Marketing_Management_14th_Edition-min

SETTING PRODUCT STRATEGY | CHAPTER 12 353
unfold. Hoping to bring consumers back to the Toyota
brand, the company offered incentives such as two
years of free maintenance and zero-percent financing.
While Toyota rides the recall storm of 2010 and faces
some challenging times, it can be comforted by the fact
that it continues to lead the industry in a wide range of areas
including lean manufacturing and environmentally
friendly technologies.
Questions
1. Toyota has built a huge manufacturing company that
can produce millions of cars each year for a wide variety
of consumers. Why was it able to grow so much bigger
than any other auto manufacturer?
2. Has Toyota done the right thing by manufacturing a
car brand for everyone? Why or why not?
3. Did Toyota grow too quickly as Toyoda suggested?
What should the company do over the next year,
5 years, and 10 years? How can growing companies
avoid quality problems in the future?
Sources: Martin Zimmerman, “Toyota’s First Quarter Global Sales Beat GM’s Preliminary
Numbers,” Los Angeles Times, April 24, 2007; Charles Fishman, “No Satisfaction at Toyota,” Fast
Company, December 2006–January 2007, pp. 82–90; Stuart F. Brown, “Toyota’s Global Body
Shop,” Fortune, February 9, 2004, p. 120; James B. Treece, “Ford Down; Toyota Aims for No. 1,”
Automotive News, February 2, 2004, p. 1; Brian Bemner and Chester Dawson, “Can Anything Stop
Toyota?” BusinessWeek, November 17, 2003, pp. 114–22; Tomoko A. Hosaka, “Toyota Counts
Rising Costs of Recall Woes,” Associated Press, March 16, 2010; “World Motor Vehicle Production
by Manufacturer,” OICA, July 2009; Chris Isidore, “Toyota Recall Costs: $2 billion,”
http://money.cnn.com, February 4, 2010; www.toyota.com.