Toyota Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/user/ToyotaUSA?srchid=K610_p280322058#p/c/9FC450C0F2BFE90B

Toyota has released a commerical to reassure their customers that the company and the employees are on top fixing the faulty gas pedal issue. Do you think it's effective? I have read the comments posted on Youtube and the feedback is mixed with both skepticism and applauses. Long term customers who have owned Toyotas believe the company still know their trade. New customers who have had bad experiences with recent models vow not to purchase from Toyota again.

This recall demonstrates one thing. If customers have bad experiences with products, you will lose the customers forever. It doesn't matter that you have done well before. The past success does not guarantee the future. The bad experiences establish unfavorable salient brand associations on the mental map. Customers will recall unfavorable affects when they see the Toyota brand.

I think what Toyota needs to do is to have the long term customers be the support group and talk to the new customers with bad experiences. The company can make another commercial with testimonials from long term Toyota owners. They can talk about their fond memories with their Toyotas. That'd be more effective. Hopefully, that should convince the skeptics.

Toyota Recall

Toyota has issued the biggest recall in its history. Though Toyota issued recalls in the past, this time the recall is world-wide affecting millions of cars. The monetary loss is estimated at $2 billion. What is more at stake is the reputation. Like many Japanese automakers, Toyota has built its name on reliability. Unlike the previous ones, this recall is serious in nature because faulty gas pedals if stuck could result in high speed fatal accidents.

So would Toyota's reputation go down the drain? The company has been criticized for compromising its quality by producing too many models. It's tried to be everything for everyone. It's a big marketing mistake. You can not please everyone. You must know where your strength is.

Would this recall be the beginning of the decline for Toyota and one day the company end up like its American peers. The recall will definitely change the brand association. Reliability might not be a salient association from now on. Most of all, many customers will lose confidence in the brand. It will Toyota take a long time to win it back.

After reading Martin Lindstrom's Buyology, I think brands still matter amidst the omnipresence of private labels. The reason is that these labels are parasite brands. Most of their "brand equity" is derived from the host brands. For instance, I use Head and Shoulders because my scalp is dry. I know that both Walmart and Target sell their own private labels and the packages look really close to Head and Shoulders'. If P&G discontinues Head and Shoulders, those private labels will not survive for long. Customers might switch to the private labels for a brief period of time, but the retention rate will erode fast because the brand assoications are weak. Other major brands will sweep into the void and snatch the customers away. When the host brands die, the parasite brands will wither away.

I'm back online

I've moved to South Florida and reunited with my wife....Yeahhhhh...The move was not a lot of work since the only things that I have were clothes, books and binders. South Florida's climate is so balmy in December. We spent the Christmas together at home since we don't know anyone in the area....(We need to go out to make some new friends). New Year's Eve was the same...staying at home watching movies and TV....how boring...I know...Hopefully, the coming year will be more eventful..

H&M and Walmart threw away unsold clothes...........destroyed

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/h-m-and-wal-mart-destroy-and-trash-unsold-goods-562909/


H&M and Walmart were caught slashing up unsold clothes and throwing them away in garbage bags. I don't understand why they did something so stupid, especially not long ago we lambasted corporate executives for taking excessive bonuses. They could have resold them to Ross or Marshalls. I'm sure lots of disadvantaged families and individuals would have benefited from free clothes. It's hard to belive that a cost conscious company like Walmart wasted such a good revenue stream. The worst case is they could donate the clothes to Goodwill or Salvation Army or give them to their hourly employees who make pittance.

End Of Semester Blue

Everyone is wrapping up their projects and papers for this semester. I am done. The only thing I need to do is the 360 ESCIU survey for the Exit Lead class which is zero credit hour. I've talked to my OB professor and requested that it be postponed until Spring. I would like to get quality feedback from my classmate so I 'm in no rush to get it done.

Half of the semester is gone!!!

I have been on hiatus for more than a month. The reason is simple. The school is in full throttle and half of the semester has already finished. The work load is OK, not too much. But still I need to stay up in order to stay on top. The good thing is I can see the end of the tunnel. Only two months left. On the other hand, that means I need to start looking for a job in earnest. The market is a little better than last year, but it's still slow. Some fellow students who went to job fairs this month told me that the companies were recruiting more graduate candidates. That's good to hear. I hope the Florida job market is recovering at the same pace or more. I have found a couple of interesting jobs. One is a program manager with a technology services firm based in Franklin, TN. The other is a brand manager. I have already applied to the program manager job and am waiting for their reply.