Video Case

Toyota is the world's second largest leading car company; Toyota continued to add growth to their empire when they introduced their first Hybrid car, Project G21, The Prius. Toyota presented the Prius to let world know that yes, we can create a car that has record breaking high mileage per gallon, is eco-friendly, and does not necessarily have to strive solely on gasoline. Toyota achieved this goal by developing a car that runs on gasoline as well as electricity. For Toyota Motor Corporation as well as the car industry, this was a major step and idea, which could impact and change their company, their consumers as well as the market worldwide; therefore, Toyota used great caution when introducing the Prius to North America, a market that is known for their love of cars.

The effort of developing the Prius took approximately 4 years. The first development of the electrical cars by other car makers, including Toyota, failed in the early 1990's. This development failure was due to Toyota not allowing their engineers and manufacturers enough time to develop a vehicle that was powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. Therefore, Toyota set another goal, and gave themselves an additional 4 years to develop the next hybrid, which turned out to be a plus for their company. In 1997 the Toyota Prius was commercialized and introduced to the Japanese market; it was such a success that by 2000, the Prius was introduced to the American Market and sold 250,000 units worldwide. By listening to their consumers wants, complaints, demands and needs the Toyota Prius is one of the top selling hybrid vehicles, holding fifty percent of the hybrid vehicle market.

In what stage of the product life cycle is the Toyota Prius? Explain.

The product life cycle consists of four stages:

* Market Introduction Stage: This is considered phase one, which Toyota have moved past this phase because the Prius was introduce well over a decade ago

* Market Growth Stage: The Toyota Prius achieved this very quickly, to the point that Toyota could not keep up with the demand of their environmentally friendly consumer

* Market Maturity Stage: Even though this is highly debatable many may feel that Toyota is in this stage. Brand awareness is strong so sales continues to grow, but at a declining rate, because competitors are now entering and introducing the market with the same product

* Decline Stage: Because the market has become so saturated with the product sales decline; indicating that the consumers' taste has changed

My opinion is that the Prius is now going through a re-innovation and re-introduction stage, because the competition for the Hybrid vehicle is so high and the demand for fuel efficient and environment friendly vehicles have increased. This growing demand has now inspired one of most trusted original pioneers for Hybrid's cars, Toyota, to grow and design new Hybrid models, which cater and satisfy multiple