Toyota: Reputation… Managed. [CASE STUDY]
Almost a year ago, a recorded sum of more than eight million cars were recalled by the crème-de-la-crème of automobile companies, Toyota Motor Corporation. What started off as some sticky floor mats and grew to faulty pedals, the recalls were a problem that expanded quickly for Toyota.
Predictably, various blogs, forums, review and news websites (to name a few) started pinpointing Toyota. This could have been a total disaster for the company, however, Toyota managed its online reputation well in the face of this adversity.
Here are some ways Toyota used online resources to salvage its online reputation:
Toyota launched a branded stream of collected and displayed tweets, articles and press releases related to Toyota called, Toyota Conversations. Toyota had control over which tweets and articles they wanted to display and they also actively removed certain negative posts.
Toyota featured a page on their website called, “Toyota Recall”, where car owners could find all of the information regarding the recall and watch published videos highlighting Toyota’s high safety standards. This page made it easy for car owners to stay up to date on the situation.
The CEO of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, gave a public apology to all those who were affected by the debacle. Many news channels put up the remorseful videos on YouTube where they received more than 100,000 views. One video even showed Akio crying during a press conference – this video received 17,000 views alone!
Toyota published many videos on its branded YouTube Channel which revolved around “Safety”. This helped to maintain its image and consumer perception, while helping to push out negative safety videos and comments.
Search results for keywords such as, “Toyota Safety” and “Toyota recall”, are from the official Toyota Press Room. Toyota ensured that the top results directed viewers to information controlled by them.
The bottom line is, no brand, or school, can have control over what is written about them on the web by the press, bloggers, customers/students, and even competitors, but they can certainly manage the negative backlash and promote a more positive image.
