http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com By <a href="http://www.thunderfactory.com/thunder-factory/thunder-factory-team.html">Patrick Di Chiro</a>, Founder and CEO of <a href="http://www.thunderfactory.com/">THUNDER FACTORY</a>, a San Francisco based integrated marketing firm with other offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Houston Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:12:12 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Just when you think it couldn't get any worse for Toyota, on Monday a 61 year old driver in California underwent the harrowing experience of his Prius hybrid accelerating uncontrollably and nearly crashing. According to reports, the driver called 911 and got a police officer to drive next to him, ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/runaway-prius-ruins-toyotas-party/ Well, it is no big surprise that Toyota's sales dropped pretty steeply in February (for Toyota a 9% fall is like going over the proverbial cliff). The company continues to battle with the flood of negative publicity about the safety of its cars and, more devastatingly, the alleged cover up ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/toyota-sales-drop-9-gm-ford-way-up/ On a recent business trip I picked up the latest Car and Driver magazine to get my monthly car guy fix. I usually don't read the editorials in any of these car mags because they tend to say the same tedious things.Typically that includes a memoir of driving the newest ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/whats-your-brands-animating-idea/ I am in New York this evening and was watching the Olympics at an Irish bar near my Midtown East hotel. On came a Toyota ad, which amazed me with its tagline: Moving Forward Now, I have seen that Toyota campaign tagline before. But, I never viewed it with the context that ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/toyota-needs-new-tagline/ The news is out today that Toyota is undertaking a series of quality and safety measures to fix the systemic problems brought glaringly to light because of the company's recent massive recall and resulting brand crisis. As reported in Ad Age today, the steps include appointing regional quality officers, relying on ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/toyota-announces-safety-quality-measures/ Toyota has just started running its first TV ad in the wake of its disastrous recall, unintended acceleration problem and growing brand and reputation crisis. The ad is fine, if a bit bland. As I have been saying for the past two weeks, Toyota needs to ratchet up its emotional quotient ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/toyota-needs-some-humility/ Could it get any worse for Toyota? (The short answer is, yes, but more on that later.) Yesterday it was reported that the US government authorities are now investigating whether or not the Toyota jewel in the crown, the Prius hybrid, might have to be recalled for faulty brakes. As they ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/now-prius-brakes-are-suspect/ Sorry to pile on Toyota, but the news seems to be going from bad to worse. The lead story in today's Wall Street Journal tells the tale. It seems the US government is getting even more serious and aggressive about its response to the crisis and is pushing Toyota hard ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/more-troubles-for-toyota/ A Wall Street Journal story reported today that the Obama Administration is threatening to get tough with Toyota in the wake of the automaker's slow reaction to the unintended acceleration problem and the resulting global recall of millions of affected Toyota vehicles. Of course, this is a bit of an about ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/government-considering-sanctions-against-toyota/ Toyota's US president and COO James Lentz finally went on the Today Show this morning to try to quell the growing concern and outright fear over Toyota's massive vehicle recall. As pretty much everyone knows by now, the mounting crisis grew out of Toyota's problem with sticky accelerators that could cause, ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/toyotas-multi-year-deep-denial/