assignment Brnd Arjun

Assignment Of Strategic Brand Management On “REVITALIZATION OF TOYOTA QUALIS”

Submitted to: Mr. Abhay Tiwari

Submitted by: Arjun(MBA Hons) 10904509

The Beginning The Toyota Qualis marked the entry of Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited - a joint venture of Toyota Motor Corporation and Kirloskar Group - in India in 2000. In India the company had already launched a massive ad-campaign towards the 2nd half of 1999 announcing its arrival in the Indian market. While Toyota is renowned brand all over world but still the company used the tagline "Touch & Try" for those who had never tried out a Toyota before. In 1999 excitement of Indian buyers was building up and among them some were those who really expected a good car from Toyota. But in January when Toyota launched the Qualis (short for Quality and Service), reactions were mixed. Potential buyers expected a modern looking vehicle and were disappointed when a dated model was launched. Rival companies rejoiced thinking that an outdated model will never beat their vehicles. But things took a drastic turn in a few months when people actually "touched and tried" the car. The Quails introduced at the time when there were only 2 players in the market - the Mahindra Bolero and the Tata Sumo. Although the Qualis was a Multi Utility Vehicle (MUV), it wasn’t targeted at MUV buyers. It felt very car like and the quality and minor change of the Qualis was what differentiated between the Bolero and Sumo.

The Variants

The Qualis was launched in January 2000 at an on-road price of around 5.7 lakhs for the base variant and 8 lakhs for the top-end variant. The models that were introduced were the followings: •

FS (Family Saloon) - The Family Saloon (FS) model was the entry level model and the cheapest variant of the Qualis. It was a bare-basic model which was actually targeted for the tourist business The FS Model was a 10 seater with a bench seat for the passenger in the first row and side facing seats in the last row.

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The Grand Saloon (GS) – It was the model that was targeted at the family buyer. It was available in 8 and 10 seater configuration. The 10-seater configuration was similar to the FS Model. The 8-seater had a bucket seat on the front row and forward facing seat in the last row - thereby making the seating configuration as 2+3+3.

•

The Grand Saloon-Touring – This model was introduced a few months later and was priced at around 9+ lakhs. This was the top-of-the-line Qualis which had all the

bells and whistles. Power steering and windows, Checquered flag decals, alloy wheels, bull-bar with integrated fog lamps, dual A/C, Central locking, De-fogger, Rear spoiler and wiper.

Parameters of brand judgments Brand judgments are customers personal opinion about and evaluation of the brand , which consumers form by putting together all the different brand performance and imagery association. Customers may make all type of judgment with respect to a brand , But four type are particularly important: 1 brand quality 2 brand credibility 3 brand consideration 4 brand superiority Brand Quality : Brand attitude are consumer aoverall evaluation of a brand and often from the basis for brand choise. Brand attitude generally depend on specific attributes and benefites of the brand. Qualis as brand in term of quality was superior because of its attribiute like mileage, maintenance cost , comfort and design and appearance ; service quality of the company and easily available speare parts. BRAND Credibility : Customers may also form judgments about the organization behind the brand. It describes the extent to which customer see the brand as credible in term of three dimension : perceived, expertise, trustworthiness and likability Brand Expertise- in the case of Qualis , Qualis was a market leader and having latest technology and better then competent . Brand Trustworthiness- Qualis is a Dependable brand and keeping customer interests in mind. In term of trustworthiness quails was a good brand at that time. Brand Likability – Fun , interesting, and worth spending time show the brand likebility.

BRAND CONSIDRATION: it depends in part on how personally relevant customer find the brand and is a crucial filter in term of building brand equity. No matter how highly they regards the brand or how credible they find it, unless they also give it serious consideration. Brand consideration depends in large part on the extent to which strong and favorable brand associations can be created as a part of the brand image. That is key area where is main problem lied at that time . customer considering the brand in different way but the company positioned its brand in different way. Like customer took it as a taxi but company positioning was for multi purpose vehicle. Brand Superiority : Superiority measure the extent to which customers view the brand as unique and better than other brand . if customer believe Qualis offer advantage that other brand cannot. It can be in term of mileage, engine power, pickup, performance, and comfort and company service.

QUALIS DEATH Qualis is a puzzling brand for most of the marketing persons. The simple reason is that Toyota stopped the production of this brand when Qualis was having its highest market share in Indian market. Qualis was launched in India in 2000. At that time itself the brand caught headlines because it was the first product of Toyota in India. Qualis was at least two generation old when it was launched in India. Qualis is Indian version of Toyota Kijang from Indonesia. There were so many predictions from the competitors about failure for Qualis which had real logical reasons. Firstly existing companies thought Qualis was a out dated model. Indian consumers are aware of global trends and may not accept an outdated model. Second was the design of Qualis. Qualis was not good looking. Hence the chances of the brand’s acceptance were perceived to be minimal.

But Qualis proved everyone wrong. For Toyota Company, Qualis was a brand launched to test the market. The brand was launched after careful market research and several consumers gave the company confidence to launch this product in the market. Qualis was a utility vehicle. The brand was competing with the Tata Sumo which was the market leader in the new born MPV segment. Sumo was a work horse and the product had its problem regarding lack of refinement and brand image. But there was a need for a refined, high quality multi-purpose vehicle. MPV's are used by businessman and self employed and those who would like to take the entire family around. Sumo was more of a commercial vehicle rather than a family one. Sensing this gap, Qualis was launched as a family MPV. The brand was launched with "Touch and Try" campaign which encouraged the customers to test drive the car. The brand initially focused on Space and comfort as the main differentiator. The sales soared once positive word of mouth about the comfort of the car began to circulate. In fact Qualis redefined the MPV segment in India. From rugged product to a refined car, consumers were educated to new levels of comfort. But things were not rosy for Qualis. Rather than the intended consumers, this brand began to attract taxi and tour operators. Qualis was selling like hotcakes as taxis. From the

initial 9% market share, Qualis replaced Sumo and was the market leader with over 40% share. The brand tried to bring back the individual consumer through a series of campaigns and variants. New luxurious variants were launched to attract businessman and individuals to buy this car. The Target Group for Qualis were businessman/self employed with an annual income between Rs 600,000- Rs 800,000 who travels at least 40-50 Km per day. Qualis was known for Quality Durability and Reliability. With MPV segment taking off, competition was getting hotter for Qualis. New launches from Chevrolet and Mahindra began hurting the market position of Qualis. It was Scorpio mainly that worried Toyota most. The company felt that the intended consumers (individuals) were moving away from Qualis. Toyota had the company policy that a model should have attained leadership position before phasing out. Qualis has attained its saturation point. So the company had the challenge of retaining the leadership position in the segment and also to expand the market. It wanted to get out of the “Taxi" tag. Toyota Company never likes to have a Taxi kind of tag with any of their products so in 2004 Toyota announced the phasing out of Qualis. Interestingly, the month where

the phasing out was announced saw record sales for Qualis. It’s difficult for a brand to succeed and even more difficult for a marketer to kill a successful brand.

Revitalization of QUALIS Revitalization describes as a major overhaul of a brand, starting with its positioning and proceeding through creative regeneration of the brand identity. Toyota can revitalize its QUALIS and can gain the market share by following ways:  BRANG IMAGE OF QUALIS – As we know that QUALIS had it image as a MUV

among consumers. So now company will change this image. Now QUALIS will be launched as a macho man look. And it will target the youth and business class with its SUV image. It will help the company to make changes in the perception of the target audience. And it will help to remove the “TAXI” tag from Qualis.  CUSTOMIZATION – Company is going to give the option of customization to their

customers. So now the customer who is going to make a SUV Qualis according to their own style. Company will give more customer delight through this service.  LOOKS – Company is going to change the looks of Qualis. New Qualis will be looking

more solid and with more macho looks. And customers is going to use it as a SUV not as a taxi.  COLORS – Qualis will be launch in new colors. Basically in new vibrant colors which

will give a new look to Qualis.  NEW AD_CAMPAIGN - There will be new ad campaign for Qualis which will give

message of luxury and sports vehicle. Previous ad campaign was also one of the reasons of Qualis death.  ALL TERRAIN VEHICHLE – Now Qualis add one more thing in their ad campaign.

They are going to promote a Qualis as an all terrain vehicle which will give it a clear SUV image in the market. And it will help for better positioning of the brand again.  DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL – Company should decide to work on a very good

distribution channel for Qualis.