Rapid Brand Deceleration

 By Mike Mulvihill

Ten days. In today’s social media fueled world, a crisis can begin – and even end – in hours, if not minutes. Ten days. That’s how long it took Toyota to announce a fix to the rapid acceleration (faulty gas pedal) problem that prompted a recall of 4.2 million cars worldwide and 2.3 million in the United States, including some of Toyota’s best-selling models, such as the Camry and Corolla. To make matters worse, millions more had been recalled earlier because of floor mats that could catch the gas pedal causing a similar sudden acceleration issue as the current recall.

Ten days. Even 10 years ago, that would be considered an awfully long time to leave Japan’s number one brand name and one of the most powerful brands in the world in limbo.

Jim Lentz president and COO of Toyota USA made the rounds of the morning news shows on Monday to be the face of the company’s mea culpa and announce the fix – a small piece of metal about the size of a postage stamp – then held a press conference later that morning. Toyota released b-roll containing Lentz apologizing, “I know that we have let you down.”

In a related event, AutoBlog UK reports that PSA Peugeot Citroen has recalled nearly 100,000 Peugeot 107s and Citroen C1s built between 2005 and August 2009 at the facility it shares with Toyota in the Czech Republic for the same faulty accelerator problem. The cars were built alongside the Aygo, one of eight Toyota models that make up the Japanese manufacturer’s 1.8m vehicle recall in Europe.

How long does it take to lose $20 billion in market value (a one-week stock price decline of 16 percent), to irrevocably harm a brand that for years has embodied the Japanese auto industry’s hallmark of quality and reliability? Less than 10 days. Far less than the 10 days that have indelibly sullied the once omnipotent Toyota brand.

(For the record, I have owned many cars in my lifetime, including two Toyota’s – a 1999 Avalon that we drove for, oddly enough, 10 years, and a late model RAV4,  not part of the recall, that my college-age daughter currently drives.)