Crisis Management

Running head: CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Crisis Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1Crisis Management
Response to Question 1A
It can be said that in the case study of Toyota, the crisis was very much urgent as it
was hampering the brand equity of the company as well as affecting the faith of the loyal
customers and they had to restore their image as a quality automaker and a fast crisis
management solution provider. They failed to acknowledge the recall crisis in 2007 and the
opportunity to diminish the damage they had suffered. Toyota announced the SMART
business process to solve the customer needs (Jindal, Laveena and Aggarwal 2015).
Similarly, the situation in Marrickville was hampering the quality image of the sandwich
shop, though the members of the group thought to not redeem their vouchers on the weekend
and some others advised to take legal action against the reporter as well.
Response to Question 1B
The scenario faced by Toyota in 2009-10 was very serious as the company had to halt
the entire sales and production of eight of its most popular models. The sales of the company
got down straight due to the growing number of recalls, which hampered the global position
of Toyota in the automobile industry (Pirozzi 2013). Brand image was hampered due to this
situation and a huge loss was incurred by the company (approximately $30billion) (Pirozzi
2013). Similarly, distributing free sandwiches to a limited number of people or group rather
than distributing it to entire people of Sydney is less harmful for the brand image of a
restaurant. Many people saw this as a low-priced publicity and deterioration in the quality of
the sandwiches the restaurant used to provide.
Response to Question 1C
Toyota, in that crisis situation, have already suffered a huge loss in terms of money as
well as image. Had they responded early in 2007, they did not have to face the setback they

2Crisis Management
suffered in 2009-10. If they had not responded, the market share of the company would grow
down in a drastic rate globally, which would have hampered the overall growth and existence
of the company. Similarly, being an indigenous sandwich shop, it would have lost almost the
entire customer base which might have forced the owner to close the shop. The local shops
mainly run in word-of-mouth publicity and faith of the customers. The revenue has been
hampered badly if the shop-owner didn’t respond.
Response to Question 1D
The effect was immense in case of the Toyota scenario. The entire sales of the
company were hampered after that crisis, though this was not the first time the company was
facing such crisis. They had to recall several vehicles between the year 1990-1998 due to
power steering problem. The company faced a major financial crisis as they had to repair all
the cars and had to regain the faith of the customers and to restore its image as a quality
automaker. It would have affected the environment of global automobile industry. Similarly,
the sandwich shop of Marrickville also had to provide solution to the miscommunication by
the popular food blog. Otherwise, they have lost the visit of the local people who provided
the base of the revenue earners of the shop.
Response to Question 1E
Toyota had stopped producing certain vehicles lines from 1st February 2010, to assess
the defected vehicles and to repair them all. The recall came during a challenging time for
Toyota, as the company was struggling from the collapse and got affected already from a
sales downfall. Toyota used SMART (Swift Market Analysis Response Team) to conduct on-
site vehicle inspections. Image restoration strategy was followed for the protection of the
image, identity and reputation of the company. On the other hand, the owner of the sandwich
shop learned a lesson about marketing in social media. The people who had coupons with