How to Salvage Toyota’s Brand Reputation

Trust of Toyota’s brand … of the safety and reliability of its vehicles … is on life support. The giant car maker is suffering from self-inflicted wounds, the worst of which is not monitoring, not listening to warning signs of trouble.

Toyota cars with faulty accelerator pedals

So, today, what can Toyota do to rebuild trust and attempt to salvage its reputation? Time is critical, and Toyota is doing nothing … nothing … except for a few “We’re working harder for you” TV commercials which do not engender trust.

Toyota must earn back the trust of American car buyers … or its executives should look for another line of work.

A brand is not a slogan or advertising campaign. Certainly not in today’s digital era.

A brand is how an organization behaves – how it walks and acts and accomplishes tangible and authentic deeds that we all can see and measure for ourselves.

Toyota’s brand is not about what the company says it is or is not doing but rather how we perceive the company. Clearly, no one at Toyota comprehends that, as yet.

Here are four things the car maker could do … this moment:

1. Listen and engage – Provide an online site for customers to express their frustration, anger, questions or praise … and the company must respond at once with legitimate solutions or responses to every person. Such a site could be established in a matter of hours.
2. Express empathy – People have died and have been injured by Toyota cars with technical defects. Say you are sorry and ask what you can do will begin to create goodwill, again, with the public (those forgotten people who buy your cars). Forget that the attorneys counsel against it because you will get sued, one way or the other.
3. Be open and not afraid of facing the public – Toyota’s U.S. CEO and no one else must begin visiting towns and cities across America to meet with dealers and customers alike. No speeches … he must listen and talk with people, not at them.
4. Fire all the Washington lobbyists – Toyota must stop doing business in America by buying favor in Washington. Yes, greasing palms with cash might delay recalls of defective automobiles for a while but it is a cowardly and dishonest business model for a company that once had a pristine reputation.

Related posts:

1. Driving Toyota’s Reputation into the Wall
2. Toyota’s PR: Like a Bent Fender
3. The Price of Reputation
4. How to Damage a Good Brand Image
5. Tiger’s Brand: 80 Days Past Its Sell-By Date

Tags: Featured

Category: Featured, Reputation management