Brand Failures_ The Truth About the 100 Biggest Branding Mistakes of All Time - Matt Haig [58]
In order to give a more comfortable ride, Ford had ignored Firestone’s recommendation of tyre pressures in the 30-36 psi range and had recommended pressures at the bottom end of that range. Any neglect by owners had resulted in under-inflated tyres which ran hotter than they should, especially in desert conditions, and if the treads did strip off, the vehicles were more inclined to roll over because they have a higher centre of gravity.
Whether Firestone has a point or not, its brand has been considerably damaged by the very public mud-slinging as both it and Ford tried to dodge the blame for the accidents. It all came to a head when Ford announced it would replace up to 13 million Firestone tyres. Ford explained that, ‘tyres not covered in the original recall could experience increased failure rates’. This decision came a day after Firestone abandoned Ford as a customer.
As the investigations of more than 100 deaths in tyre-related crashes of Ford Explorers continued, Firestone was rapidly losing the public’s confidence. In one Fortune magazine survey, the company dropped to the bottom of a chart of most-admired companies.
‘Looking at the brand today, I would say it’s a highly challenged brand,’ says Gwen Morrison, a branding analyst at Chicago-based marketing agency Frankel. ‘The very core of what tyre brands have stood for is safety. You see ads with a baby sitting in a stack of tyres; there had been a halo over the entire industry.’
The fact that Ford and Firestone failed to provide clear, consistent and comprehensive information to the public, explaining the crashes, was an obvious mistake. Sure, however they would have been handled, the crashes were always going to be bad news. But by sitting on information and failing to cooperate, Firestone has put its own long-term future under greater threat than it would have been otherwise.
When I wrote the first edition of this book, many branding experts expected parent company Bridgestone to abandon the Firestone brand altogether, and concentrate on its own branded tyres instead. This hasn’t happened – yet. In fact, Firestone continues to enjoy some significant marketing support. It stayed on as the official tyre of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, California in 2010, the 15th year it has done so. Though the Toyota brand itself was in something of a crisis in the US at that time!
Lessons from Firestone
Be honest with customers. The tyre failures themselves have probably caused less damage than evidence that Firestone held back information about the problems.
Act fast. In the event of a brand crisis, such as a product recall, companies need to act fast to re-establish customer confidence. Waiting six months before publishing your findings is only going to fuel negative speculation.
Be sensitive. By squabbling with Ford instead of offering sympathy to the car-crash victims, Firestone appeared insensitive.
Cover worst-case scenarios with business partners. Partnerships built for the long term must include mutually agreed-upon responsibilities and communication plans, recommends Robert Desisto, brand analyst at Gartner Research. ‘More specifically, these partnerships must include a method of listening to customer complaints through one another’s customer support centres, as well as a method of sharing technical support data earlier to prevent lost sales as well as the loss of the more intangible customer goodwill,’ he says.
Be aware that prediction equals protection. Owing to the fact that customers were complaining about the tyre failures years before the accidents made international headlines, Firestone should have been able to predict the problem and resolve it in advance.
Remember that perception is everything. Whatever the truth behind why the tyres split, the poor handling of the issue by Firestone meant that the brand came under fire. If you look as though you are hiding relevant information from the public,