Toyota International Marketing

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the automobile sector was very high.

D. Toyota’s model’s internationalization

In 1960, when Toyota started is internationalization, they were presented in all the countries near than her original country, Japan. But their presence was limited or non-existent in France (and Britain, Italy, Austria, Federal Republic of Germany) where the presence of well-established car manufacturers offers strong competition. This was the biggest barrier that Toyota met during its internationalisation, and the main reason for the late internationalization in France.

Toyota used the Uppsala internationalisation model, to come in French market. There are 4 steps to establish the Uppsala models. All steps can be very different for each company but still going in the same direction.

“First of all, companies appeared to begin their operations abroad in fairly nearby markets and only gradually penetrated more far-flung markets.

Second, it appeared that companies entered new markets through exports. It was very rare for companies to enter new markets with sales organizations or manufacturing subsidiaries of their own.”

That was exactly what’s happen for the internationalization of Toyota in France. For the first step, the company started to sell some cars in countries near them like India Latin America, Asia, Australia. The French market was too far and too expensive for them to export cars. Moreover, the demand was unclear due to presence of competitors on the French automobile market (such as Renault).

Secondly, Toyota started to sell in France very slowly, the exportation evolved over lots of years. It was impossible to produce in France in the first year of exportation as the company did not know the real automobile demand in the French market.

Once the demand on the automotive market in France was quite high, Toyota has decided to build a factory. This step was the final point to conclude Toyota integration on the French market.

III. PESTEL analysis

To understand the context when Toyota decided to come in France, they have had to make an analysis of all aspects in the exporting country. Each one came have some opportunities but also threats. Toyota launch in French was very long. The company arrived in France in 1971, with the Toyota French brand. The first reel activity of Toyota in France was in 1990.

A. Political Environment

The political aspect in the France market had a big influence on their strategy. During the integration of Toyota, the political environment in France was not very stable. On one hand, the new government fought against inflation, and therefore put policies in place against this. With this policy the government want to decrease unemployment. The arrival of Toyota plant generated jobs, so the government on this side did not prevent the arrival of Toyota in France.

But on other hand, the French government wanted to preserve the local companies. Protectionism politics set up by the government permitted local companies to develop their products, however, for Toyota it was an important threat because French car companies were already strong competitors. This politics put a shadow on the Toyota brand. French people prefer sometimes by French product rather than Japanese product.

Consumer taxations increased in the 90th years because the state needed money. Therefore, the price of products increased. For Toyota, that would impact on their sales. Their products were the same, their margin was the same, however, for customer the product price increased.

B. Economical environment

Toyota had hoped to arrive at the “trentes glorieuses” (30 years after the end of the war, when France had very high growth), but exports of products were too expensive, Toyota had delayed its arrival in France. Unfortunately, because of this lateness Toyota came to France when the economic situation was unfavourable.

The world oil shock provoked many difficulties all around the world and France had not been spared. Moreover, the exchange rate between the Japanese Yen and the French Franc was very unfavourable. As you can see on the graph it was totally instable during the internationalization of Toyota (from 1970 to 1990).

The exchange rate is very important when a company internationalizes a product. It’s necessary to make provisions. In other words, Toyota has to buy foreign currency of the importing country (in this case Franc). Expect, in general companies wait until the perfect moment to buy currency, but during this period Toyota has no choice but to buy immediately went they felt they needed to. The future was uncertain; overnight the rate change could increase could and vary by twice as much.

Working women started to be very much in vogue. The power household was decreasing for a few years so women started to work, to earn money. It was an economic aspect that could be an advantage for Toyota, because women had to move and it was necessary to use cars. Women could be potentials customers.

The presence of the government in the economic structure and in the fight against inflation allowed Toyota to have perspective of progression for their future in France. The company could ensure the support of the French state in the economy to try to ensure economic stability.

C. Socio-cultural environment

Each country has is own culture, there are countries with high-level culture and low-level culture. France is low level culture, however, despite this low level of culture, Toyota would have to analyse elements of the French culture to understand how the French people live, how they consume; how and what factors should they give to sell Japanese product. The language barrier was also part of an environment threat to Toyota. The company would adapt products with French