PRODUCT RECALL AND BRAND STRATEGY A Case Study on Toyota Corporation Essay

PRODUCT RECALL AND BRAND STRATEGY A Case Study on Toyota Corporation - Essay Example mmand a healthy following, the company has however concentrated its efforts in marketing the principal brand which is Toyota and its sub-brands (Daye & Van Auken, 2010). Until the product recalls, Toyota’s brand architecture hinged primarily on the Toyota name. It is typical for Japanese companies to focus their business and marketing efforts on a single corporate brand (Daye & Van Auken, 2010). This strategy has obvious advantages, such as the development of a strong culture around the master-brand and therefore making their marketing efforts more efficient (Thomson, 2010). It has strong implications in its production approach also, because the single brand allowed the firm to lessen the number of components it needed. Toyota’s sub-brands shared a large number of common parts, reducing design efforts and concentrating production on these shared components. â€Å"Compare this approach with US rival GM, which, until recently, was operating a house of brands structure with 11 distinct marques, and the reason for much of Toyotas success and GMs decline, becomes apparent† Daye & Auken, 2010). While there are obvious strengths, there is one glaring weakness in the brand focus strategy. Negative publicity which may attach for any reason to the master brand is going to affect not only all its existing sub-brands at the moment of the controversy, but also all future sub-brands still to be designed. It appears that this is the reason why Toyota’s strategy for 2011 and the near future is to shift global marketing emphasis to its Lexus brand (Toyota Annual Report for 2011, p. 11). The executive report also places emphasis on quality and safety as its two major parameters. Hence, the company strives to bring constant development in its operational and management process. Toyota’s production system â€Å"is steeped in the philosophy of ‘the complete elimination of all waste’ imbuing all aspects of production in pursuit of the most efficient methods† (Toyota