Toyota produces cares that customers can trust and love.
Toyota one of the leading global automotive companies in the world has let a
mistake hang out too long. Toyota’s products had been linked to 19 deaths
because of safety defects that were in their Toyota Prius. In 2010, Toyota faced a whirlwind because of
safety defects found in their products. “Yet, within months, it had to recall
over 8 million vehicles worldwide to address issues of “unintended
acceleration,” suspend production of some of its most popular models, testify
before Congress, and face the national limelight(Toyota | Reputation Management - Benenson Strategy Group", 2016). Toyota had to stop the sales of 8 models during this time frame.
Central to Toyota's problem is its
perceived delay in identifying and addressing the situation in the first place.
Whatever Toyota says now, and however well it acts, there is a sense that it
ignored the problem until it was forced to take action. Corporate denial
appears to have been the order of the day, with the company following the
advice of the Japanese proverb: "If it stinks, put a lid on it”(Hemus, 2010).
Could
this situation been avoided? Did Toyota know about this situation earlier. The
answer to both of those questions is yes. As a PR Practitioner’s view , this
could have been handled earlier on when this issue was discovered in the
incubation period. Toyota had wait till it literally “hit the fan” to address
the issue. During that time frame it had
lost the trust of their consumers which reflected in the loss of sales. If Toyota were upfront and apologized they
would have been able to bounce back from this faster. “ What they will not
accept is that you're not being transparent, because that then feeds thoughts
of willful deception and cover-ups.” (Newsweek,2010)The transparency factor took
quite a bit for Toyota to get to. If Toyota were to have responded faster it
would have reduced the grief they went through at this time. The recall cost
came to almost 5 billion dollars and the loss of 16% in sales in 2010.
Toyota
since then has made a recovery and is back to being the top producing automotive companies in the world. "
References/Suggested Reading
Hemus, J. (2010, February 9). Accelerating towards crisis: A PR view of Toyota's
recall ... Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/feb/09/pr-view-toyota-reputation-management
I. (2011, September). The Toyota recall crisis: Media impact on Toyota’s ... Retrieved from http://www.instituteforpr.org/wp-
content/uploads/JFGRA-InfoTrend-case-study-ver-2.pdf
Staff, N. (2010, February 2). The Toyota Recall: A Public-Relations Disaster?
Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/toyota-recall-public-relations-disaster-
74961
Toyota | Reputation Management - Benenson Strategy Group. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.bsgco.com/work/cases/toyota-
reputation-management
No comments:
Post a Comment