Just Ask Toyota
Advertising works. Just ask Toyota. Advertising giveth to Toyota….and then advertising taketh away.
Just because they didn’t pay for it, doesn’t mean it wasn’t advertising. But given the chance, wouldn’t you rather control the message as much as possible? The truth is while advertising is your only shot of controlling the message. You still have to be great. And even if you are great, and the message you pay for is right, the people can change the message. You’re never in complete control.
I think the answer is to be great at what you do, tell the world and engage with your customers. If you miss any one of those 3 elements though, the others won’t work. Try advertising a crappy service and you’re going to get a lot of interest from people you’re going to let down….and you wont want to engage with THEM.
Toyota’s having a rough patch and they’re advertising now on the radio more than I’ve heard in a while. Here’s another interesting thing to note though, they didn’t just run screaming car ads for the last 10 years. They built their business on customer satisfaction. I understand they’re having recall issues now and it’s easy to speculate all of a sudden that Toyota was never so good all along, but the FACT of the matter is Toyota’s have rocked for years. They’ve won more than they’ve lost. They got sloppy and now they’re fixing it and telling their story to the masses via the radio.
(As a matter of full disclosure I’ve always wanted a Toyota truck, raised with big tires like the one Marty McFly dreamed of in Back 2 The Future but that doesn’t color my opinion.)
Matt, you made an unpopular, but good point. Seems like a mistake is enuf bury a company. What about all the deaths that resulted from bad products that were sent to the street by American car makers with full knowledge of the defects. Now Toyota is willing to man, er, person up and people are upset? Sounds like greed and lawsuits to me. Radio, what a great way for them to get the word out to the people that matter. Drivers. Not only are they acting, they are getting it right.
CU on the Radio, or Twitter, probably Twitter.
Out………………..
Kevin Pakos
Thanks for the comments Kevin! I agree. I am not saying they get dispensation for their problems and the deaths etc….but they are no worse than any car company and in many ways they’re still way better. All in all, they employ a lot of American workers AND spend on radio effectively.