Lessons from a crisis: An analysis of Toyota's handling of the recall crisis

• Author: Jinbong Choi,Seohyeon Lee
• Date: 01 May 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1688
• Published date: 01 May 2018

ACADEMIC PAPER

Lessons from a crisis: An analysis of Toyota's handling of the

recall crisis

Jinbong Choi

1

|Seohyeon Lee

2

1

Dept. of Media & Communication,

Sungkonghoe University, Seoul, South Korea

2

Dept. of PR & Media Studies, Jeju National

University, Jeju‐do, South Korea

Correspondence

Jinbong Choi, Sungkonghoe University, Dept.

of Media & Communication, Seoul, South

Korea.

Email: choi0126@gmail.com

The purpose of this study is to evaluate how Toyota managed the recall crisis through surveying

public relations experts. By gathering and analyzing the perspectives of public relations (PR) exec-

utives and professors toward the Toyota recall crisis, this study tries to evaluate and measure

Toyota's public relations strategies for managing the recall crisis. To collecting data, 34 public

relations professors and 92 public relations practitioners were interviewed. According to the find-

ings of this study, PR professionals emphasized that Toyota responded poorly (slowly/dishon-

estly) and lacked communication with the public. With regard to improvements Toyota may

work on, PR experts advised not only to resolve internal corporate problems but also to

strengthen the relationships with consumers and obligation to investigate further. In regarding

with the lessons from theToyota's crisis, PR professionals highlighted that it is necessary to take

anticipated preventative measures and improve investigative duties and preparation for better

dealing with crises.

1|INTRODUCTION

The Toyota recall crisis started with a single, horrifying car crash in

Southern California in late 2009. On August 28, 2009, an off‐duty Cal-

ifornia highway patrol officer and his family were involved in a fatal car

accident in San Diego, California, as a result of the gas pedal of his

vehicle (a Lexus model, manufactured by the Toyota Motor Corpora-

tion) becoming stuck and causing the vehicle to reach speeds of over

100 mph and crash into another vehicle, killing all four passengers in

the vehicle (Healy, 2010). Though the company had received hundreds

of sudden acceleration complaints and reports of multiple federal

investigations of the phenomenon before this point, Toyota did not

receive nationwide negative publicity until this incident (Bensinger,

2010). This accident was attributed to floor‐mat entrapment; as a

result, by November 2009, Toyota had recalled 4.2 million vehicles in

the U.S. to address the potential risks associated with defective floor

mats, and an official Toyota response called for Toyota owners to

remove the floor mats from their personal vehicles (Bensinger, 2010;

Kim, 2010).

In December 2009, only 4 months after the fatal incident that

was attributed to floor‐mat entrapment, another fatal crash was

reported in Southlake, Texas (Diaz & Trahan, 2009). The vehicle in

this accident was one of the vehicles announced as a recall model;

the driver of this vehicle had removed the floor mats in line with

the safety precautions previously recommended by Toyota (Diaz &

Trahan, 2009; Goodman, 2010). The cause of this incident was also

associated to an uncontrollable accelerator: Reports indicate that

the vehicle did not slow down before it flipped into a pond, and all

four passengers were killed (Diaz & Trahan, 2009). This incident

illuminated the fact that this vehicular issue was not solely attribut-

able to faulty floor mats, as previously suggested by the Toyota

Motor Corporation. Consequently, in January 2010, 2.3 million more

Toyota vehicles were recalled to rectify “sticky pedals”(Kim, 2010).

The same month, Toyota discontinued the U.S. sales of eight models,

including its best‐selling Camry and Corolla sedans. The company also

announced that it would halt production for the first week of

February. By February 2010, Toyota reported a 16% drop in January

sales and that U.S. market shares had fallen to their lowest level since

January 2006 (Kim & Bailey, 2010).

As a result of crises, Coombs (2007) observed that three intercon-

nected threats to survival arise: (a) public safety, (b) financial loss, and

(c) damage to reputation. Due to the wide range of both causes and

consequences created by these three distinguishable crises, the pro-

cess of effectual crises management becomes increasingly difficult

and complex (Hargis & Watt, 2010). How, then, has Toyota managed

the recall crisis?

Toyota has seemingly focused on both the reputation and finan-

cial losses rather than public safety. The company has been criticized

in the news media for putting more effort into repairing its public

image than toward properly identifying the issues that were causing

Received: 18 October 2017 Accepted: 18 October 2017

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1688

J Public Affairs. 2018;18:e1688.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1688

Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of8