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Is Firestone's clock ticking?
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September 8, 2000: 7:16 p.m. ET
Experts doubtful Firestone brand can survive the turmoil created by tire recall
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Neither a public relations patch nor a discount pricing plug can close the gaping hole blown into Firestone's brand name, and some experts say its parent company might do well to dump the whole thing.
Wincing from repeated blows -- a massive tire recall, congressional hearings, talk of criminal charges, and a consumer backlash -- the Firestone brand is badly damaged, and may not recover from weeks of bad news and what could be years of probes questioning the tires roles in some 88 deaths.
"My feeling is that it (the Firestone brand) is irreparably damaged," said Rod  Lache, automobile industry analyst at Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. "I don't see how or why they would try to support the brand when they have a better brand (Bridgestone) that is unscathed by this news."
The emerging picture of Bridgestone/Firestone's handling of its 6.5 million tire recall has quickly pulled the rug out from what until a few months ago was one of the most popular tire brands in the world.
Things got so bad that the company's own public relations agency, Fleishman-Hillard, dropped them this week. Although the agency declined to discuss the reasons why it dropped the account, published reports have said it was disturbed by Firestone's refusal to make public the seriousness of the recall.
Fleishman-Hillard spokeswoman Marianna Deal told CNNfn.com that the relationship was severed "because it became evident we could no longer be of service to Bridgestone/Firestone." Firestone, a unit of Japan's Bridgestone, retained Fleishman-Hillard in July.
"I think there a good chance that the brand is history," said David Aaker, vice chairman of Prophet Brand Strategy, in San Francisco, and author of several book on marketing and brand building.
"This goes to the heart of the brand," he added. "I don't think consumers will forget about it. Especially since this case has a life of its own - it's going to drag on, and there's going to be hearing and court cases."
A recent CNNfn.com poll asked "Would you ever buy a Firestone product again?" More than 63 percent answered "No."
Waiting too long to apologize?
Bridgestone/Firestone initially recalled 6.5 million 15-inch models of its ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires on Aug. 9 because of numerous reports of tread separation problems. Most of the recalled models were manufactured at the company's Decatur, Ill., plant and installed as original equipment on Ford Explorers and other sport/utility vehicles. As of Sept. 1, about 1.5 million of those tires had been replaced free of charge, Firestone said.
Also on Sept. 1, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued an advisory on an additional 1.4 million tires. Firestone refused to recall the tires because it disagreed with NHTSA's data.
Each day, consumers, who have several purchasing alternatives to Firestone tires,  become familiar with the image of damaged Firestone tires reduced to shreds of rubber and nylon and metal, and watch as lawmakers question when Firestone and Ford (F: Research, Estimates) became aware of the tread problem.
So when the dust clears, will Bridgestone/Firestone be able to regain consumer and retailer confidence in its brand?
It's too early to tell, but experts say there are a few fundamental things the company must do if they want to keep any realistic chance of a turnaround alive.
"The first thing you would do is you'd assume responsibility," Britt Beemer, chairman and founder of America's Research Group.
Marketing experts cite Johnson & Johnson, makers of Tylenol pain-relief medicine, and automaker Chrysler as prime examples of how such potential crises should be handled.
In the early 1990s, James Burke, one-time chairman of Johnson & Johnson, acted early and aggressively in a recall of Tylenol painkillers following several deaths from cyanide tampering. His actions are cited as a textbook example, because the company began communicating with the public almost immediately.
They also point to a less-talked-about situation, as handled in the 1980s by former Chrysler chairman, Lee Iacocca. The automaker executive, facing charges that Chrysler workers disconnected odometers and drove newly built cars to work and back to test them and then sold the vehicles as new, upstaged critics by plainly stating that what Chrysler did was wrong and vowing it would never happen again.
"It was a 12-hour story," Aaker said, referring to the short period of time that the item remained prominent in the media. "What else can (a reporter) write? What's the follow-up story? There's nobody to argue with."
Beemer said Firestone should have apologized to the public within two hours of announcing its recall on Aug. 9. The longer they delay, the shorter the window of opportunity for them to regain the confidence of consumers.
 "I probably would produce a little four-minute video mailer explaining exactly what happened and expressing remorseful feelings," Beemer said.
Beemer also said Firestone needs to bring its retail prices down as it tries to woo back customers, but the question remains of just how far they'll have to drop prices.
"If I were Firestone I would certainly slash my prices," Beemer said. "I think the time window is rapidly running out on Firestone. I would have dropped the video in the very beginning, but in some cases they chose to bury their heads in the sand."
Changing the damaged brand name and reinventing the company is also a possibility, Beemer said, but it would have to be a complete overhaul. Simply hanging a different nametag on the door would be insufficient.
"The trouble is, if all they do is just change the name and change the logo, I'm not sure that's going to get rid of the Firestone image," Beemer said. "They would have to re-paint the offices and move the headquarters and offices."
Lache concurred, saying that if the lower-price, lower-quality Firestone tires simply assume the Bridgestone name, they could serve to hurt the Bridgestone brand as well.
"They want to maintain a premium brand and a medium tier brand. I'd be surprised if they took every Firestone tire and put Bridgestone on the side. They're probably not going to kill the Firestone brand completely."
"Anything you're seeing right now is not from marketing perspective, it's from damage control perspective. When in six months, or maybe even three months, they think about selling tires again, they'll make decisions on it."
Consumers demanding alternate tires: Ford dealer
On the other hand, some of those selling tires say the believe the company would be better off dropping the Firestone brand as soon as possible.
"If I was running Bridgestone/Firestone, I'd drop the name and put all resources into Bridgestone as soon as this thing is over," said Jerry Reynolds, the owner of Prestige Ford in suburban Dallas, one of the nation's largest Ford dealers.
 "I think their brand is tarnished forever," Reynolds added. "I remember the Firestone 500 recall (in 1978). They got past that. But times have changed. Consumerism is huge today."
Reynolds is also chairman of the Ford Dealers' Council, which represents the dealers who have been on the front line of customer reaction to the recall. He said that he's dropped all Firestone replacement tires from his service department other than the ones he's getting to replace the recalled tires. That constitutes about 100 tires a week being sold through his service department.
Reynolds believes customer wariness over buying new vehicles with non-recalled Firestone tires have waned in recent weeks, about 30 percent of Explorer customers and a smattering of other vehicle buyers are demanding a different tire brand be put on a vehicle before they'll buy it.
"There were a couple of days where we gave customers getting replacement tires a choice: a less expensive blackwall tire from Goodyear or a more expensive Firestone with raised white letters. In every case they took the Goodyear," Reynolds said. 
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