Marketing strategy for Toyota Prius in India

Abstract

The Indian automobile industry is the 9th largest in the world and has been growing at a rate of 14-17%. The industry can be classified into three segments: cars, two-wheeled vehicles and three-wheeled vehicles. Passenger vehicles segment is dominated by cars. In spite of the growing automobile industry and the increasing sales of Hybrid cars in the world, the Indian market for Hybrid cars is still at a nascent stage with only two hybrid introductions: Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius. As a result, even though Toyota Prius was launched in India on January 7, 2010, it has not garnered enough sales. Our project is mainly focussed in designing a Post Launch Marketing Strategy for Toyota Prius in India. The study began with an analysis of the Indian automobile industry, the World Hybrid car market and the Indian hybrid car market. The Indian hybrid car market was further analyzed by determining the contextual factors which govern the Indian Hybrid Car market and the initiatives being taken by the Government for promoting environmentally friendly vehicles in the country and more specifically Hybrid cars. This was followed by the literature survey for the marketing strategies for new technological products and niche products. As Hybrid cars are a new product and also relevant to a small population of the potential car buyers at present, we used this approach. The acceptance for new technological products was explained by the ?Technology adoption lifecycle?. And the paper ?Exploiting Niches through relationship marketing? was studied to arrive at strategies for marketing niche products. From the literature survey we came up with a framework for marketing niche technological products by targeting the innovators first. The literature survey was followed by primary data collection which involved focus group discussions and depth interview to indentify the hybrid car attributes that potential car buyers look for and their motivations in buying cars. A survey was conducted and hypothesis formulated to determine the potential target segment for hybrid cars. Based on the potential target segment and the factors governing the Hybrid cars in India, we have made the recommendations for positioning and the promotional strategies that Toyota should use for marketing Prius in India.