Toyota

For the last couple of days I have been giving some thought to the car industry and the older consumer. This is more a brain-storm of ideas rather than an ordered analysis. Rather than file these thoughts away in the Cloud I thought I would share it with the world.

From The Mistake Bank:

The Toyota “North American Quality Advisory Panel,” put together in the wake of the sudden-acceleration incidents in 2009-2010, has released its report, and it’s fascinating reading of how a large company’s strengths can turn into weaknesses under stress. [A copy of the full report is available at this link.]

From The Mistake Bank:

The Toyota “North American Quality Advisory Panel,” put together in the wake of the sudden-acceleration incidents in 2009-2010, has released its report, and it’s fascinating reading of how a large company’s strengths can turn into weaknesses under stress. [A copy of the full report is available at this link.]

What does Toyota's travails mean to green marketing?

That question seems ripe these days, as the leading Japanese auto maker gets a comeuppance for its allegedly serious safety defects — and the more than 8 million cars it has recalled worldwide as a result. Toyota, after all, had become a darling of the eco-minded, a case study in the green halo that can inure to old-line companies that bring environmental innovation to mainstream audiences. Toyota seemed to have done it the right way: with products that weren't just greener, but better — in this case, high-aesthetic, high-performance, affordable cars.

by: Dick Stroud

In the UK, Honda has the reputation for being an oldies car – guess what car I drive!

by: Design Translator

So where was I? Ah yes.

by: David Wigder

An interview with Pete Blackshaw, CMO, Nielsen BuzzMetrics   

The creation and distribution of consumer-generated media (CGM) online is rapidly changing the marketing landscape. Consumers are actively participating online, providing opinions, perspective and feedback on the products and brands they like and dislike through a variety of channels including message boards, social networking sites, corporate sites, online communities and blogs.

by: Roger Dooley

Why do people do things that will gain them social approval? It turns out that the same parts of the brain are activated for a positive social outcome as for a monetary reward. In other words, the same reward circuitry is turned on both by social and monetary gains. Corporate marketers as well as non-profit fundraisers have always known that most individuals crave social approval, but these new findings show how our brains process these social rewards and how they relate to money.

by: Idris Mootee