Toyota have recovered their PR footing recently after a dreadful beginning to their PR problems.

After appearing to ignore the various mechanical issues and deaths that have been widely reported, they could then also be accused of being less than serious in their response and finally, when the CEO stands up to apologise, he looked like he had literally been dragged in front of the media to perform it.

Crisis management is an ongoing and vital part of any organizations PR mix – taking care of and preparing for problems before they surface is as valuable and necessary from a PR and publicity point of view as fire drills to your staff. It is only when a fire hits that you are thankful that you put the preparation in and did the ugly work first – whether you are standing in the literal or metaphorical smoking remains of your company’s building or reputation.

Another major problem Toyota have had was the failure to face up to the reports and recognize that this could be a serious, or perceived as a serious problem.  The first thing to do once the cat is out of the bag is to acknowledge it, not say “what cat?” as Toyota appeared to do.

The first thing any well-prepared and executed crisis plan at this stage would be that constant, fresh and clear communication from the company about what went wrong, how, why and when it went wrong; what the company are going to do to stop it going wrong in future and how it is going to make amends. A simple apology at this stage and show of humility will go a long way in the eyes of customers, shareholders and media to prove that the company is taking the issue seriously and their approach to it. 

Surveys and research have consistently shown that if consumers think that the apologies and other subsidiary information coming from the company are insincere then the efforts to clean up the problem will be less than serious too.  Unfair or not, this is the perception.

Toyota also forgot the golden rule of one of the greatest PR practitioners of all time – Niccolo Machiavelli.  In The Prince, he counselled news management thusly: “Give bad news all at once; good news over time”.  The genius is in its simplicity. 

Put any and all negative stories out so they take up one news cycle, then you have the rest to insert good news stories into and drive the story as one of recovery and consolidation. What Toyota did instead, announcing recalls one after another, most recently the Prius recall, made it look like a company that was lurching from one crisis to another with little or no idea what was going to happen next – and from a PR point of view and it is.

Another aspect of the Toyota debacle to consider is the performance of the CEO and other senior officers. Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder and President of the company gave one of the most awkward, least assured and guilt-affirming presentations of bad news by a high-ranking executive that this correspondent can remember in recent times. The body language used was significant here, especially as the press conference was given in Japanese.  The language of the body is universal and Toyoda’s body language was identical to a three year old child being forced into his Sunday best and frogmarched to Sunday school when he would rather be outside playing Football.  He didn’t want to be there, definitely didn’t want to be speaking to journalists and really didn’t want to be giving any bad news.

In this situation, a good crisis management plan would have identified the best communicators within an organization and had them deployed and accessible to the media immediately so the negative news could be given with a modicum of professionalism along levels recognized by the media and viewers alike as acceptable.  If somebody looks the camera in the eye, doesn’t flinch or sweat or make every move to look like they are going to run away the second the camera points away then no matter what they are saying we are more likely to believe them.

One of the best/worst things about PR disasters such as this is you can play “what if” when you are sat at home watching it unfold. What if my company was on the end of such a problem?  What if I had camera crews from every major network coming to interview me at 9am tomorrow morning? What if I needed professional publicity and PR help to save my businesses and my personal image from ruin and attack?

This What If is more easily answered. You can go to Allpublicists.com and find a qualified, available and expert crisis manager, publicist or PR expert who can firefight on your behalf, stop the bleeding and help you on your road to recovery.

When your house is burning down, you will call the fire-fighters; you wouldn’t turn on your taps and use your rinser. So if your reputation is burning, who you gonna call?

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