. It will be published in a coloured quarter page. The design of this advertisement will also be used to relate the Prius to a fresh atmosphere. The background of the page is a large piece of grasslands. The back of the Prius is coloured with a pattern of cluster of green leaves. The slogan and three icons are also put in the page to recall readers’ memory that it used to be the Prius’ advertisement. At the bottom of the page is a list of showrooms demonstrating the Prius. We hope that readers who are interested in will go to the showrooms directly to feel how fresh the Prius is. ii. Car Magazine Besides newspaper, car magazine will also be used as one of the printed advertisements. According to the result of our questionnaire, most of the interviewees obtain the car information by the car magazine. It shows that car magazine is the main channel to promote. We have chosen CarPlus ( ) to promote because it is one of the members of South China Media Limited. Car Plus is positioned as the middle-class car magazine and it is suitable for our target group. Also, CarPlus is top three car magazine in Hong Kong. It is believed that after we have post the printed advertisement on CarPlus, it can increase the awareness of the Prius among potential car buyers. The theme is â€Å"Prius integrates with the nature†. The design of the print advertisement divides into two pages. The first page creates a natural environment so grassland is used as the background. Then, the grassland has a blank car shape and there is only a slogan â€Å"Today, Tomorrow†. The print advertisement is made simple and being curious so that it can create stopping power and let the reader to feel interested in the advertisement first. The second page is different from the previous one. The background is green and the car place at the middle. It is to create a fresh look of the advertisement and provide more details. There are several logos describing the feature of the Prius. b. Internet Advertising Internet is one of the most important media channels of automobile products. Based on the questionnaire’s result, Yahoo! is the main search engine of our target group. Therefore, a floating advertisement is used in order to bring awareness of the Prius. When the Internet users open the Yahoo! ebsite, the image of the Prius will appear in the screen, followed by a sound effect which is the sound of car engine. If the user is interested, he/she can click it and it will link to Toyota website. The Internet floating advertisement aims to raise the awareness of the customers and give them a fresh impression about the Prius. c. Sponsorship Activity For sponsorship activity, HK$50000 is spent on the World Widelife Fund (WWF) to promote environment protection. We will sign contract with WWF to makethe Prius the appointed car of the organization. As WWF focuses on nvironmental-friendly events, using the Prius will not only increase the reputation of the organization, but also increase the awareness of the Prius. We will give WWF a special price, near the wholesale price. The objective of this campaign is to connect the Prius to environmental-friendly business. Every time when people see the Prius, they will be able to think of fresh environment. d. Exhibition According to the findings of the survey, it shows that (% of interviewees ) usually visit car exhibition before purchasing cars. In order to raise the awareness of the Prius among our target audience, two exhibitions will be held this year. . Time Two exhibitions which will last for 2 days are scheduled to be held on 29th and 30th July, and 24th and 25th November this year. In order to better allocate the available resources, Flighting schedul ing method will be used. The exhibitions are arranged to be held at these two periods since it is expected that people’s purchasing desire are higher before the summer vacation and Christmas. ii. Venue Shatin New Town Plaza is chosen since it is one of the largest exhibition venues in the New Territories. In addition, the rent ($80,000/day) and space provided (3,600sq. ft) are suitable to carry out the exhibition. As Shatin is a well developed town, many people, especially middle classes, settle there. Holding the exhibitions in Shatin would probably increase the chance of reaching our target audience. The circulation of Shatin New Town Plaza per day ranges from 250,000 to 300,000, estimating 15. 6% of the people shopping there are our target customers, aged from 25 to 39 years old, according to the data from statistics of the Shatin New Town Plaza and Census. iii. Settings of Exhibition For the first exhibition on 29th and 30th July, a press conference will be held together with the exhibition. Chief Executive Officer of Toyota Hong Kong will introduce the main features of the Prius and answer the queries from the mass media and the public. Hence, the press conference allows people to get more information about the Prius. At the same time, overhead projection of the Prius video will be shown on the screen during the press conference and throughout the exhibition to create the feel of high technology. On the second day of the exhibition, there will be a cheque giving ceremony for sponsoring WWF to enhance the image of environmental protection of the Prius. For the second exhibition on 24th and 25th November, a famous artist who loves driving cars and is the representative of â€Å"Environmental Friendly Star† ( ) of Shatin Junior Chamber ( ), Miriam Yeung ( ), will be invited to share the feeling of using the Prius. With the famous artist giving professional opinions, the environmental friendly image of the Prius can be strongly established and strengthened. Background music, like birds singing, will be played throughout the exhibition, so as to create the feel of being in the nature, making people feel refreshing and environmental conscious. In addition to auditory stimulation, visual effect will also be emphasized. Flowers and plants will be used in the exhibition. They are used to enhance the environmental friendly image of the Prius. To strengthen the image, the Prius will be displayed on an artificial meadow with the shape of a leaf. All the above use the idea of classical conditioning since they serve as an unconditional stimulus and gives rise to an unconditional response, refreshing and environmental conscious. Through contiguity and repetition, this unconditioned stimulus will develop an association with the conditioned stimulus, appearance of the Prius, and thus gives rise to the conditioned response, the Prius is refreshing and environmental conscious. The floor plan of the event is shown as below. [pic] It is important to ensure the target audience can experience the full car visually so as to understand more about the Prius. One of the Prius is specially processed to be a partially transparent car, thus people are able to see the internal structure, like the hybrid engine of the Prius. Two normal Prius will be exhibited. People can experience the comfort of the car and professional opinions are given by salesmen at the same time. According to Foote, Cone ; Belding Grid, cars should use the model of Informative (The thinker) since the involvement of the target audience is high and it requires more thinking processes. Therefore, learn- feel- do model is used. Through the exhibition, target audience are able to learn more about the car from the transparent car model and the professional opinions from the salesmen, also, customers can feel and experience the comfort of the car. These settings are used to increase the chance of purchase. Board and decoration will be placed in the exhibition hall. Besides, decoration of trees and leaves will be placed so as to stress the feature of â€Å"environmental-friendly† of the car. The boards will show the features of the Prius and with the emotional appealing graphics. The customers could learn more about the product through the statistics and comparison. iv. Use of Manpower Personal selling in exhibition is very important since cars are high involvement product and more convictions are needed for purchase. Personal selling will be carried by salesmen who are trained to be familiar with the Prius in advance. Salesmen should be able to tell the advantages and features of the Prius and to answer queries from customers. The Prius will be promoted by sex appeal. Three beautifully dressed ladies will stand in front of three Prius respectively. It is used to increase the awareness of potential customers and photographers to take photos for them. Moreover, nine salesmen will be distributed around three Prius, promoting and answering queries raised by people. v. Exhibition Rundown On 29th July, 2006 |11:30-12:30 |Opening ceremony + Press conference | |12:30-15:00 |Exhibition | |15:00-17:00 |Racing queen for photo taking | |17:00-21:00 |Exhibition | |21:00-22:00 |Clearing | On 30th July, 2006 11:00-13:00 |Exhibition | |13:00-14:00 |Cheque giving ceremony of sponsoring World Wildlife | |14:00-15:00 |Exhibition | |15:00-17:00 |Racing queen for photo taking | |17:00-21:00 |Exhibition | |21:00-22:00 |Clearing | On 24th November, 2006 |11:00-13:00 |Exhibition | |13:00-14:00 |Sharing from artist— | |14:00-15:00 |Exhibition | |15:00-17:00 |Racing queen for photo taking | |17:00-21:00 |Exhibition | |21:00-22:00 |Clearing | On 25th November, 2006 |11:30-15:00 |Exhibition | |15:00-17:00 |Racing queen for photo taking | |17:00-21:00 |Exhibition | |21:00-22:00 |Clearing | 6. PROMOTION BUDGET 7. APPENDIX 8. REFERENCES