Like Watching a Train Wreck...In Slow Motion

Toyota

A single proper noun. What is the first thing that jumps to your mind today when you hear it?

As Maple Leaf Foods has become a textbook case for crisis communications, so too will Toyota, but for completely different reasons.

In the marketing world, the "drip" principle of persistent contact with existing and potential customers to provide new information on an ongoing basis, has long been accepted as a "must do" for most businesses.

In the world of crisis communications and issues management, the "drip" principle can be described using two words: death spiral.

You have the benefit of the doubt when an issue or crisis first emerges. But that window of credibility is small and short-lived. Toyota has made a catastrophic error; they overestimated the size of that window and they've blown it - big time.

Are they dead, as some media commentators have pronounced? Far from it. Ford survived the Pinto and the Explorer. Will this cost them far more than if they had released everything they had related to safety concerns on day one, hour one? Definitely.

The textbook case on what not to do. For many a public relations professional, it's like watching a train approach a canyon where the bridge has collapsed...and the engineer has failed to heed the warning lights. We wave our arms (to no avail), fearing the outcome - lost shareholder value, diminished sales, class action lawsuits, and ultimately, lost jobs - as we watch the oblivious Toyota train chug arrogantly and ignorantly forward to take a deep and totally unnecessary plunge.