Abstract
What is it that Toyota and Tiger Woods have in common? At first sight the
resemblance may be difficult to see. Nevertheless, it can be argued that both Toyota and Tiger
Woods, during the past many months, have been exposed to a great amount of negative media
attention due to their respective unfortunate incidents. What they have had in common has been
the growing mistrust of the public and the threat to their image, based on these exact incidents.
As for Toyota, the situation has concerned problems with sticking gas pedals, floor
mats and brakes, which eventually caused the occurrence of several accidents. These incidents
attracted significant media attention and ultimately Toyota was forced to recall a very large
number of the involved types of vehicles.
Regarding Tiger Woods, he also attracted massive negative media attention in late
2009, after his infidelity was revealed to the public. This, eventually, caused him to take an
indefinite break from golf and furthermore, a number of his sponsors began to question their
corporation with Woods. Therefore, our problem statement is as follows: We will analyze whether
both Toyota Motor Corporation and Tiger Woods are experiencing a crisis or not according the
theory of Ulmer, Sellnow and Seeger. Furthermore, we will analyze how both parties have dealt
with their respective image restoration according to William Benoit’s Theory of Image Restoration.
Thus, which strategies they have employed in their verbal and written defense and what it tells us.
As a sub-question, we will make a brief comparative analysis of how Toyota, as a company, has
dealt with their recent events and how Tiger Woods, as an individual, has dealt with his recent
events. This will be done in order to see if there is any resemblance between a company and an
individual when making use of William Benoit’s theory. Finally, we will make a brief comment on
whether their respective crisis communication may have had an effect, based on statistics.
As for our method, we have initiated with investigating whether or not Toyota and
Tiger Woods are facing a crisis, based on the theory presented by Ulmer, Sellnow and Seeger.
Furthermore, we have chosen to make use of speeches and press releases from each party, in
order to analyze their crisis communication. This will be based exclusively on William Benoit’s
Theory of Image Restoration Strategies.
After having analyzed the recent circumstances concerning both Toyota and Tiger
Woods, according to the three, before-mentioned theorists, Ulmer, Sellnow and Seeger, we have
been able to conclude that they are both facing a crisis. Therefore, the main content of our
assignment comprises an analysis of the crisis communication of both, according to the theory by
William Benoit.
Based on this analysis, we have discovered that Toyota and Tiger Woods have made
use of several of the image restoration strategies, according to Benoit. This confirms Benoit’s
theory that usually, when attempting to restore an image, several strategies are selected and
combined. However; a majority of both the verbal and textual defense of Toyota and Tiger Woods
can be categorized under three of Benoit’s strategies. The use of these exact strategies tells us
that both parties are regretting the situation. They are not trying to abdicate their own
responsibility and furthermore, they both make great efforts in order to improve themselves,
restore their image and regain the trust of the public.
Additionally, we have discovered that the employment of the strategies by Benoit is
the same, regardless of the accused being either a company or an individual. This confirms the
theory of Benoit that his model can be applied by a company as well as an individual when
needing to restore an image.
Finally, we have chosen to include a section containing statistics, in order to
investigate whether or not the crisis communication of Toyota and Tiger Woods has had an effect.
Based on these statistics, we have been able to see that the popularity rate for both parties took a
downturn immediately after the crises became a public reality. However; figures also tell us that
the public rating has reversed and gone upwards again after the publishing dates of the crisis
communication analyzed in this assignment. Therefore we can argue that their verbal and textual
defense may have had a positive effect on the public opinion. However; we are not able to
conclude for certain that their crisis communication alone is the reason for the positive
development. Other factors may have played a role as well.
Total number of keystrokes (incl. footnotes, excl. spaces, front pages, abstract, table of
contents, bibliography and appendices): 85.555