Toyota’s Brand identity still ‘Moving Forward?’

It has been announced the global Japanese car Manufacturer Toyota is evaporating its UK Marketing Director role, following extreme problems with Avensis and Lexus models fuelling systems, leading to a recall of over 1.7 million vehicles world wide. A corporate disaster at this level certainly tarnished the brands image for being a reliable safe vehicle. So it is even more shocking to see the company has decided to reshape the business in this way. Brand image is what determines consumers buying habits. If a customer wants to buy a reliable car they would buy a Volkswagen, as it is known for being a long lasting car. If a customer wants to buy a luxury car a Bentley or Rolls Royce comes to mind and finally if a customer wants a sporty car to stand out a Porsche or Ferrari’s image would suit that. All these assumptions come from brand image and continuous efforts by the companies to increase brand equity.
David Aaker believes that a good brand image is backed up by understanding consumer motivations and desires by creating relevant and appealing images round their products. These positive images are created by successful marketing, which needs to be implemented on a continuous basis so a company can sustain brand recall. If no further marketing strategies are used, the only recall consumers will have of Toyota is this major manufacturing disaster. Consumers are much more likely to remember negative news around Toyota rather than positive. This further backs up my opnion that there is an obvious need for MORE marketing on the companies brand to change the identity of Toyota back to a positive image.

By taking a more commercially focused business step, Toyota are risking the value of its vehicles to customers and inevitably will face reducing prices and profits to keep sales figures up. Which will in turn change the brand image of being reliable like its main competitor Honda, to becoming known as a ‘cheap import’.
 I believe any business wanting to create a successful image need to implement constant marketing strategies to be able to keep a high brand identity and customer loyalty. Toyota are making a big mistake changing its focus, but only time and future sales figures will prove this. We will just have to watch this space!


Sources:
Marketing Week: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/sectors/automotives/toyota-is-making-a-mistake-by-scrapping-marketing-role/3024700.article
BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12283732