The Auto Writer

Runaway Toyota Marketing Disaster

Toyota PR needs to quit clowning around.

Has someone in Tokyo gone mad?

The company’s handling of its unprecedented recall is a PR nightmare, sending spoken and unspoken messages to current and prospective Toyota owners that their cars are not safe.

Dealerships are being flooded with phone calls from customers who want answers, but no one has prepared them to give customers guidance.

According to ABC News, customers are contacting Toyota dealers who seem ill prepared to handle their concerns with most telling them to wait it out or to call a toll free number for support. But as many people discovered the automated message had yet to be updated to include those models added to the recall overnight. And, when customers did get through to a live person, they were told to expect information to arrive “soon” in the mail.

Huh?! Is that how you go about assuring your customers?

Worst. PR. Blunder. Ever.

Imagine this scenario being played out over the coming days: a customer visits a Toyota dealership and sees a 2010 Toyota Camry SE on the lot. But there is a problem: certain Camrys are part of the recall and this one, painted in aloe green metallic, is part of that recall. The salesman tries to persuade the customer to look at other Camrys, but none offer the right color and trim level that he wants.

Meanwhile that same customer is hearing Toyota explain how to stop a car that might surge out of control. And you want people to buy something that might kill them?!

Step on the brake. Shift the transmission into neutral. Pray to God that this works or kiss your arse good-bye.

Instead of waiting to see what Toyota will do and now scared that he might end up with a runaway Toyota, the customer leaves the dealership in his 2004 Toyota Camry and stops by the local Chevy lot. While there he sees first hand just how much improved the Malibu is and likes the car. The salesman offers him an extra $1000 from GM to switch to Chevrolet and the sale is made.

That kind of scenario is likely to be played out in the days and weeks ahead because Toyota has effectively told car shoppers that their cars are not safe. After all people are thinking, “for what other reason won’t you sell me that Camry?”

Toyota’s competitors are circling the carcass looking for fresh pickings as you read this.

The Chevy Malibu is not the only car Camry drivers will look at. The Ford Fusion, Honda Accord, the all new 2011 Hyundai Sonata, even the Suzuki Kizashi are now in play. This calamity makes for a never before seen opportunity for Toyota rivals who not only can snag a customer, but do so for generations.

Industrialist John D. Rockefeller, who was well acquainted with success said, “I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.”

In this case Toyota’s disaster is everyone else’s opportunity. Are you shopping for a Toyota Tundra? Take a look at a Ram 1500. Want a Corolla? Let’s see what Hyundai or Kia has to offer.

Even Lexus and Scion owners have to be wondering, especially Lexus: that was an ES350 that zoomed out of control last summer killing four people.

My college marketing professor is probably dead, but I can imagine he would be shocked at the way Toyota has mishandled their crisis. If your product is good, you stand with it. If your product has a problem, then you provide a solution immediately.

Telling customers to wait sends out the wrong message, one that will certainly damage the Toyota brand. Maybe that is what Mr. Toyoda wants who took over the company last year and discovered that there is a price to pay for growing too fast, sacrificing quality, reputation, and customer’s lives in the process.

I cannot believe what I see unfolding before me. But neither can millions of other people around the world who once trusted Toyota as their rock solid brand, but wonder if a runaway Toyota might do them in.

See Also: Toyota Halts Sales and Expands Recall