Question

briefly discuss the product life cycle of Prius. What factors account for Prius's success and what factors contribute to the brand's decline?

Answer 1

Before writing about the Product Life Cycle of Toyota, it is essential to know about the Company and its operations. One should know about the background of the selected Company, which further will assist to analyze the Product Life Cycle in an effective manner.

Product Life Cycle & Toyota Prius

Introduction

Toyota Motor Corporation is counted among the world's largest automobile companies. The company introduced its first passenger car in 1936. The product of Toyota, which is in its maturity period, is Prius hybrid vehicle. It is an electric medium size car, which was developed and manufactured by the Toyota Motor Corporation.

This car was firstly launched in Japan in 1997. After 2001 this vehicle started to cover the whole global market. This is the most fuel efficient car, as it emits least amount of Co2. An electric compressor is used in this new model for cooling. Its battery is smaller in size and lighter in weight. Its air conditioner is completely operated by gasoline engine. This is the first car which is user friendly and fuel efficient. Prius hybrid is a vehicle which has combination of several efficient features. The engine of the vehicle can be operated with both gas and petrol.

The car has a very effective quality to reduce the consumption of fuel. It has a computer program, which shuts off the engine when the car is stopped and running on a downward slope. It is a fully modified vehicle, which is quite safe for the drivers .

Product Life Cycle

Product life cycle analysis is a very important tool in the hands of a marketer. It gives a better understanding in managing the profitable products and eliminating the unprofitable products to a marketer. As the product moves from one stage to another, marketing manager evaluates and adjusts strategies to promote that particular product. A product has four stages in its life cycle ,

Introduction stage - It is the stage in which product is introduced to the customers. Product of the Toyota I.e. Prius Vehicle was first introduced to its customer in 1997.

Growth stage - Introduction stage is followed by the growth stage for the product. In this stage, sales of the product increase so the profits for the firm also increase. After Japan Prius was introduced in the U.S. And now it is selling in more than 40 countries all over the world.

Maturity stage - It is the stage in which profits increases with a declining rate. Sales can grow, decline or stabilize for the product. Prius is in the maturity stage of its life cycle. Prius was the only car in the product offering of the Toyota, which had maximum sales turnover among all other combination of hybrids (Toyota Prius, 2008). When a product reaches in the stage of maturity, a marketer tries to offer some more benefits and advantages to the customers so that the level of sales can be increased.

Prius hybrid cars are known for the fuel efficiency and environment friendliness technology. But now sales of the product are getting down in Japan, so to cope with it, marketing analysts of the Toyota are offering some more benefits and seeking for some new markets of Prius

Decline stage - In this stage, sales and the profits of all the products are declined. New competitors develop better products. In this case tesla developed new electric vehicles to compete with Toyota .Similarly ford also developed new electric vehicles.

What led to brand decline

Weakening consumer market demand for it, or the lessening of it for Prius. The fact that it is a hybrid vehicle. And a hybrid is nothing more than a gas car. Smart electric car consumers who do their research are figuring this out to now start refraining from buying hybrids and instead move toward purchasing BEVs. Ion technology has gotten so industrially cheap to manufacture, it is now cheaper to make and use an all electric battery operated car known as a BEV, than it is to make and use a hybrid, whether a mild or PHEV, or any gas car for that matter. Give it time, BEV prices will continue to become more competitive with gas cars. So the BEV is now really, the better value verses hybrids.