Toyota, and Lexus by extension, plans to cut costs associated with sales and marketing, using the resources to further research into autonomous vehicles and other advanced tech — from Reuters:
“We may be posting record profits, but we don’t think we are keeping up with their pace of investments,” one of the sources, a senior Toyota official, told Reuters.
To do that, [CFO Koji] Kobayashi wants to tap into money once earmarked for automotive marketing and general expenses, which for the year that ended in March totaled 2.72 trillion yen ($24.66 billion).
This move was initiated by Toyota canceling contracts with the China unit of advertising agency, Dentsu Inc.:
Toyota was frustrated with the cost of at least two events Dentsu organized in China: a ride-and-drive for Toyota’s premium Lexus brand in March and the Beijing auto show display stand for Toyota in April.
A review by the automaker showed “out-of-control extravagance in how it executed those events – not over-billing,” another one of the sources said. Beijing Dentsu declined to comment.
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