Toyota Case Study

This is about an interaction with the CEO of Shree Toyota Company, Dealers in J&K region Mr.
Manik Batra. He has done B.E in Electrical Engineering from Jammu University and after
completing his engineering, he diversified his career from the electrical field to the field of
automobiles. It was his father’s venture which let him to join this sector. In the beginning, he has
joined his father’s business Shree Toyota in 2005 as General Manager, Sales and after achieving his
sales targets he was promoted to CEO and looking after entire business operations since then. He is
trained in Toyota systems by Toyota global school of management.

Training and development:

Toyota has regional training centres i.e. north, south, east and west. Toyota global school of
management provides certified training to all the senior managers of dealers. All the middle
management, technical staff etc are being trained in-house by the dealer’s trainers itself. The training
is being conducted on weekly and monthly basis. The weekly training programs are conducted at
dealer’s offices and the senior’s managers have to undergo monthly training programs at regional
office Delhi. All the senior managers are certified by Toyota global school.

Toyota has technician training institute at Kochi and Jalandhar where 60 people are provided training
every year and if any dealer needs technician he can request and select people from the institute.
Internal checks are performed on employees also upon their skill up gradation, their performance etc.
The employees are given up gradation plan at the time of joining about how they move up in the
ladder of organisation structure with the growth of the Company in next 3 years.

Sales and Target:

The sales targets are being set by using “dealer Neinkei system” – a Japanese term for annual targets.
The targets are being set by company itself. After doing the analysis i.e. Market comparison of the
segments, Market size, customers segmentation etc the company set target for whole region and then
a regional office allocate targets to all the dealers of the region based upon their analysis and
projections. The dealers also uses business forecasting based on last three years reports and accept
the targets set by regional office.

Dealers Auditing:

The Toyota has dealer evaluation standard India where they conduct quarterly evaluation of the
Dealers on the parameters like sales, service, customer satisfaction level, dealers look, what dealers
are upgrading? How they are maintaining etc. And based on dealers scoring the dealers award are
being given to them. The people engaged in various auditing of dealers are:

a. Toyota itself.

b. TNS Asia India.

c. J D power Asia Pacific.

They conduct customer satisfaction survey, dealer satisfaction survey. Mystery shopping is also
being done at Shree Toyota by TNS Asia or J D Power Asia to see how they treat customer and the
level of response they provide to customers in sales and service respectively. The Mystery shopping
schedule also is a mystery to the dealers and they came to know about it only when the report is
being sent to them about their experiences in the dealer’s outlet. Shree Toyota follows various TQM
practices being laid down by Toyota head office know as SOPs (standard operating procedures).
Every dealer, every Department and every individual has its own SOP. Kaizen philosophy is also
implemented at Shree Toyota. Apart from External auditing the dealers has Internal auditing process
also.

Recruitment policy:

The job specification in Toyota is as per the job requirements ie, the educational background of
employees working in Toyota depends upon the job type. E.g. for sales even simple graduate is
considered for the post and for technical post i.e. people dealing in service side minimum ITI or
Engineering diploma holders are being considered for the post. Toyota has technician training
institute at Kochi and Jalandhar where 60 people are provided training every year and if any dealer
needs technician he can request and select people from the institute.

Shree Toyota has around 100+ employee working with them. The compensation is being decided by
the dealers only based upon the market. Shree Toyota provides salary a bit higher as a lot of
investment is been done on their training and they do not want to lose their employee to their
competition. Shree Toyota is facing a huge poaching problem as competition is paying extra ordinary
salary and position to Toyota employees. To tackle this problem they have lot of employee retention
schemes for their employees like health insurance for whole family etc. A different HR department is
taking care of all the employees of Shree Toyota dealership.

Incentives for the employees:

Monetary awards plus other kinds of awards are given to employee to encourage their feedback. Best
idea/feedback employee’s photo is also published in Toyota magazine. The best idea is then practised
/ implemented all over the country. The employees are provided with holiday package to Japan or
Thailand if they won the best idea competition being conducted every year by the company. The
participation may come from anybody within the organisation even from a peon of the company.
Online tests are being conducted for employees on weekly basis to check how much they are updated
with the Toyota systems. And depending upon these exams they are given incentives, awards,
promotions etc.

Discount schemes are also provided to Employees and even discounted interest is being provided to
them from the bank but since all the vehicles are very costly no one has shown any interest in the car.
With the launch of “ETIOS”, the CEO Mr. Manik Batra is planning to put new discount schemes for
their employee and expect their employee to take benefits of discount of this car.

Layout Design:

The layout of showroom is designed by the Toyota itself and not by the dealer.
New Product development:

New product development is based upon extensive research of 1 to 1.5 years and before launching
any car in India, the Toyota takes feedback from all the dealers. The dealers and senior staff are
given test drives and their suggestion is considered for any change in the car and only after that the
car is rolled out for its potential customers.

Product Availability:

All the Toyota products are available at Shree Toyota viz.

a. Innova

b. Fortuner

c. ETIOS

d. Corolla Altis petrol/diesel

e. CBUs

The CBUs are imported from Japan and they include Camry, Land cruiser, Prado etc. Advance
payment of 10 lacs is taken from the customer and legal agreement is done for CBU cars. the CBUs
have a waiting period of 2 to 3 months.

Customer categorization:

The Shree Toyota treat all their potential customer equally as anyone could be the potential customer
for them. Currently 30% of the enquiries are being converted into sales and now they are targeting
for 50% conversion ratio. They have categories their customer into 3 categories viz. Warm, hot and
cold. Cold customers are those who do not respond to Toyota calls. Warm customers – who plan to
buy car after 6 months and hot ones are those who intent to buy car in one to two months.

Customer loyalty programs are also being provided for up gradation e.g. from Qualis to Innova in
terms of giving them certain priority over others in delivering the car along with discounts. Corporate
discounts along with certain priority also given to selected number of companies like Airtel, Aircel
etc.

Business Collaboration:

1. Exide – battery

2. HDFC – finance

3. CM – Teflon coating

4. Bridgestone – tyres
And there are many other companies like various insurance companies and other banks for insurance
and financial needs.

Service:

No Local Vendor is entertained for any spare part or any service and only genuine parts are used in
servicing. If part is not available in the dealer’s service point then it has to be procured from regional
office or eve from Thailand or Japan office. If Vehicle is On VOR (Vehicle off road) status then the
part will be derived to dealer by air within 2 days. The service of vehicles will be done only after
taking proper appointment from the customer. The customers are being called when their service is
due and are reminded accordingly. The details are fed into central database where all the information
can be accessed by anybody in the company.

Dealer’s benefits:

1. Any dealer can open this outlet anywhere in the country if other dealer of the region business
is not getting affected coz of it.

2. If Jammu customer purchase car from let’s say Punjab and Jammu dealer i.e. Shree Toyota
proves that the customer is from Jammu and hence belong to his dealer then all the Punjab
dealer margin will be transferred to Jammu dealer. The proving art is quite simple as Jammu
customer will bring the car for service to Jammu dealer and he can take address proof etc to
prove his point.

Achievements of Shree Toyota:

Shree Toyota got the 8th rank in customer satisfaction last year i.e. 2009 when industry average was
810 and they scored 893 where top dealer scored 930 and hence the chances of mystery shopping is
very less being on top 10 positions. The last time mystery shopping took place was only in 2008.

So due to the young blooded CEO, Shree Toyota has become well renowned dealer of Toyota in
J&K.

Customer Relationship Management

The Interview is started with the introduction of CRM head Ms. Kanchan Sharma. In the very
Beginning she has told that earlier she has worked in Toyota in Punjab region but after marriage she
has joined Shree Toyota in Jammu.
Customer Difference between Punjab and J&K

She told that she has a very good experience of working in Shree Toyota and she also has thrown
light on the fact that there is a lot of difference be

tween the customer of Jammu & Kashmir. She mentioned that the buying behavior of the Punjab is
quite different from Jammu & Kashmir. In Punjab people are very royal so they focus on features
instead of Budget. Punjab people mostly go for luxurious car.

How they Judge there Real Customer

Shree Toyota follows the NABing which help them assessing the needs, advantage and benefit of the
customer. Which help them to judge whether that which segment of car customer will go for i.e.
High, Middle, or Lower. All the procedure they follow are Directed by the Toyota known as
Standard operation Procedure (SOP).

Customer Loyalty Programs

On asking about customer loyalty program CRM head replied that customer loyalty can only be built
by means of the customer satisfaction to build that, guideline of SOP are used. The Customer
feedback is taken by a centralized system by the headquartered people in Banglore. They ask the
customer about their experience after visiting Toyota by focusing on servicing and billing aspect etc.

Relation with customer after they purchase vehicle

Shree Toyota has standardized system of maintain the relation with their customer till the customer
uses the Toyota vehicle. On the very first day, Toyota people send a congrats and all the best
message to the customer and also clicked his/her photograph. On the third day, shree Toyota people
either call or send the customer thanks letter and on the seventh day a service schedule is sent to the
customer. Shree Toyota has a continuous contact with the customer till 180 days of purchasing of the
car.

Servicing Issue

To avoid any sort of servicing issue, Shree Toyota has started the appointment system for servicing.
Customer having appointments are given the top priority then those who come on spot get late and
that is due to their own mistake rather.

Availability of the car to the customer on the spot in urgent need

Shree Toyota can’t provide car to their customer on the spot as the process of purchasing is based on
booking mechanism. So, customer has to bear the waiting period after he orders for the vehicle.
Delay in the waiting process is due to the problem in backend or Sometime customer change their
customization like color which result in delay.

In case cancelling the order

Shree Toyota people motivate their customer not to cancel their order. Higher authorities of Shree
Toyota call their customer and pursue them to buy the car. If the customer wishes to cancel their
order in that case booking amount is not refundable only for Fortuner and for rest car are refundable.

How the Dealer handle tough and complaining customer

Shree Toyota believes in providing best solution to their customer and tackles their problem
efficiently and effectively.

For this they cite one example

“Where they had one critical customer who has gone for the test drive for a vehicle on top model.
But due to the high price, he chose to purchase the lower model and want to have same features in
lower model as well. That customer starts complaining a lot about suspension and shocker of the car.
So to tackle his problem Shree Toyota taken the support from technical, TQM and Top management
but that customer was not satisfied. Every time before his service dates that customer start
complaining about his car shocker and every time Shree Toyota people has changed his car shocker
only to satisfy him”.

Buying Behavior of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladhakh people

60% of the customers are from Kashmir and Ladhakh whereas rests 40% are from Jammu region.
Kashmir and Ladhakh people mostly taxi customer whereas in Jammu there are private car customer.
From CRM head we come to know that Ladhakhi people mostly not go for insurance of their car and
they mostly pay their entire amount at one time.

Toyota Q- class

Q stands for quality and qualified. It denotes ‘quality’ of a product and service they are providing
and ‘qualified’ for the staff Shree Toyota is having as they are well qualified and can handle the
customer in best possible way.

According to Ms. Kanchan, customers are attracted to Toyota due to the strong brand name.

Advertising
Shree Toyota has an annual plan for advertisements and they have different strategy for different
months. July, august and September is the peak season of selling so they go for maximum advertising
in this season.

Advertising as a means of prospecting

Most of the advertisements are in the festive season like Diwali and New year. The main issue
behind their ads is to generate inquiries, so that they can be in touch of customers and in this way
they will be in touch with their prospects and thus will capture information about them to contact
them further.

In Toyota, there is a well defined sales territory which is decided on the basis of the region and this is
done to avoid the sales leakage.

Effect of brand endorser on the sales:

According to Ms. Kanchan, the sales do not increase due to the brand endorser. They are chosen just
to make the advertisement more popular and catchy. There is hardly any customer who will do such a
large investment just due to the brand endorser factor.

Recently for Etios, the brand endorser is A.R Rehman and they have chosen him because he was the
first Indian to win a Oscar award and Etios is launched in India very firstly.

Customer meet
Shree Toyota organizes customer meets for the purpose of developing mutually profitable Customer
relations. It gives them a platform to select group of people with a specific message that dealer wants
to convey. In J&K, the selected segment in the meet is the taxi customer as it is a profitable segment
for them. It is organized in Jammu, Srinagar and Ladakh. The main purpose behind this is to heighten
brand awareness and by direct interaction dealer can create referrals a s well.

By the means of such meets , they convey their messages to the customer, tell them about various
offers and give special privileges to special customers. In such meets, there is direct contact between
the customer and the dealer so the customers share their experience and tell the areas where Toyota
should improve so such a feedback really help Toyota to inculcate new features in the product.

In Srinagar, meets are organized in the summer season ie in the month of August or September
because of the Darbaar move to Srinagar. In summer the tourism is also at its peak so demand of taxi
is increased so its best time to target them.

In Jammu, they are organized few days before the Navratas as number of pilgrims to Shri Vaishno
Devi Shrine increases in this season and thus taxi demand also raises in this festive season whereas in
Ladakh, meet is organized in summers because the tourism is high and thus taxi business also
flourish.
Shree Toyota cannot organize it in winters in Srinagar and Ladakh inspite of flourishing tourism and
it is due to the climatic factors like snowfall as the roadways is totally disturbed .

Sometimes Toyota organize it only for the customers of a particular car say, Innova and sometimes
they do it for the whole of the segment.

The venue for the meet is decided very carefully so that most of the customers can come so it should
be reachable. Most of the times the customer meets are organized in the motels or some clubs for the
maximum gathering. Motels are chosen specially they pull the maximum turnover of the Toyota cars
like Innova.

Some important things like entry of the customer’s name who has come to attend the meet and
referral form is always given to tap the customer’s information which would help them to trace
them further.

The whole of the venue as well as parking area should be well decorated so that they feel they are
important to us and ambience should be appealing to create a good brand image. At the meet, some
pamphlets or cds of the newly launched car is also given to the customers to generate the inquiries.

Best maintained Toyota car

Shree Toyota conduct a contest for the best maintained Toyota car and certifying the best one. Since
the sales of Toyota Innova is at peak so they have called their customers who have travelled atleast
30000 kms or who own it 24 months back on this event. This event helps them to generate database
on old cars which are accessible for replacements. The prize winning car is selected on the basis of
best functionality and good external appearance. Such an event let them find prospects for new cars
as well as those who are interested in replacements.

So such events let the dealers to generate a database of the old cars ready for replacements, inquiries
for the new vehicle and referrals from the customers. The customers are given the exchange offers
for the existing vehicles and opportunity to have a test drive as well.

Due to the poor roadways and weather conditions, every customer wish to have a well maintained
car to avoid accidents and failures thus such an event gives them a positive edge. So this event leads
to increase in demand of not only new cars but it also leverages the demand of spare parts as well as
the vehicle is diagnosed in such an event.

It has to organized in an area where there is ample space and which are away from the city traffic so
that the cars can be properly diagnosed to judge which is the most maintained car of the year.
Winners are felicitated with Toyota genuine Accessories like alloy wheel, Body stripes, Fog Lamp
etc. A vehicle freshener was given to all the participants as a token of gesture.

Sometimes it is difficult to invite the customer in such an event due to the political pressure like ban
on SMS and prepaid SIM connections so in such a case, it become a costlier affair for the dealer to
reach the customer.

As a post activity, “thank you” letter is sent to all the participating customers.
F1 activity
Customers of J&K are very unaware and underdeveloped so such an activity cannot help out.
Moreover, such an activity cannot take place in J&K due to poor infrastructure which is may be due
to the Article 370 in whole of the state and elite class customers are very few or none at all. In
addition to this, due to political unrest and threat of terrorist attacks in Srinagar as well as in Jammu,
such an event cannot be fruitful.

Instead of F1 activity, Shree Toyota believe in sponsoring the events like Dushera, exhibitions,
caravans, Dogri Sammilan etc

Celebrity visit

J&K is the state where people has a very less exposure and under developed. The reason behind the
underdevelopment is Article 370. The lack of competition is there due to the state subject so the
talent and knowledge of the people is really unleashed here.

Shree Toyota believe that such an event can appeal to only elite class customers or to the
knowledgeable customers who actually know that who is the customer is. They believe that
customers are very price conscious so they are hardly influenced by the celebrities. According to
them, celebrity sells the advertisements but not the product. People buy Toyota because it is a good
brand but not due to the celebs. Moreover celebs also don’t want to attend such an event due to the
security issues which arises due to the risks like terrorist attacks and stone pelting by the group of
people. It is also due to the fact that J&K is a disturbed area and there is high uncertainty of strikes
and curfews or application of article 144 during political unrest. So in such a case, celebs are not
willing to take the risk.

MARKETING ACTIVITIES

Exchange Program

Today with the growing pace of development in J&K, the automobile sector is also at boom.
Nowadays, most of the people owe a car. This gave Shree Toyota an opportunity to come with the
promotional activity i.e. Exchange program. Since J&K is the booming market so there is a
considerable amount of the car sales and they do not include only those who want to purchase a new
car but also those who want to replace their cars. So event like Exchange program target those
customers who are willing for the exchange and thus lead to significant up gradation in the sales.

Since after the 6th pay commission, the salaries of the employees has doubled and they got a hefty
amount and thus most of them were willing to spend this money in purchasing new cars for them.
Thus, Shree Toyota took advantage of this very opportunity and started an exchange program where
the customers can get a new Toyota car like Innova in exchange of their old car. This activity has
dual advantages, the one is very obvious i.e. it lead to increase in sales of Toyota cars and adding to
it, one more benefit was thus it lead to reduction of cars of other brands so such an activity leads to
brand building as well.

So the target of such event was those prospects who were not only interested in buying a new car but
also want to sell their existing vehicle. Thus Shree Toyota’s efforts in advertising and popularizing
such event had made it a great success. The day and the place of the event also played a great role as
the place was Toyota showroom itself and the exchange program for whole of the month and the day
of exchange were Saturdays and Sundays. Non -working days and a highway location was chosen to
get maximum volume. The vehicle is properly evaluated on the very same day when the customer
come to the showroom to avoid any kind of latency and it can even lead to diversion in customer’s
mind as well.

The placement of the banner for this event were maximum in Bahu Plaza and Gandhi Nagar because
most of the private as well as government offices like BSNL,HDFC, J&K Bank and HUDCO office
are located in this area as the target of this event was employees. The advertisements media used for
this event were local television channels like JK channel, Take1, radio channels Radio92.7 FM and
local newspaper Daily Excelsior and Amar Ujala. All the media used were local, because the target
was the residents of J&K. Most of the television ads were shown on Thursdays and Fridays to get the
maximum response as the people can plan on these days thus can go for exchange on Saturdays and
Sundays and newspaper advertisement is released on the Saturday and Sunday but radio ads were
throughout the week because most of the people listen to radio while driving and thus it can really
emphasize them to go for a new car.

This event has really helped them to increase their sales and thus, it leads to their market as well as
brand expansion. This event also generated a lot number of inquiries and it also lead to a large
number of additions in the customer database.

Mall marketing
Since the pace of development of the retail sector is at its peak in the state so the new malls are
opening. With the growing number of malls, the purchasing behavior of people is also changing as
today’s customer want to have the full fledge knowledge about the various products and brands.
People are becoming information seekers so this gave an opportunity to Shree Toyota to go for the
mall marketing.

The target for such a promotional activity is mall goers as these kinds of audiences are highly
lucrative and ready to buy. In malls, the density/ footfalls are more and people prefer to spend their
time with friends and family here. To cite an example, in City square mall, there are lots of people
especially on holidays and weekends who come for spending their free time and shopping.

Shree Toyota has started mall marketing two years back when City Square mall was opened. They
have now marketed their Etios in the possible manner in the mall. They have used the entrance of the
mall as the banners of the semi circular shape were used in the entrance to get the attention from the
maximum number of customers. There was display of Etios outside the entrance and test drive is also
given to the interested customers.

The banners and posters of the Launch of the Etios were on the lift door as thousands of people use
the lift daily and thus maximum attention can be grabbed.

Since Etios was very firstly launched in India so to create a patriotic feeling for the car, the table top
media was used for the marketing in the Indian food restaurant like Moti Mahal and Bikanos and the
pamphlets of the car were distributed after the customer has ordered as he has to wait for few minutes
for preparation of the order thus, this free time can be utilized in this way.

Some are the banners were there in the parking zone as well because people who are planning to get
a new car or shift from two wheelers to four wheelers can see it and inquire for the further
details.Most of the mall marketing is during the festive season like Diwali, Eid and New Year
because at this time, the sales of vehicles are at peak in this season. The pamphlets are distributed to
the visitors.

During vehicle display, the essentials like Test Drive Feedback Form, Enquiry Form etc are made
available. Thus in this way, Shree Toyota is able to generate a large number of enquiries and thus
acquire information about the various prospects.

Taxi and travel Operators meet

Shree Toyota has big base of taxi customers segments. In J&K, the tourism business is at boom as
there are numerous tourist places like Vaishno Devi, Shri Amarnath Shrine, Dal Lake, Ladakh etc so
the number of taxi and travel agencies are at boom, the highest number of taxi customers is from
Srinagar and whole of the credit goes to the beauty of Kashmir which pulls a large number of
Tourists followed by Jammu and thereafter Ladakh. In Ladakh, the number of taxi customers is
comparatively low because of the high snowfall, the roadways are also at halt and the one major
reason is it is thinly populated.

The most selling car of Shree Toyota is Innova and they were awarded for such a high sales as well.
They are the topmost seller of Innova in the North Zone. Since taxi is a profitable segment for them
so they pay special attention to them so Shree Toyota organizes the meet for the taxi and travel
Operators.

The basic purpose of such a meet is to generate inquiries. Besides this, the dealer try to generate
their interest on their products and to find their specific requirement. There is an assembly of top to
bottom customers which include corporate fleet operators as well as those who are self employed,
who buy and run their own vehicles.

The meets are conducted bi-annually in which feedback from the existing customers is given to
create a long term relationship and spread goodwill. On the meet, the special offers like less interest
financing, exchange offers and free one year maintenance of existing vehicle as well on purchase of a
new one are given. Besides this they are also offered of a free servicing like washing of their vehicles
at the service station.
 Most of the meets are organized on the auspicious or festive season because vehicle buying process
is an emotional event in India and people look for Shubh Muhurat for purchasing the car. Most of the
people ask the astrologers for the right day before buying the vehicle and the sales is least on
Saturdays as people believe that it is not a prosperous day. One more thing which Shree Toyota do
consider is Darbaar move i.e. from Srinagar to Jammu in winters and Jammu to Srinagar in summers,
the meet is organized a month after it, because in this period the travelling business is at boom as
sometimes, government also hire the local transporters for the transportation of men and material,
thus the demand for the taxi is at peak in this season.

The venue for the meet is selected keeping in consideration the ease of reaching there. The corporate
customers were called in Amar Singh club and all others were called in Garden Estate, keeping in
consideration the proximity to Railway Station and it is centrally located as well.

By the means of such meets, the greatest benefactor is the dealers get the latest address and telephone
numbers and thus, contacting them further becomes an easy job.

DIRECT MAILER

Shree Toyota also goes for Direct Mailing method to communicate to their customers about any new
offers or new product. They believe that an individual daily checks his/her mails thus it is one of the
ways of grabbing the attention of potential customers.

Mails are sent to the existing customers or the prospects. They get the prospects information from
various banks, financial institutions and also from various other branded companies for example
Westside, Panasonic, Yo! China members etc. The different types of direct mailers used by them are
envelope mailers, self mailers, postcards, dimensional mailers, co-branded mailers. Direct mailing is
used as a promotional tool and also in exchange program or informing the customers about the
special offers like zero down payments or 4% interest etc.

Direct mailing no doubt is a cost effective program as it requires very less man power and also cost
per mailer is Rs 20 but the conversion ratio of this process is very low. This practice has not
contributed much to the sales of the company. The reason being that people gives very less
importance to such mails. They don’t have time to read such mails and also some of the mails go as
junk mails. The mails are not attractive and the customer thus gives no attention to them. Direct
mailing alone can’t provide sales it should be followed by telemarketing, i.e. a follow up call after 48
hours of sending of mails should be made.

In this era where every individual has its own mobile a SMS is a better option and also the message
should be clear, short and should give all the information i.e. what this message is for, whom to
contact in case of query etc.

CORPORATE DISPLAY
The marketing team of Shree Toyota believes that persuading corporate businesses to products and
services is a highly effective way to stimulate high volume sales. They believe that 50 to 60 percent
of the sales are from the corporate sectors. Corporate display is thus done by the marketing team of
Shree Toyota and mainly this is done at Bahu Plaza where most of the corporate offices are located.
The corporate display is done mainly during the months of January, February, July and August as
corporate purchase is high during March and September.

Shree Toyota has collaboration with various corporate like Airtel, Aircel. To such cooperate it gives
priority and also sometimes special discounts are given. Through this technique brand awareness and
recall is made and also sometimes a bulk purchase is made by the company for its employees. A
large prospect base is created and the dealers also come to know about them.

Corporate display no doubt is a costly affair as it requires lot of time and free space and also the
ambience should be good. To make this event successful the date, time and place of display should
be given importance. It should be checked that no other major event is occurring on that day as it
would dilute the overall event performance. During display following points should be kept in mind

• The display location should accommodate one car properly.

• The ambience should be good, the floor to be carpeted.

• The information brochures and other important things should be arranged neatly in the
display stand.

• Information about finance should be available. No ambiguity should be there. As

many of the employees are buying the car as they have car allowances in the form of
installment towards loans, leasing allowance etc.

Corporate display most of the time attracts only those employees who want to buy a car it does not
motivate others. So those who are ready to go to dealers shop even if no display would be conducted
are attracted to it. Thus no extra volumes are generated by this process. To attract other uninterested
employee’s small gifts for all the visitors who took a test drive should be there and also a lucky draw
for all the visiting cards which were dropped by the visitors. Through this a database for future
contacts would be created and also other uninterested customers would be encouraged.

CARAVAN DISPLAY
To increase the brand visibility of their products among the prospects caravan display is carried out
by Shree Toyota at a place where significant size of prospects and existing customers are available.
The route of caravan is also decided and it is kept into mind that the route is clear and traffic is very
less. This technique of marketing is mainly done to tap the prospects that are living away from the
dealer outlet place, who have the ability to pay but because of lack of information they are not
buying the Toyota cars. It is like providing virtual showroom experience near to the customer
location.

The conversion ratio via this process is moderate. Shree Toyota also carries a service person along
with them during this activity. This creates goodwill among the customers and also the prospects get
impressed by the service provided by them. During the activity loud music or band is also arranged
to attract customers. To attract more customers tie ups with local financiers and second hand vehicle
dealers should be made so that they intimate their customers about this event.

Shree Toyota mainly does such activities near some Exhibition grounds and even during some Youth
Fests or Technical fests in colleges and universities. With caravan activity test drive is also provided
to the visitors. Caravan display is a costly affair as lot of time and cost is involved. For a single event
the cost involved is Rs 4, 75,000. Most of the visitors who visit the caravan display may not be the
serious customers. They have came to the location for just fun and to have a test drive. Now the
marketer should be able to distinguish between serious and non serious customers. The customer
profiling should be done before any caravan activity.

3S
SALES
INNOVA Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total
2005 0 0 11 27 8 17 10 6 5 4 6 13 107
2006 12 10 23 24 27 25 27 10 11 2 0 6 177
2007 14 20 25 25 10 20 22 20 22 12 10 7 207
2008 0 33 31 30 12 26 11 4 10 11 10 7 185
2009 4 8 26 13 41 43 44 43 24 19 12 16 293
2010 16 18 32 52 65 63 80 24 16 18 14 11 409
There is an increase in the sales of INNOVA from past 5 years. i.e. from 2005 to 2010. During the
year of 2008 there was a decline in the sales of INOVA. The main reason for the decline was riots in
the valley. The sale of INNOVA is high during the months of April, May, June, July and the main
reason is that this is the holiday season. During this season, INNOVA is hired as a cab for tourism,
which is also highest during these months. This period is also famous for the Amarnath pilgrimage
and the tourist inflow is also very high. All the three regions of the state witness an increase in the
tourism and hence the sale of INNOVA is also more. In Jammu, during these months, Vaishno Devi
pilgrimage is at higher due to the vacation period. Due to the pleasant weather conditions and
Amarnath pilgrimage in Kashmir, Innova is in great demand over there. Also, tourism is at its peak in
Ladakh region. A large number of International tourists visit Ladakh during this period and hence,
there is an increase in the sales of INNOVA during this period.

COROLLA Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total
2005 0 2 2 2 3 0 2 2 2 2 0 1 18
2006 2 2 0 0 3 5 2 1 1 0 0 0 16
2007 0 1 2 1 0 9 0 0 1 3 0 17
2008 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 3 1 1 6 13
2009 1 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 3 1 0 2 19
2010 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 2 1 1 2 0 10
 There is not much increase in the sales of COROLLA. It is a Sedan car and there are
many competitors of Corolla in the market, available at a lower price range. The sale of COROLLA
was maximum only during the launch of the car. Toyota has not received much market share from
this product. To increase its sales Toyota should go for integrated marketing strategy that would lead
to the success of the COROLLA. The company can also go for a strategy that include internet marketing,
SMS campaigns and mall displays around various locations in the state where it thinks they have
potential buyers.

We met Mr. Aashish, Operational Head of Ladakh (during summers) and also the
Service Head of Jammu region (during winters).He has done his MBA in Marketing from
Jammu University. He has worked in ICICI Lombard as risk analyst and has also handled
the IT infrastructure and sales of Speedx Infotech, Dealer of HP.

Mr. Aashish then enlightened us with unique 3s philosophy of Toyota which is

incorporated in Shree Toyota also. He told us that by Integrating sales, after-sales
service and service parts storage in a single convenient location, 3S dealers contribute
to the High level of quality associated with Toyota throughout the World.
Service

Mr. Aashish told us that there

are two types of Services
provided in Shree Toyota.
General Shop, Body & Paint
Shop. He said that to provide
best in class service support to
their customers their service
department has trained and
experienced technicians, an efficient customer handling process, excellent workshop infrastructure
thereby providing a speedy and efficient service to their customers at all times.

Shree Toyota works a lot for customer satisfaction. They provide various facilities to the customers
like waiting lounge is there in the dealer outlet from where the customer can see what all is going in
the service station etc and can also watch television read magazines so that the customer don’t get
bored. The service station layout, the color of the board design everything is standardized all over the
world. This is done so that the customer feels the same everywhere.

In general shop the main part is periodic maintenance and normal repair. The periodic
maintenance is the periodic repair of the vehicle i.e. after purchase of car 1st service after 1000 km or
after one month etc. The first service is free of cost and a general check up takes place. This
maintenance period is defined as a result the service department can provide an efficient service to
the customers since the service department has a record of when the purchase of car occurred. The
database of this is available as a result of which they have an idea of when the car would come for
service and also what parts need to be changed.

Mr. Aashish told us that the MRS, Maintenance Reminder Schedule staff reminds the customer
about the service time. They do all the scheduling for the service by calling the customers and also
by follow up approach. The follow up intervals are also defined. MRS staff gets the record of
customers from the sales data that is available in the centralized server. Walk in customers are given
less preference as compare to the customers who have taken an appointment. So the MRS staff tries
to educate the customers to take an appointment first. For minor repair also they educate the
customers about the appointment procedure.

STEPS INVOLVED IN SERVICING

The first step is the entry in the main gate. The problem with the Jammu region is that we don’t have
qualified gatekeeper who can be trained to be compatible with computers. So data entry on the gate is
never scheduled and most of the time missed.

The second step is filling up of AWAC (Appointment walk In and Check Around Sheet) form.SA
(Service Advisor) is informed about the car entry he is mainly present at the receptionist area. In this
phase the SA checks the outer part of the car if any scratch is there, fuel quantity and any valuables
are there in the car. Everything is recorded and noted in the AWAC form. After getting the AWAC
form filled the customer signature is taken.

The third step is RO/Wash-1.Repair order form is filled and simultaneously the car is send for under
washing. The repair order form is an online procedure. Through this the Banglore server also knows
which car entered for service, the entry time and what all need to done. As a result of this a track is
maintained to check that the service is not delayed and also that for each step involved in the service
the individual is allocated for that particular job. A proper scheduling of technicians, helpers are
done. Through this the main centre of Toyota knows what is the schedule of Shree Toyota service
and if delay in service they will get a call from the head quarter asking what is the reason for delay.
RO the total amount involved without tax is also told to customer.

The fourth step is the invoice flow where customer gives the amount.

The fifth step after washing the vehicle is the general repairing and maintenance.

After Maintenance, Vehicle moved for Quality Checks and road test.

After satisfaction by the technical team, the vehicle is then washed and interior dry cleaning also
done.

Vehicle then moved into Delivery point where it is ready for the customer to check out.

Service desk fills the next service date in the database and ask for customer feedback for satisfaction.
Customer leaves the desk as a happy customer.

Body and paint shop deals mainly in accidental issues. Shree Toyota provides the crane service to
the customers. The customers contact them whenever required. From April’10 they have tied up with
an external agency (Mandayal). They provide service to the customers within the range of 50km that
is free of cost in the case of breakdown.

Accidental cases are very rare and general service cases are more in number. Most of the parts are
under warranty.3 years warranty for Toyota vehicle is provided. This is the reason why Sales of
Toyota more coz maintenance cost is very less.
Earlier people use to get the car paint themselves now the scenario has changed. Nowadays painting
technology has also been changed a lot. Earlier oil based paints were used but now eco friendly
paints are used i.e. water based paints. They are costly and would start within 1 or 2 years. In water
based paints base would be water but not carbon. Dulpont provides paint to Toyota and paint mixing
is also done in Service station.

Service Parts

By maintaining optimum service parts inventory, well trained service personnel and world class
infrastructure, the service parts department contribute to speedy and efficient service, allowing
customers to experience the convenience and pleasure of owning a Toyota.

When asked how they maintain their spare parts, the service part head told us that they retrieve
information via online system. They told that they categorize orders into 3 types:

1. Stock Order: This is order which is automatically generated by the system; this order
cannot be modified manually. Basically when new stock comes then the workers enter all the
details in their system and according to day to day selling the system maintain the current
requirement and availability in stock.

2. Emergency order: In accidental cases, the stock is not already present in the stock room.
The logistic head thus places an order for the material and within 3 days the order is
delivered.

3. VOR : Vehicle off the road

In Shree Toyota, the stock that has arrived first is sold first.5 sigma quality practice is followed in
Shree Toyota. Whenever stocks come, the stock is sorted out and proper labeling is done. The stacks
are numbered properly and record of all this is maintained. Through this process it is easy to keep a
track of parts and also in locating the material. The heavy parts are kept on the lower shelf and the
light weight material is kept at the top of the shelf. The material that is required for daily use is kept
close so that it is easy to access them. The service part process in Ladakh is very difficult as the
logistic cost is very high as most of the times roads are blocked. Even the time required is very high.
Since Toyota follow zero inventory policy i.e. JIT is followed inventory can’t be stored in Ladakh
region.