Nissan Motor and Toyota Motor have adopted starkly contrasting post-earthquake business strategies.
Nissan aims to expand in emerging markets, while Toyota will focus on enhancing customer satisfaction with its products and services rather than setting any sales targets, Kyodo News said.
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In its medium-term management plan unveiled in June, Nissan targeted boosting its global market share to 8% by March 2017 which would translate into sales of a little over 7m vehicles.
If this goal is to be achieved, the company must ratchet up production by 500,000 units a year.
If the company’s efforts prove successful, the combined output of Nissan and parent Renault could reach 10m, giving the alliance top spot in the world’s automotive industry.
In China, Nissan aims to double the annual production of its local joint venture to 2.3m units by 2015. Nissan will also make major investments to enhance its presence in the Russian and Brazilian markets where demand is rising.
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By GlobalDataDomestically, the company will focus on building more minivehicles, an area of strong demand. Instead of taking the risk of going it alone, it has decided to ally with Mitsubishi Motors, which leads in this market segment.
Meanwhile, Toyota’s motto now is to offer quality goods at low prices to make its customers feel Toyota’s products are good bargains, a senior official told Kyodo.
”This sounds modest but Toyota has already built a global business network so it is more important for the company to hold on to its existing customers rather than initiating an aggressive marketing offensive,” one industry analyst said. ”That’s the way to preserve the clout of the leading company.”
The company vows to produce ”even better cars that will exceed customers’ expectations,” as president Akio Toyoda puts it. Superior fuel efficiency and a touch of class will likely be the salient characteristics of its new cars, industry watchers said.
Observers said Toyota is trailing behind Nissan and Suzuki in emerging markets but company executives are giving little heed to such views as they prioritise the training of factory hands and sales personnel over the expansion of production or sales networks.
Executive vice president Yukitoshi Funo, who is in charge of overseas operations, is cautious about doing business in emerging markets on the grounds that they cannot expect to grow indefinitely. There could be ”steep ups and downs” in those countries, he said.
The company will also go ahead with the restructuring of its group in hopes of beefing up its management prowess. Two subsidiaries – Kanagawa Prefecture-based Kanto Auto Works, which builds small cars, and Toyota Auto Body, an Aichi Prefecture-based van producer – are to be turned into wholly owned units in January.
The company expects all these efforts will help boost its worldwide sales including those of its group firms Daihatsu and Hino to 10m vehicles in 2015.
