"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 1^st 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 6^th 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:

1. 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
2. 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
3. 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
4. (n.d.). Retrieved from Toyota: http://www.toyota-global.com/sustainability/environmental_responsibility/