"Toyota back in top after a crisis in its brand credibility"
We all know about Toyota and how well it has established its brand in
almost every market in this world. Say for example, our country Bangladesh,
whenever a person or a family thinks about buying a car they consider Toyota
cars as their 1st preference as these Japanese cars are very
reliable and comes at a very reasonable price compared to the other automobile
companies like BMW, Ford, Mercedes and from here we can see that Toyota has
created a very strong brand consideration among general people.. Toyota has POP
with these automobile companies, but still its cars are demanded the most in
the developing countries because of its biggest competitive advantage of
selling cars at a very reasonable price.
Toyota aims at globally “establishing a low-carbon society,” “establishing
a recycling-based society,” and “environmental protection and establishing a
society in harmony with nature” to contribute to sustainable growth of society
and the planet. To realize those aims, Toyota reduces the environmental impact
on all stages of vehicle life cycle from development and design, procurement,
production and logistics, sales to waste and recycling, and promotes
environmental management. These initiatives taken by Toyota creates some sorts
of emotional appeal to its potential customers as the customers might think
that the company really cares about the environment where they are living which
creates a good brand image and also improves the brand credibility among its
customers. Apart from this, Toyota often posts photos of their shiny vehicles
at motor shows or stylish pictures of Toyota race drivers at race tracks to
portray itself as a fun and exciting brand. This sort of approach from Toyota
develops emotional appeals towards its cars and makes the brand seem more
approachable without looking too advertisement-like.
But in the year 2012, the perception of
Toyota’s brand got hampered as it recalled its cars in Europe due to a possible
fire risk from its faulty electric window switches affecting 1.39 million cars
in Europe including the RAV4, Yaris, Auris and Corolla models. Because of this
at that period of time, this brand dropped at the bottom the list of 32 car
brands in Europe from the 6th position. The stock prices of Toyota
fell drastically for which their shareholder value also decreased and they even
lost the trust that people had in them or in other words it can be said that it
brand credibility got hampered. Therefore to regain the brand’s credibility,
the CEO of Toyota apologized to people through YouTube Videos and later on the
company launched a global campaign starring its employees in a
bid to rebuild trust in the brand.
This
was actually a very good method of gaining trust back again as this actually
shows that the company felt guilty for manufacturing faulty cars and is also
very emotional. As mentioned earlier that Toyota was successful in establishing
a good brand image among its potential customers, the brand soon recovered
itself from these dark days through the campaign mentioned previously and by
2013 it again got back in top.
References:
- Wang,R. (2014, July 7). What small businesses can learn from Toyota's social media marketing strategy. Retrieved from http://www.smallbusinessbc.ca/growing-a-business/what-small-businesses-can-learn-toyota%E2%80%99s-social-media-marketing-strategy
- Baker,R. (2012,October 16).Toyota’s brand perception damaged by recall. Retreived from Marketingwee: http:// www.marketingweek.co.uk/news/toyotas-brand-perception-damaged-by-recall/4004295.article
- Buss, D. (2013, February 5). Back on top, Toyota restores brand loyality and preps a new truck. Retrieved from Brandchannel: http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2013/02/05/Toyota-Update-020513.aspx
- (n.d.). Retrieved from Toyota: http://www.toyota-global.com/sustainability/environmental_responsibility/
