In addition to researching its publics, a good public relations practitioner will scan the environment for potential crises. In the chance that a crisis does occur, the practitioner must immediately engage in risk management.
Risk management is essentially the identification, assessment and prioritization of risks. These risks can occur from ambiguity in financial markets, product failures, legal liabilities, accidents, and natural disasters. The public relations practitioner must monitor and control the probability and/or impact of such unfortunate events.
However, Toyota’s public relations team neglected to engage in risk management. The company’s unsought acceleration nightmare mirrored Audi’s similar dilemma some years prior. In the early 80s, Audi was a forthcoming luxury auto brand in the United States until a “sudden acceleration” recall related to 6 deaths and 700 accidents put a screeching halt in the company’s sales. Over the next 5 years, Audi sales dropped 83% and it would take the company 15 years to rebuild their brand image and pre-recall sales (read more about Audi's sudden acceleration crisis here).
If Toyota had done its research on the Audi crisis, they would have been aware of its long-lasting impact on the company and developed their own crisis management plan. Essentially, Toyota could have walked away from its recent crisis without a scratch.
“There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience.” -Archibald MacLeish
Thought I'd leave you with a laugh!!!
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