Did Toyota miss a social opportunity in recall crisis?

February 18 2010, 8:35am

Toyota has undergone its largest recall in history this past month and is scrambling to make amends with its global customer base through a multi-platform marketing campaign that is falling short in the social media space. The biggest problem that the car company is demonstrating is a reactive response to the crisis rather than a strategic one. The crisis seems to be leading them to the next step instead of the control and management that one would typically aim for in this situation. Another unfortunate circumstance of this crisis is the timing. According to MarketingVox, “The public is sick of any sort of corporate malfeasance - or even incompetence -  and when the economic consequences are high for consumers, even less so. At the same time, the ways and online platforms on which consumers congregate to discuss and pass judgment on brands is in a constant state of flux. Keeping on top of these trends while trying to manage a legal issue, internal corporate upheaval and a global economic downturn is not easy for any company.” Even with the most aggressive PR campaign, Toyota cannot dodge all of the damage and criticism. President and COO of Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Jim Lentz has finally decided to confront the issue head on and has begun using Digg.com to let consumers vote up questions that they feel are most important. As well, spokespeople have blogged and tweeted messages of reassurance and its website continues to boast the brands strength, safety and intelligence. While it has managed to do a mediocre job of using social media to reach the public the company seems to be neglecting other elements that could have made this go a lot smoother. “When times are tough, the first place and the first people to turn to are customers, loyalists, enthusiasts, fans, friends, followers, advocates, evangelists…hell, even critics. These groups of people don’t magically materialize overnight. They are built, earned and nurtured over time,” noted JaffeJuice.