You Are the Brand

Toyota: Putting the Brakes on Its Brand

Your brand is about your reputation in the marketplace. It is about how others see you, about the degree to which you are respected, and about the belief of customers and key stakeholders that you, as well as your product, services, and integrity are beyond reproach. Interestingly, in the same way that there are many ways to build your brand, there are as many ways to weaken or even destroy it. Consider the case of Toyota. Automaker Toyota built a brand based on its reputation as the epitome of excellence, safety, economy, and customer service. The Toyota brand had it all. But then, in 2010, the company faced one of the most serious crises in business history, which threatened to destroy the foundation of that brand. Certain Toyota automobiles were found to pose safety hazards due to faulty and therefore dangerous accelerator pedals.This problem alone put quite a chink in the armor of the Toyota brand. But the accidents, deaths, and massive worldwide recalls tied to those safety problems are not the only things that consumers will remember when they next wonder, “Should I buy a Toyota?” In addition, they will remember the way the company chiefs handled the problem, because those are the front-page headlines that will stick in consumers’ mind. The automaker’s mistakes in this crisis serve as textbook lessons for all of us about how even a strong brand can go down quickly. The Public Face and Voice of a Company In early 2010,Toyota president AkioToyoda spoke for the first time about this issue, which began in September 2009 when Toyota 27 Toyota Putting the Brakes on Its Brand Adubato_(Brand)_final 4/11/11 11:27 AM Page 27 announced a recall of more than four million vehicles to replace gas pedals that could get stuck in floor mats and cause sudden acceleration. His presentation did nothing to help Toyota’s image; in fact, it made the company look worse. While Toyoda spoke for nearly an hour, he was neither clear nor concise regarding Toyota’s concerns about the problems and what exactly would be done to fix them. Even worse was the fact that it took this long for Toyoda, the company’s president and chief executive, to speak publicly. Much of the early, high-level communication in connection with this crisis was delegated to others. Specifically, James Lentz, a top Toyota executive in America, went on the TODAY show to represent the company. Even if Lentz had done an excellent job communicating in this pressure-filled media situation, it still wouldn’t have been enough to bolsterToyota’s reputation and brand.When a crisis of this magnitude hits, only the CEO has the authority and the position to speak. The fact that Akio Toyoda is a descendent of KiichiroToyoda, the company’s founder, makes it especially important for him to have been the face and voice of the company in this situation. By initially putting Lentz out front as Toyota’s lead communicator , the corporation was sending the message that the crisis, and in turn the task of protecting the company’s brand, wasn’t important enough to be directly handled by its top person. Back in the 1980s, American automaker Chrysler had already shown Americans how it should be done.When Chrysler had a signi ficant public relations problem after being accused of selling used cars under the guise of being new, CEO Lee Iacocca was the only person speaking on behalf of the automaker. He dealt with the problem directly. He said Chrysler blew it big time and was going to get it right.This approach served to build a significant degree of goodwill among consumers, which allowed Chrysler’s brand to recover sooner. One has to wonder why Toyoda didn’t understand that when the brand (not to mention sales) was bleeding profusely in the United States, this required the company president himself to come here immediately and speak on behalf of his company. Particularly in this case—AkioToyoda is the brand. In fact, his name is on every one of those cars. The fact that the “d” was changed to a “t” for 28 YOU ARE THE BRAND Adubato_(Brand)_final 4/11/11 11:27 AM Page 28 marketing purposes doesn’t change the fact that only Mr.Toyoda, in spite of his difficulty speaking English, was the one who...