PR 101 – Lesson 49 – Some things Toyota could do to rebuild confidence in its brand
Jeff Cole | February 15, 2010
Last Wednesday, I said Toyota was slow out of the blocks to respond to the various crises it has faced of late. I think I was blogger 10,143 to state the obvious. However, I also said the company is showing signs of regaining its equilibrium.
Note: I drive a 2000 Camry. Both my children drive Corollas.
The company is running ads in every print and broadcast outlet it can find – including a lot of radio. It has shown pictures of its idled factories to demonstrate how serious it is in identifying the accelerator and brake issues. It also has a very active presence on Facebook.
Still while this is a good start, I think the company could do more. I think they if they handled it as I suggest, they would turn a negative into a positive.
Do What Datsun Did
The first thing Toyota’s C-Suite executives should do is plan road trips to every dealer in every country where Toyota is sold. The road trippers should be Chairman Fujio Cho, Vice Chairmen of the Board Katsuaki Watanabe and Kazuo Okamo, President Akio Toyoda, and in North America, Jim Lentz, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor Sales, USA. If there are people who hold the same positions as Lenz in Europe, Asia, South America, the Middle East and Africa, they should also pack their bags.
They need to take a page from the handbook of retired Nissan executive Yutaka Katayama. It was Katayama who made Datsun (which later returned to its original name of Nissan) into the first Japanese automobile success story in the United States, according to the late journalist and author David Halberstam. It was Halberstam who detailed Datsun’s success in “The Reckoning” – his account of the rise the Japanese auto industry.
Katayama lived in the United States. He traveled constantly around the U.S., meeting, customers, dealers, reporters and anyone else who talk to him. Halberstam explained that Katayama made Datsun a powerhouse because “he (Katayama) was a rare man. He brought a face to the Japanese mercantile presence; meeting him, Americans felt they knew, understood and liked the Japan that was behind his products.”
This is what Toyota’s executives should be doing. Going to every place in the world where there have been problems. Once there, they should personally apologize to their customers. They should be interviewed by the media in each city and repeat the apology. They should honestly answer the tough questions about what they knew and when they knew it. They should be speaking to every group that will listen. There should be town hall style meetings at dealerships for the customers and the general public to air grievances.
These public appearances will, in my opinion, do much to quell the anger and rebuild trust. Most people are willing to forgive a mistake, as long the one who makes the mistake sincerely apologizes.
Cut Prices
Second, a simple thing to do would to be slash prices on all models. Not a token five percent cut – a real one in the neighborhood of 25 percent. For those who have a car with a defective accelerator or brakes, give them a new car. I would throw into five years free maintenance for every car sold. Not just for oil changes and other minor things, but for all repairs from replacing a headlamp to replacing a transmission.
More Social Media
Third, I would make better use of social media than they are. Both Cho and Lenz should be blogging every week. Craig Newmark – the Craig of Craig’s List does, as does Jonathan Swartz, president and chief operating officer of Sun Microsystems and my personal favorite CEO blog, that of Southwest Airlines Gary Kelly. It has helped all three companies when they have hit rough patches. Explanations sound so much better when they come from the person in charge.
Finally, there are many, many people out there who are still strong Toyota supporters. Anecdotally, I know that because as Chester the Wonder Dog and I walk each day, I talk to Toyota owners. I have yet to find one who would get rid of their car.
I have also been on the Toyota Facebook page for U.S. owners. The level of support is amazing. Toyota needs to get those people more organized around company support. Most kind of companies would kill for that kind of support.
Put this all together and I think Toyota will be just fine.
Well spoken. I have to research more on this as it seems quite interesting.
My first car was a Toyota and my second car was a toyota. Since then I haven’t really liked the brand for various reasons. And, I think maybe this is a time for American Companies to do as Toyota did to them years ago and highlight the positives. So far American companies haven’t built ‘killer’ cars – problematic cars YES – KILLERS – NO!
Americans need jobs!
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I was scanning something else about this on another blog. Interesting. Your linear perspective on it is diametrically opposed to what I read to begin with. I am still reflecting over the various points of view, but I’m leaning heavily toward yours. And irrespective, that’s what is so super about contemporary democracy and the marketplace of ideas online.
Jeff–
Not sure your idea of giving existing owners new product that’s free to them, or driving deep discounts to the general public make great business sense.
The company is in business to make money, and not dump costly products into the marketplace. There’s not much benefit to Toyota in that.
The federal government is now going after Toyota in hearings, so these executives may be a bit busy over the next few months gathering documents and meeting with attorneys.
Honesty is the best policy here.
Come clean, apologize, take the punishment and move on.
Toyota understands the long view and this clamor shall pass.
Jeff: Well said. When I headed midwest PR and advertising for Toyota in the 70s, when Toyota passed VW as top import, we constantly toured our Pres., an articulate Brit named Tony Thompson, to do news and business Tv and radio shows and women’s talk shows, talking about meeting the changing auto needs of America. Today, the same connection strategy would work for Toyota. They need total transparency, opening up their plants and dealer service centers to the media and general public, talking safety, quality and responsibility. They should create their own Toyota Automotive Safety Institute, and make it accessible and interactive. And yes, they should say they are sorry, with some real compensation for inconvenienced and impacted vehicle owners. Last, they need a crisis plan that doesn’t require a delegation to go to Japan to activate.
Tom, I don’t know if you saw the announcement made today about power steering in Corollas. Apparently there is a problem there. As for taking time to talk to a bunch of grand-standing politicians or talk to customers, I know which I would advise them to choose. As for giving away product, it shows the company is both standing behind its products and wants to make things right.
Toyota executives are currently testifying before Congress about the safety issues that have led to the recall of millions of vehicles. They insist that “We are confident that no problems exist with the electronic throttle control system in our vehicles.”
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