Posted By
KIM KORTH
on
2/1/2010 8:09 AM
If Toyota's initial public relations campaign that started this weekend is any indication of how they will approach this crisis, the company is in more trouble than I thought. In case you missed it, there were two things that happened. Chief Executive Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder of Toyota, was at the Davos economic conference in Switzerland and he was caught briefly by reporters where he was quoted as saying; "I am deeply sorry...about the recall." He then disappeared from view for the rest of the conference, skipping out on all the major functions to avoid having to talk to the media again. He appears to have the same apology skills as George W. Bush so avoiding the media was probably a good idea.
Then, there was the beginning of the media campaign this weekend. In full page ads in most major newspapers, Toyota started communicating with customers and the American public. To say it was not an auspicious start is an understatement. I actually was turning the page of the Sunday New York Times before I realized it was their ad. It was typical Japanese minimalism as it showed a giant pause button to start the explanation of why they had stopped production at many of their North American plants. It went on to say that in the next few days it would start telling customers what Toyota was going to do to fix their accelerator problem. It then listed a website you could go to for more information. This ad was wrong on too many levels to count. First, the general public and your customers don't give a rip about stopped production at your plants! They care about the fact that their trusty Camry accelerates out of control periodically and kills people. Second, it attempted to say it was a relatively limited problem but they were being extra careful with the massive recall. And lastly, did I miss even a modest apology? The ad actually made Mr. Toyoda's "deeply sorry" comment look good. And you paid for someone to help you develop this ad?
We can only hope that starting with an interview on the Today show this morning, Toyota understands that learning how to say "we're sorry" in every way imaginable is their only hope of not suffering significant long term damage to their brand.
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