By Josh Sommers
Posted: March 12, 2010
If you lay Toyota’s image issues on the line, it’s not pretty. In the eyes of the public, Toyota put bottom line over safety and clung to information rather than favor disclosure for the benefit of public safety. Toyota screwed up — big time.
They know it. Worse: We know it. The company no doubt needs to regain our trust. The road to image recovery for Toyota is long. It could take years and lots of money.
Toyota’s image needs include, of course, fixing the safety issues, but also a sustained public relations and advertising program to rehabilitate its image.
Using a good reputation well
Time has proven that even the most battered brand can recover if there is a traditionally good corporate image as a foundation. Remember when an ice storm and poor planning created operational issues for Jet Blue, leading to thousands of passengers stuck at terminals? This crisis led to angry passengers, widespread negative news coverage and many consumers swearing the company off for good. But Jet Blue’s reputation for providing a great customer experience and necessary operational fixes helped them regain many fliers.
Toyota also has a long-time legacy of a good reputation. We’re not talking about Yugo. It’s Toyota, which has been the reliability standard for over 30 years. A key strategy Toyota can deploy in advertising and crisis communications is to leverage its historically good reputation for getting car manufacturing right. If that is done, while certainly not pretending the current issues do not exist, that could strike a chord with consumers. Watch some recent Toyota TV commercials and this is what you will see.
Third-party backers would help
Just like any other business, Toyota will certainly seek influential third parties to back the safety of its cars. That plan will likely include government agencies, trade magazines and Web sites like Car & Driver and Automotive.com, and potentially, public figures. These endorsements are earned, not paid for, thus giving this element of a public relations program more credibility than paid advertisements.
Low prices are a sweet lure
Toyota will also benefit from what they have recently started — sweet deals. Right now, you can find zero percent financing and free maintenance for two years on new Toyota vehicles, offers touted as the company’s best ever. These deals, coupled with their long-term reputation, will help Toyota recover from this public relations crisis.
Besides, the proof is in the numbers. In the midst of this major public relations storm, Toyota sales were only down 9 percent in February. While not a stellar performance in the midst of surging sales for other automakers, the small skid may be an indicator of the long-term impact to sales (although it’s too early to tell).
Toyota has a lot of assets to get past this. To win this battle, Toyota must fully disclose information to the public, fix the safety issues and incentivize sales with great deals. I wouldn’t bet against them.
Josh Sommers is president and CEO of Focus Media, a leading Hudson Valley advertising and public relations agency. He can be reached at josh@advertisingandpr.com or 294-3342, ext. 303. Read his blog at www.advertisingandpr.com. His column appears Fridays.
