Toyota’s continuing PR crisis, today highlighted by news leads on a run-away Prius, is not running out of media space. It could be “accelerating,” to use a touchy word. As Toyota unveils its latest buyer incentives, today’s news story has gotten coverage equal to the infamy of recent weeks. I don’t recall seeing the term “Continuity Crisis Communications” used before, but Toyota is sorely in need of a communications plan that factors in a crisis that promises to keep reemerging, not for a few days or weeks, but perhaps for months, or even years.
They will be in need of “Continuity Crisis Communications,” the term I just coined, even if they do finally get to the engineering issue(s) that cause run-away acceleration in some cars of some models. Thanks to potential incidents with cars not adequately fixed (among millions out there), law suits over everything from deaths to lost vehicle value, and financial repercussions that could impact Toyota long-term, this crisis may never quite go away. While news media may tire, and be distracted elsewhere, as they inevitably do, this combination of mega and micro incidents and issues may plague Toyota long-term. Conventional PR tactics may prove insufficient to manage Toyota’s reputation, and the reputational fallout may go on and on.
In terms of public relations strategies and tactics, Toyota will need to stay focused on the customer, taking care of their needs and problems, borrowing whatever empathy they can for support in fixing problems akin to a cancer that won’t seem to go away, and keeps emerging, and challenging the best care and technology available.
Toyota needs to enlist the public as allies in solving the kind of problems that seem unfair and to have come out of nowhere. Patience, determination, professionalism and an unwillingness to surrender to the foibles of technology must be engendered in Toyota’s “publics,” from employees and dealers, to customers and families, to NGOs and governments. Yes, Toyota is a victim too, and needs support and time to re-instill their great tradition of quality, reliability, value and above all, safety. That is Toyota’s long-term PR challenge.
As Jerry Lewis might say on his telethon, “the cure is out there and getting closer every day, if we all work together to find it.” PR can’t make up for actions, but PR can explain and build empathy for the actions being taken.
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March 9, 2010 at 20:22
Tripp Frohlichstein
Sometimes, even the best PR can’t help if a company has done enough things wrong. In this case, with stories of repaired Toyotas still having problems, even the best strategy may not save Toyota as we know it.
March 10, 2010 at 11:11
Pat Healey
The dealers have to understand their role in mitigating this crisis. As was learned from the most recent Prius excessive acceleration situation, the driver said that he had just taken his car into the dealer who dismissed his worries that anything could be wrong with his car. Then, when he followed up with the dealer to report his terrifying problem, he was merely referred to a Toyota 1-800 number. Not good enough. He received no support nor apparent sympathy from the dealership. Surely the dealership must see it plays a role in righting Toyota’s reputation.
Just heard about another Toyota recall of it ’00 -’03 Tundra pick ups for the propensity to rust excessively causing the spare tire to fall out. Going forward, any recall, quality or safety issue, will cause interest by the media — warranted or not.
I like the idea of Continuity Crisis Communications. Seems to make perfect sense.
April 7, 2010 at 08:42
Heather Yaxley
I agree that organisations need to engage in crisis management beyond the short term – and that some issues will keep recurring or be linked to a brand long-term.
But, there are opportunities for Toyota to resolve this issue – and the same aspects that gained the company the good reputation can recover it. That is, positive word of mouth from owners and independent verification of build quality and reliability. Those are two key measures that Toyota perhaps forgot were important – and once were essential to its reputation.
Most car companies have had major safety issues in their past – some more recent than others. The public do move on – especially when issues are related more to a particular product than the overall brand. That is perhaps a major issue for Toyota as the impression is that all products are affected, which isn’t the case.
The “sudden acceleration” issue is also unlikely to go away, despite proven engineering evidence, Toyota’s own research and the history of the Audi incidents some decades ago. Unless the wider motor industry gets behind explaining technology more clearly to customers, public belief in “runaway cars” will continue. This is a classic example of emotion over logic – when it is always difficult for organisations to present rationale explanations to people who counter with irrational fear.
A further consideration is that the public generally has a short term memory – and even though issues remain around online longer than ever, what is top of mind soon fades. I teach 1st year University students and am constantly surprised by how they lack any historical knowledge relating to brands.
Inevitably they come across the “bad” guys (according to the textbooks at least) when studying PR (Exxon Valdez, Nestle baby milk, etc) – but otherwise they’ve never heard of these.
So as well as your CCC idea, we also need pragmatic public relations in recognising the long-game to be played.