Toyota Motor Europe (TME) is to launch a new advertising campaign featuring its employees focusing on quality build issues.
The initiative comes after a torrid time recently for the Japanese automaker as it wrestles with rescuing its global image following highly-publicised recall difficulties that saw more than several million vehicles back in dealerships.
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“This is part of our recovery plan to regain customers’ trust and to develop our sales and reputation in Europe,” a TME spokesman told just-auto from Brussels.
“Clearly instead of a traditional campaign we have found a new angle which is based on testimonials [of] real-life employees, who show their committment to quality and safety.”
The advertising drive has been developed with both TME and its distributor network and is slated to launch “pretty soon,” although no precise date is yet available.
A mix of traditional media will be used as well as below the line and internet activity. Toyota employees will also have a dedicated internal campaign.
Although the advertising will essentially focus on Europe, the TME spokesman emphasised each region around Toyota’s network would adopt its own strategy.
Toyota has used its employees before in publicity, but the emphasis this time will be in a completely different context.
“The new campaign is about employees showing their ownership of the company,” said the TME spokesman.
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