Toyota’s PR efforts have been competent if muted during the ongoing recall scandal. Though it could certainly have done more in the past weeks (specifically by making top leadership more available to the public) Toyota has carefully avoided overreacting to the mushrooming media frenzy. Until now. The NYT’s Wheels Blog reports that the 173 Toyota dealers who make up Toyota Southeast have pulled regional ads from ABC stations because of “excessive stories on the Toyota issues.” Toyota Southeast’s ad agency 22Squared says “We have counseled the client on the pros and cons of this, and ultimately it was their decision to make.” Toyota continues to run corporate ads on ABC, but the petulant backlash from its Southeast dealers can’t help but reflect poorly on the brand. Any PR pro will tell you (and presumably 22Squared counseled its clients of this), that these kinds of strong-arm tactics do nothing to improve public perceptions of a brand. Toyota dealers might feel that the parent company is not doing enough on the PR front, but this approach will only create the need for more PR in the future.
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You’re ignoring the regional aspects of this, and the inevitable tribalism that’s in play here. Those Toyota plants are located in the Southeast. Billy Bob’s brother in law works there. Uncle Cletus ‘coon hunts with the plant manager, who sponsors his bass fishing tournament every year. The church parking lot is flooded wtih Toyotas, and the governor is up for reelection. Plus, Government Motors bailed out those dang yankee UAW slugs up north.
The SE dealers are playing to their market, and Toyota corporate is playing to theirs. They overlap, but are not mirror images. If both groups do their job, and I doubt the Madison Avenue types truly understand this, the SE dealers actions will come off just fine.
Though I agree the dealers are likely setting themselves up for a fall, my gut instinct is to applaud the audacity of their decision. The media HAS overreacted and overblown the recall debacle, and clearly smells blood in the water.
Like crash sled says (own a Camry, do you? LOL) they’ll almost certainly score points in their market, which is the point after all — less so the negative impact to Toyota nationwide, of which this will probably only be a drop in the ocean anyway.
And speaking of media overreaction, TTAC isn’t immune to this, either. Really, guys… “KILLER” airbags in Hondas?
“The media HAS overreacted and overblown the recall debacle, and clearly smells blood in the water”
No, the media hasn’t overreacted. You have a car manufacture which is basically *THE* pillar of automotive safety and reliability (actual or perceived makes no difference) that has:
– Many models of cars that have acceleration issues, causes by many known and unknown issues.
– Cars with Brake issues.
– Cars with potential steering issues.
Mix this with Toyota being slowto react, denial of all of these problems, possible government “cover-ups” and god knows what else, I think the media reaction they are getting is justified.
We are not talking about recalls because the radio doesn’t tune correctly or that a seat doesn’t recline like it should — but issues that could easily deal with someone being killed.
“We are not talking about recalls because the radio doesn’t tune correctly or that a seat doesn’t recline like it should — but issues that could easily deal with someone being killed.”
No kidding – recalls are ONLY issued for safety issues, not random design flaws. A radio wouldn’t be recalled unless its malfunctioning somehow became a safety issue.
Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. – Anon
Imagine it also applies to p*ssing off a television network.
The report starts out with the line “…imagine the fear, when your car speeds up…unable to stop…a potential death trap.” But you are able to stop….JUST HIT THE BRAKES. This is bad sensationalistic reporting. In fact, I’m amazed that more reporters and the NHTSA aren’t putting out public safety announcements on how to stop a car with a stuck throttle. That would truly save lives.
Later, when they report on the run away Avalon that went into a lake and killed 4 people they say “Police say the 2008 Avalon left no skid marks or evidence of braking…”Police say there was no sign of driver error…” EXCUSE ME!!!! I car drives into a lake and the brakes are never applied and you say there was no sign of driver error?!?!
I would be angered by this reporting too…if you can call it that.
Southeast Toyota is mimicking what its parent routinely does in Japan.
Toyota is such an industrial behemoth in Japan and spends a hefty amount in advertising; it will, and has, threatened to pull adds off the Japanese TV market if it feels that it’s getting negative press. This type of action only leads to what they are faced with now.
There are 500 television stations out there, and counting. The days of “the networks” dominating are over, and the networks know this even better than we do. Follow the money, baby.
I don’t follow NASCAR, but I’d be interested in whether Toyota makes any relevant decisions in that arena. Following up on the regional/tribal aspects of this, as mated with the overall corporate effort, that would give indication of where they’re headed re their image and marketing. They dumped Formula 1, a clear statement of priorities, and we’ll see if they make any other statements.
Toyota has become so used to governments and the media kissing their *** that they simply don’t understand how to live in a world which does otherwise.
Seems like I remember the same deal with GM and NBC after their Dateline piece.
The circumstances were very different. NBC reporters placed small explosives on the GM vehicles. Clearly a staged event. In other places, it’s called a lie. GM sued NBC. A settlement was shortly announced and NBC apologized for the “report”. Interesting that one of the reporters involved in the GM-NBC thing “left” NBC. And now is reporting at ABC.
and the GM’ing of Toyota continues. Same arrogance, tone deafness and obstructionist style responses as we’ve seen from GM are yielding a similar result in the media for Toyota. I wonder how Demming would advise them.
I do not know about Cletus and coon hunting but there is nothing sinister or unique going on here.
It is not unusual for a business, even an industry, to cancel marketing when there is negative news on a major scale about.
Easy example is airlines. When there is a commercial crash in North America, TV ads for airlines are few and far between for about two weeks.
Besides, Toyota dealers do not have much to sell right now and the service bays will be filled with recalled cars. If you look at the numbers, they are going to be crowded for a long time.
Why advertise to come into our showroom when you cannot sell the customer a Camry or Tundra?
Has no one else seen the ads Toyota has been putting up in the last few days? They come straight out and say that they are recalling their cars due to safety concerns, and that they apologize and will work hard to re-earn the public’s trust. It’s done a little bit schmaltzy, but I thought it was a pretty standup thing to do.
Whatever may have been the case before, they don’t appear to be trying to hide the need for change, now. They’re at least one step ahead of GM at the beginning of its decline in this regard.
Though I don’t like their current product offering, I think that Toyota is a long way from being down for the count.
I have seen the ads and beg to differ. They are ads. Done by the marketing dept. Toyota has had some serious issues of late that were only recalled because there was a large amount of attention. How does that signal change? Talk is cheap. GM has been saying they will change for years. They have improved, but still have a long way to go. So, if they put out a similar commercial, would it help? No, the only way for people to buy change is for it to be seen. So far, we haven’t seen it.
Of course the ad was done as a marketing exercise, but it doesn’t change the fact that Toyota stepped up and publicly admitted fault and the need to re-earn the public’s trust. It was merely a smart business decision, yes, but that’s still giving the public far more credit than GM ever did with their shenanigans.
The fact that Toyota’s president talked about the company needing to refocus on quality before this fiasco came to light is reassuring, as well.
So we have a driver who freely admits that he would’ve not known to shift his out-of-control accelerating car into neutral had ABC News not instructed him on how to do so. And he is qualified to tell the Toyota dealer’s Service Manager that a sticking accelerator pedal was definitely not the cause of his runaway acceleration.
Not to be a Monday Morning Quarterback but I believe I could have easily gotten that car to the dealership (shifting back and forth between neutral and drive) without smoking the brakes. I don’t think the rev limiter would let the RPM’s get much above 3k once you pop the tranny into neutral. I don’t want to unnecessarily criticize the guy who was driving either. But I do wonder if we got the whole story here.
Typical American, anything for a buck. Everyone from national networks to minor blogs is trying to milk this for a buck, spurred on by an army of class action lawyers expecting to get rich.
I applaud them for hitting back, even if they go down swinging. Someone has to stand up to the trash.
What does that exactly mean? Typical American. As if the rest of the world is not as greedy or corrupted. Toyota a Japanese company started this by denying it, lying about it and doing nothing about it. Who knows how many injuries and possibly lives it cost because of their stonewalling. They are just reaping the whirlwind. So take your typical American sh!t somewhere else.
Meanwhile, Hyundai steps in a buys all of that newly available airtime at a bargain rate :).
there’s no such thing as bad publicity – and Toyota dealers were getting a ton of it. Why do such a stupid boneheaded move like this?
Petulance such as Southeast Toyota is showing rarely works. As another poster noted, Toyota’s competitors will snap up the newly available airtime for a fraction of the rate card, largely made up by SET still having to pay for the canceled time.
They’re also missing the fact that many viewers are dumb enough to think that the networks and stations are endorsing the products advertised over their air. As part of its recovery, Audi actually ran a fairly heavy schedule on “60 Minutes.”
Wednesday, February 10, 2010.
Just another in the continuous string of days where “The Toyota Issue” is either on the front page or front page of the Business section (B1) or both in the New York Times.
Am I the only one that sees this as a simple and less devious:
Money spent advertising (more correctly, running ads that were crafted before the current PR debacle) at this time on channels COVERING the current PR debacle might not actually lead to sales?
I have relatives in advertising/marketing -> when they advertise on channels that are featuring them already, it’s to double the effectiveness of the ad, not to reward the channel for doing something for them.