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| | The ABHP - A Bit of Humble Pie Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | Toyota - Disaster or Opportunity | Views: 439 | | Jan 27, 2010 3:06 pm | | Toyota - Disaster or Opportunity | # | 
Ken Hilving | | Toyota has a real problem - 8 or 9 models with acceleration problems, production lines closed down, and an image catastrophe since their advertising included pride in the safety of their vehicles.
It might be beyond their financial capability, but imagine the following approach. Humbly apologize for the problem, and then offer all owners an opportunity to switch to any comparable competitor with Toyota picking up any additional cost. "We committed to providing you with safe transportation, we failed, and we will not leave you without transportation while we resolve this problem."
I assume the problem will be found and a solution implemented. Meanwhile, they exchange the negative press over their failure with the positive press of an honorable company.
Would they gain more new Toyota customers in the long run than they will lose to competitors? Could this fiasco instead be a springboard to domination of the market? Will the public reward their actions and forgive their failure?Private Reply to Ken Hilving | | Jan 27, 2010 5:17 pm | | re: Toyota - Disaster or Opportunity | # | 
Kurt Schweitzer | | Ken,
Do you ever take Tylenol?
A number of years ago someone decided to put cyanide in about a dozen packages of Tylenol and place them on the shelves of drug stores across the country. Several people died. As a result we now have tamper-resistant packaging on many products, including (but not limited to) over-the-counter drugs.
The maker of Tylenol handled that problem in several ways.
1) It immediately pulled all its products off the shelves.
2) It quite publicly worked with law enforcement to discover the source of the tainted pills.
3) It shut down all production facilities until after they had all been proven to not be the source of the bad pills.
4) It retooled its production lines to provide tamper-resistant packaging before it was mandated.
5) They publicly apologized for the bad pills, and stayed very visible in helping to resolve the problem.
6) They suffered through several years of losses (in the pharmaceutical industry!) until their sales recovered.
7) Their subsequent advertising acknowledged the fact that they had been hit and offered discounts (and the improved packaging) to entice customers to come back.
Their response is often cited as the benchmark for dealing with product safety crises.
I think Toyota has been hurt, but not really seriously. From what I'm hearing (and I follow the automotive industry more closely now than I did prior to starting my scooter business) Toyota is handling these two product safety issues rather well.
Please note that this is not Toyota's first recall, nor is Toyota the only car manufacturer to issue recalls. In fact, I can't think of a single auto company that HASN'T issued a recall at some time or other.
P.S. The Toyota Corolla is the second-best selling vehicle of all time in the entire world. (The Honda Cub motorbike is first.) Although this recall is a big deal here in the U.S. it's not that serious from a global perspective.Private Reply to Kurt Schweitzer | | |
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