Toyota announced on Monday that they plan to double their sales this year, thereby increasing their market share by 5% of the Indian auto market. The company managed to sell around 55,000 models in 2009, which increased to 74,000 models last year. For 2011, the company expects to sell above 1.4 lakh models, according to the company’s vice president, Sailesh Shetty.
He also said that the growth in sales will be driven largely by the Liva hatchback and the Etios sedan. While addressing a conference for the press, he said that they plan to expand localisation of products to around 70 to 80% that will play a significant role in their overall business plans.
They are also at the advanced stage of estimating the viability of a diesel variant of the Liva hatchback and the Etios sedan, as there is a rising demand in the market for diesel variants.
The company’s general manager of marketing, R.K. Ramesh, said that they managed to gain a 21% share in the market of petrol sedans after launching the Etios and hope to better their performance with the Liva that is targeted at a younger audience.
The company is also planning a host of advertising campaigns for supporting the Liva launch, seeing the internet playing a significant role after TVCs. They have already developed a TVC with musician and brand ambassador, A.R. Rahman. They would also be launching video campaigns on music based channels like Channel V.
He also said that the social media plays a bigger role presently, and they are putting a greater emphasis on, targeting the youth with high aspirations and purchasing power.