On the day Toyota Canada cranked up its communications efforts to manage the negative impact of its recall crisis, Stephen Beatty, managing director of Toyota Canada, took time out to talk with Marketing staff writer Jeromy Lloyd Monday afternoon.
Marketing: How are you communicating with your customers about the recall?
Stephen Beatty: From January 21, when we initiated the recall notification with Transport Canada, we immediately put information up on Toyota.ca, including buttons right on the landing page. That’s the number one place for people to learn anything from Toyota. We also have an online search program so people looking for information about Toyota recalls are redirected to our Toyota site. Clearly, the initial information was “Here’s the recall and the details around it, and we’ll be in touch with the specifics." Now we’re in a position to deliver those specifics. We’ve worked hard to develop and test the solution, doing the regulatory work to make sure we’re satisfied that this is 100% effective, and we have updated all of our web information. We’ve shot a long-form video that will provide top-level information. If anyone missed the message, we plan to have a one-day campaign [Tuesday] to put advertising in newsprint and on television around newscasts to make sure people understand the information is available on the website or at their dealer. We’re going to begin mailing every owner information on what to do next, encouraging them to contact the dealers. Our plan is to reinforce through advertising what we’re doing through public relations. It’s important for us to engage in as direct a conversation with customers as possible.
M: You work with agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi and Dentsu. Were they involved in the creation of the advertising?
SB: Saatchi has been doing the production work on this for us. The message, however, is ours. It starts from the internal communication work being done [here]. While Saatchi is assisting with production, this is not advertising in the traditional sense. We’re trying to put out a public advisory, simple in its execution, that reads as an important message from Toyota Canada. [The print ad] has no other graphics on the page other than our Toyota logo.
M: Because of the recall, you’ll probably be dealing with longer-term issues around brand perception and quality. How will the recall affect marketing communications going forward?
SB: First things first–you win the business one customer and vehicle at a time by focusing on customer needs and the quality of the vehicle. I believe the whole process we’re engaged in now is extremely important in terms of continuing to maintain customer confidence and support for our brand. Going forward, I hope people will understand that there has been an incredibly fast response to this issue because the company turned all of its resources to try to deal with the issue of the sticking accelerating pedal. I hope that the sense of the company that stands by its product and wants to do the right thing for its customers in and of itself is one of the lasting characteristics of this campaign. From there, we’re going to have to be back in business. That means continuing to build aspiration around the brand, developing attractive marketing campaigns for the nameplates, and from a retail standpoint, making sure we have competitive offers that make people want to come into our dealerships. People have a long-standing relationship with Toyota and there’s a lot of brand strength that will cause people to stand by us, assuming we haven’t done anything to break faith with them.
M: Will there be a disruption in existing advertising plans?
SB: We indicated that we would be suspending delivery of affected vehicles, so that meant during the current retail campaign we’ve pulled advertising related to any vehicles affected by the [recall]. Given the nature of the solution we’ve developed–and [we] believe we can eliminate this condition from any of the vehicles in the production and delivery pipeline–this is a temporary suspension. We’ll be back on track with retail messages relatively soon. Clearly, it’s a competitive marketplace. We’re constantly monitoring key performance indicators around the brand, as well as the types of offers being put into the marketplace by our competitors. Our strategies will reflect that. My number one priority has been finding a solution, making it available and finding a way of communicating in such a way that makes it easy for the customer to understand what the issue and the fix is.
M: There are no Lexus models affected by the recall on either side of the border. Is there a need for Lexus to address this issue in its communications, given that it’s an affiliated brand?
SB: I don’t believe so. I think it’s been clear in the media that this is an issue that affects only Toyota brand vehicles.
