Company Case MKT 202 
Case Study I
Nabila Nabi Chowdhury
ID – 073 066 030
MKT 202
Section 4
Prepared for:
Bashir Hussain
Submission Date: 21 July 2008
Company Case
1. Microenvironmental factors involve actors, who remain close to the company and they affect the company’s ability to serve its customer. The company, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customer market, competitors, and publics all of these are part of microenvironment. Toyota Prius introduction and relaunch were affected by several microenvironmental factors. These factors are discussed below:
a. Firstly, the Toyota Company itself was a major microenvironmental factor that affected its product at the very beginning. The marketing department of Toyota didn’t do enough promotional activities for its new vehicle. In a country like U.S. where as we all know all SUVs sell likes hotcakes, no one would really be interested to buy a dull hybrid car. Also the department involved in designing the product was too weak to attract customers at first. When it was launched people considered Prius to be small, cramped compact with a very dull design. Also due to its low horsepower, the pickup time was very long. The car took 14.5 seconds just to go reach a speed of 60km/hr. No matter how much environmental friendly and energy saving the car was due to low promotional efforts by the company and also the dull design, the introduction of Prius was highly affected. Also, even if the car was worthy enough of a purchase because of its environment friendly quality and fuel saving, enough people didn’t hear about it. But later on, Toyota did make its new version and the marketing of the product was raised as the brand image developed.
b. Secondly, as we all know, the presence of a competitor can really make it hard for a company to position its product well. During the time Prius was being launched it had to face, Honda as its competitor. Honda successful launched its insight even before Prius came to the market. Of course not to
Nabila Nabi Chowdhury
ID – 073 066 030
MKT 202
Section 4
Prepared for:
Bashir Hussain
Submission Date: 21 July 2008
Company Case
1. Microenvironmental factors involve actors, who remain close to the company and they affect the company’s ability to serve its customer. The company, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customer market, competitors, and publics all of these are part of microenvironment. Toyota Prius introduction and relaunch were affected by several microenvironmental factors. These factors are discussed below:
a. Firstly, the Toyota Company itself was a major microenvironmental factor that affected its product at the very beginning. The marketing department of Toyota didn’t do enough promotional activities for its new vehicle. In a country like U.S. where as we all know all SUVs sell likes hotcakes, no one would really be interested to buy a dull hybrid car. Also the department involved in designing the product was too weak to attract customers at first. When it was launched people considered Prius to be small, cramped compact with a very dull design. Also due to its low horsepower, the pickup time was very long. The car took 14.5 seconds just to go reach a speed of 60km/hr. No matter how much environmental friendly and energy saving the car was due to low promotional efforts by the company and also the dull design, the introduction of Prius was highly affected. Also, even if the car was worthy enough of a purchase because of its environment friendly quality and fuel saving, enough people didn’t hear about it. But later on, Toyota did make its new version and the marketing of the product was raised as the brand image developed.
b. Secondly, as we all know, the presence of a competitor can really make it hard for a company to position its product well. During the time Prius was being launched it had to face, Honda as its competitor. Honda successful launched its insight even before Prius came to the market. Of course not to