Suzuki’s Communication About Consumer Allegations That the Samurai Tipped Over

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Introduction

Communication to the public by organizations plays a major role in how the public will receive and interpret such information thereby enabling them to form their perception regarding the organization. Therefore such communications should be made in a responsible manner to avert negative response from the public. Responsible communication is most important in times of crisis such as was the case for Suzuki when it faced allegations by the Consumers Union that one of its vehicle brands, the Samurai almost tipped over as it was being driven. This allegation was reported in the Consumer Reports Magazine and it said that the vehicle brand was not acceptable as its probability of rolling over was too high as was the case during an accident avoidance test.

Purpose of the Essay

The purpose of this essay is to apply various concepts regarding organizational communications to the Suzuki case regarding the allegations leveled against it by Consumer Reports Magazine.

Thesis

Suzuki responded to the allegations leveled against it in a manner that was expected since a lot was at stake for the company but in the process it lost focus of the major principles and purpose for such communication which was to clear its name and restore confidence in its Samurai brand in the eyes of the public.

Preview

The paper contains the main issues involved in organizational communication such as communication ethics, crisis management, image restoration and how Suzuki performed with regard to these issues. This is meant to help me determine whether their choice of communication was right and how they would have communicated better to the crisis that was at hand. It also relates Suzuki’s situation to similar situations experienced by other players operating in the same industry.

Background Information

Suzuki Motor Corporation is a multinational company in the Automotive Industry. Its headquarters are based in the Japan and it employees a large number of employees in the countries where it has branches. It also has branches in the United States from where it introduced the Samurai SUV vehicle brand in 1985 which later proved to be a controversial brand in the States.

The Customers Union is a corporation that engages itself in the testing and evaluation of different products and services from players in the automotive industry and publishes their findings and ratings in the Consumers Reports Magazine. The Union tests a certain number of vehicles every year using their Automotive Testing Division Tests. Back in 1988, the Union carried out these tests with the Samurai vehicle brand from Suzuki together with other vehicle brands. The Samurai had been introduced in the States three years before and was received well managing to make huge sales having gotten positive reviews from the press in the automotive industry. Due to reports of its defective tendencies, the Center for Auto Safety petitioned the NHTSA (National Highway Safety Administration) to investigate these allegations but the petition was denied and the NHTSA was quick to say that their action was in no way an endorsement of the brand. It was after this that the Consumer Union started its ATD tests on the brand alongside other brands. It later released statements that the Samurai was defective in that it showed a great propensity to topple over when subjected to certain conditions during the testing.

The period following Customer Reports Magazine allegations against Suzuki was characterized by a series of accusations and counter accusations between the parties which impacted differently to all the parties involved. The Consumer Reports Magazine has for a long time been trusted by individuals and groups as reporting helpful information regarding the safety of products they use on a daily basis thereby making such a post as was contained in it regarding the unfit nature of Suzuki’s car brand the Samurai was detrimental to the organization. It is reported that after the accusation, the sales for the Samurai fell drastically (Denison, 2000. pp. 53)

Communication Ethics

Ethical communication is necessary both at a personal level and at an organization level. This is because any information communicated to the public is in most cases used for decision making as it acts as a guide to the peoples’ mode of thinking. Ethical communication involves issuing out information that is truthful, fair, responsible, and respectful and backed by solid evidence. Unethical communication diminishes the quality of information. The National Communication Association has endorsed the following as being principles of ethical communication: Accuracy, truthfulness, honesty and reason are said to play a major role in determining the integrity of communication.

The commission advocates for freedom of speech and diverse perspectives regarding issues and the understanding and respect of the person or organization providing the information before evaluating and responding to the information. The commission is also against information that intends to degrade, intimidate, coerce and distort an individual or organization especially where there is no hard evidence that what is being communicated is actually the truth and is based on facts.

According to the Consumer Reports Magazine, the information released about the Suzuki Samurai was based on evidence that was gotten from a series of tests on the model to determine whether it was susceptible to rolling over under specific conditions that they said could happen to anyone while they were driving and trying to avoid an accident. Pittle who spoke on the matter on behalf of the magazine during a 1988 press conference, said they had created a short testing course where it tested the Samurai model together with other vehicle models such as the Isuzu Trooper. At first he described the course as having been “benign” with “very little speed limits” a comment he later withdrew as it was not accurate. The fact that he had communicated information that he himself termed as not being accurate introduced doubt as to the credibility of the other information he released (Tashima, 2002, para. 15)

In their counter accusation and court suit, Suzuki sought to prove that Consumer Reports was aware that the Suzuki model was not as susceptible to tipping over and instead carried out rigged tests so as to produce the results that they wanted in order to prove their case. Suzuki mentioned that during the tests other models like the Isuzu Trooper had failed to meet the requirements. According to me, Suzuki would have been better off allowing the body charged with the duty of determining the fitness of vehicles to carry out their standard tests to determine the credibility of the brand. Challenging the credibility of the Isuzu Trooper was not necessary since its performance had nothing to do with the performance of the Samurai.

Crisis Management

This refers to a situation in which an organization responds to and deals with an event that threatens to destroy its credibility as well as that of its stake holders in the eye of the public. The organization deals with a crisis situation which has already taken place and therefore requires a lot of skill in order to prevent the situation from taking an even worse direction than it already has. In the Suzuki situation the crisis was having one of its vehicle models attacked with regard to its susceptibility to toppling over. In order to manage a crisis situation in an acceptable manner, it is necessary for the organization facing the crisis to assess the damage caused and the amount and credibility of information which has been used against it. After this the organization should come up with a plan to deal with the situation which includes a defense plan based on concrete argument (Zdziarski, Dunkel and Rollo, 2007, pp. 73) Suzuki responded to its crisis by trying to discredit the accusations made against the Samurai by Consumer Reports Magazine instead of defending its brand with evidence.

Trying to discredit the credibility of the person leveling accusation against an organization does not always work towards defending the organization and on the contrary raises more questions than answers on the matter at hand. A better approach for Suzuki would have been to defend its brand by bringing compelling evidence to the table that showed that its brand was in fact fit for use by customers who bought it. According to Denison, Pittle was of the view that if Suzuki had gone ahead to make repairs to the Samurai making it more fit to prevent it from toppling during certain situations then it would have been given a clean bill of health by the magazine there by avoiding the controversy that came with the companies counter accusations. (Denison, 2000, pp. 53)

According to Coombs (2007, para. 10) the channels through which information is passed plays a major role in crisis management as it is through this channels that parties engaged in the tussle get to convey the relevant information to other stakeholders such as the public, the media, the opponents and other interested parties. Some of the suggested channels of communication are the company website or other websites that are set up for the sole purpose of communicating such information. Print and broadcast media also prove to be very effective in communicating viable information in such situations.

Image Restoration

Image is very important to an organization and as such when its image stands threatened it is up to it to take the necessary action to ensure that it deals with the situation and recovers in terms of its credibility to the public (Millar & Heath, 2004, pp. 263) The resources involved in image restoration for organizations are generally numerous and it is therefore necessary for organizations to avoid situations which threaten their image in the first place. In the case of Suzuki, its reputation experienced a major blow.

Being such a major motor company, news that one of its brands is defective posses a great challenge even to those vehicle brands that have not been found faulty. It is therefore necessary that it takes measures to ensure that this does not continue to affect the organization. The drop in sales to such an extent that the brand was pulled out of the region was proof enough that the company’s image would also suffer. It is determined that in a post crisis situation, organizations are free to communicate their responses as long as the information is free of any manipulative, coercive and deceptive notions. This enables those receiving the information to make their own decisions concerning those issues that affect them. The information provided should be accurate and complete and not try to hide the truth from those who are relying on the information. The fact that the Consumer Reports Magazine continued to repeat their findings in subsequent publications including pictures of the toppling vehicle on two wheel implanted a lasting effect on the mind of all those who read the magazine and in effect the Suzuki Samurai brand. In order for the Suzuki Company to recover from that it will need a major restructuring of its image (Gellene, 1996, para. 1)

Recommendations

Response to a Crisis

Suzuki should put into place a viable crisis response plan to deal with such and other situations because it operates in an industry that is prone to constant evaluations from all sectors including magazines due to the increasing popularity of investigative magazines which offer information based on their own findings which at times may not be carried out as per the required standards or in a scientific way by experts. Ulmer (2000, pp. 155) says that such magazines have a large following and without the correct counter measures, it would be next impossible to counter their accusations without solid evidence so that they can retract their statements.

Ethics of Communication

Suzuki should have engaged itself in ethical reporting of relevant information to support its case as opposed to leveling accusations against the Consumers Union report; it should have carried out the required tests and reported their findings based on the tests. This would have given the public information to compare with that from the Consumers Union and thereby given them a chance to make their own decision on the matter. The Motor Company suing the Consumer Reports Magazine for libel was the wrong move since it did not have solid evidence to prove that indeed the Consumer Reports Magazine rigged the results of the test. The fact that media holds the right to inform the public about products that may cause them harm also posed a challenges to the Motor Company as they could not deny the Consumer Reports Magazine. This is because these media platforms have been mandated by Federal Law to do so (Ulmer, 2000, pp. 156)

Image Restoration and Expert Information

In terms of its image restoration, Suzuki should invest in ways that will ensure that its credibility is restored so that its vehicle sales for other brands may not be affected. Companies should also make an effort to get expert information in such situations because the credibility associated with expert information goes a long way in restoring peoples’ confidence to the brand in question. Suzuki should have sought expert opinion regarding the stability of its Samurai vehicles in order to come up with a viable solution to the problem. It should have also done its tests and made repairs where necessary in order to restore the image of the company in the eyes of the consumers who are vital to the organization as it is them who buy vehicles.

Conclusion

From the information gathered from the case above it can be concluded that Suzuki’s response to the situation was wanting. It was not the best way to go about the whole situation. Its actions suggest that it did not have a clear plan of action in place as far as responding to the crisis it faced was concerned. This led to a series of bad decisions on its part and an undesirable outcome at the end. For example the settling of the case was not beneficial to it as a company. For starters it took too long for the case to be decided.

Hakim from the New York Times reported that the legal battle between the two parties took eight years for it to be settled (2004, para. 1). Had the Motor Company taken alternative measures as opposed to the legal suit the matter might have been settled earlier. Even after waiting for eight years nothing tangible came out of it because no damages were paid to it and neither were the statements made by the Consumers Union in the Consumer reports magazine retracted. Instead a short clarification note was made stating that the reports made in the magazine may have been wrongly interpreted or given the wrong idea. This means that the results that they posted still stand and were subject to whatever interpretation the reader chose to give to them. Ulmer (2000, pp. 157) Magazines charged with the duty of reporting on the quality of consumer products should ensure that their reports are correct in order to avoid incidences of wrongful accusations.

Reference

Coombs, W. T. (2007). Crisis Management and Communications. Web.

Coombs, T. W., & Holladay, J. S. (2010). The Handbook of Crisis Communication. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell Publishers.

Dennison, N. (2000). Safety First. Web.

Gellene, D. (1996). Suzuki Sues Magazine for Critical Samurai Review. Web.

Grunig, J. E. (1992). Excellence in Public Relations and Communications Management. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

Hakim, D. (2004). Suzuki Resolves a Dispute with Consumer Magazine. Web.

Heath, R. L. (2001). Handbook of Public Relations. California: Sage Publications Limited.

Millar, P. D. & Heath, L. R. (2004). Responding to Crisis: A Rhetorical Approach to Crisis Communication. New Jersey: Laurence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Spicer, C. (1997). Organizational Public Relations: A Political Perspective. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc, Publishers.

Tashima, J. (2002). 292 F3d 1192 Suzuki Motor Corporation v. Consumers Union of United States Inc. Web.

Ulmer, R. R. (2000). Responsible Speech in Crisis Communication: The case for General Motors v. Dateline NBC. Michigan: Central states Communication Association.

Zdziarski, E. L., Dunkel, N. W. & Rollo, J. M. (2007). Campus Crisis Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Prevention, Response and Recovery. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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