Southeast Toyota Pulls Ads From ABC Due to "Excessive Coverage"

The difference here is that Toyta Motor Sales has nothing to do with this issue. It's all local / regional. TMS may still be advertising on some ABC national programs ( don't know ) but this is simply a regional dustup between groups of small business owners.

One group is the seller ( the ABC affiliates ) and the other group is the buyer ( SET ). So when does the concept that 'the customer is always right' come into play? If the ABC affiliates refuse to bend to SET's demands that would be exactly equivilent to Toyota saying to new 2010 owners...'Get over it, we're not doing anything'. At some point you bend to the will of your customers....or you lose them as customers. It really is that simple.

 

Toyota has only itself to blame. By pulling the ad's, it is puringgas on the fire, digging a deeper hole for itself, and makes it harder for Toyota to restore it's image.

 

1) This was not Toyota Motor Sales decision but rather the decision of an independent distributor.

2) Southeast Toyota (SET) will still advertise on Fox, NBC, CBS, WB and all the independent stations in their region.

3) SET will still have print, radio, cable and internet advertising in their region.

4) SET will divert the funds spent on ABC stations to other media.

 

Again be careful. This is not 'Toyota'; i.e. Toyota Motor Sales. It's a regional group of dealers who spend their own money advertising. It's not Toyota's ad money they're withholding, it's their own money.

They can spend their own money wherever they wish. The ads will still be all over the place in each of the local markets it's just that certain stations will be richer for it and others will be poorer for it.

Again would you pay your neighbor's 15 y.o. to come over to break your windows every night? If so I may know some youngsters needing a job for the summer.

 

What do you mean "The Difference Is"? I've known all along in this thread and since reading the original posting that it's SET. Point is, that when reported the word "Toyota" is still going to be said and used, and probably in a negative light.

All my comments have been specific to I think it was a mistake of SET.

I think "The Buyer is always right" concept is applicable only to the extent that SET of course has the legal right, and freedom to do what they have done. They can decide they want to pull advertising dollars from ABC. But the debate isn't about whether SET is "right"...I said from the onset that I can understand their frustration at probably watching negative reports on ABC every night. But the debate is, is their reaction wise? I do not think so, because ultimately I don't think it benefits them or Toyota.

This is just entirely wrong:

"If the ABC affiliates refuse to bend to SET's demands that would be exactly equivilent to Toyota saying to new 2010 owners...'Get over it, we're not doing anything'. At some point you bend to the will of your customers....or you lose them as customers. It really is that simple".

There is a BIG difference between selling automobiles and owning physical product and buying advertising time and being upset with the "News Coverage" of the media.

Even though I do think ABC's coverage has been caustic and damaging...all the media's coverage has been damaging and caustic. Plus as I already said, most of the general public doesn't like the idea of any entity, SET or otherwise "demanding" that a news organization change the way they report. SET should stick to selling automobiles...and ABC can be the media. ABC affiliates should NOT be bending to the demands of SET.

I'm not blind, there always is influence and manipulation, but in general people like the concept, even if it falls short in reality, that our news media has the freedom to report without influence from advertisers and sponsors. Which is exactly why IMO SET's attempt at influence, justified or not, is a mistake.

 

Yep, I was referring to your prior post..

Yes this is only a local/regional issue. But by taking $$$ away from the ABC affiliates and giving these $$$ to the 4 or 5 other competitors in each market I think it sends the right message. It says that we the dealers of SET believe that if you follow ABC's lead then you too are slanting your coverage with a bias toward making us look bad. Don't expect our support if this is what you think.

We agree to disagree.

 

I don't want Toyota (or groups of its dealers) dictating how my news is reported. Of course I know this happens all the time, but putting it out in writing is stupid on SET's part. If the reporting was outright false then point it out, but trying to reduce negative reporting usually backfires.

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect]Streisand effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

The SET dealers are not stopping the ABC affiliates from reporting anything. But they are just not going to support them monetarily. That's just business. In the opinion of the SET dealers the ABC coverage is over-the-top, excessive and is tantamount to 'piling-on'.

That's their opinion and it's their money. They can spend it as they wish. I'm certain if you had a $20 million business and your local TV station, to whom you gave $30000 per week, came out and had story after story after story about a problem at your business then you'd be hard pressed to sign that next check to them.

I'm certain that this didn't drop out of the blue. Things like this never do. I'm certain that there were discussions between the SET group and the affiliates group and each side said it's piece and tried to convince the other side to change minds. Neither did. So the buyer walked out, went down the street and purchased another product. It happens millions if not tens of millions of times every day in the US.

 

+1

To me, it's the free market at work.

 

I don't blame the dealers. We've all heard the phrase "don't bite the hand that feeds you."
But then again, journalists don't exactly behave logically.

 

All true but will not make even tiny difference in the PR beatdown tpyota is receiving and will receive. You would think that somewhere in the process of pulling the ads from FOX, SET would have at least challenged a few facts. Without doing that its seen as nothing more than a cooperate temper tantrum.

Oh, and if you think the average viewer differentiates between Toyota and SET think again.

 

There's also the saying that is unwise to pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel (i.e, large newspapers)...

This is less of an issue with TV stations since the ABC local affiliate is just one of many stations servicing a particular geo area, not to mention cable channels.

 

It's ABC not FOX and they did express why they were pulling the ad money. 'Excessive coverage'. Nowhere did it state that the dealers were saying that the reportage was not factual, it was the volume of reportage. In fact the dealers are going to be shifting money to other stations that also are reporting on Toyota recalls with the same facts so that's not the issue.

The issue is this....nightly report, somewhat exagerated.

CBS, NBC, FOX, etc all report that

Except that we are on an auto website and current ( mostly ) with daily events the real fact is that 90+% of the population likely missed this small item in the news and on the internet ( if they even check the news daily ). The vast majority of the population has more important things to consider right now than a dustup between two different groups of local businesses.

• They need a job first.
• They need money to pay medical bills.
• They need to scrape together $1000 from thin air before they are put into foreclosure. They need to consider taking their kids out of private schools because they can't afford the tuition.

All they'll know ( or not know ) is that for some reason their local Toyota stores seem to be all over FOX and CBS. But they won't even realized that ABC has none of these ads.

 

Yes I knew it was ABC. Not sure why I typed FOX.

The rest of your post is quite bizarre.

 

Its not like they are running a story that no one else is running. Not a good long-term pr move.

 

I understand your points. Both of them.

On the local level, the other stations would not want to report on this issue because if Toyota dealers pull their commercials from ABC, they will likely be calling around the other stations looking to do business. If another station reports on the situation, they can kiss that contract goodbye.

From a national level, you are right. It will likely have zero net effect unless it's a slow news day (which it's not).

I think the issue is rather simple. It's an isolated incident. The local dealers were paying money to a media outlet that the Toyota dealers subsequently perceived as over-covering the problems with Toyota vehicles. They said "if this is what you are going to do with the money we give you, then we're not giving you another penny." I think it's rather simple.