Toyota commits $8bn to target minorities

Jesse Jackson has called Toyota's marketing efforts racist

By BBC News Online's North America Business Reporter, David Schepp

Toyota Motor in the US has said it will commit nearly $8bn (£5.6bn) over the next 10 years to increase minority involvement in its businesses and to improve its image with black and Hispanic consumers.

Toyota's latest efforts aim to increase diversity in the workplace

Threatened with a boycott led by civil-rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson, Toyota said it will diversify its workforce and increase the number of minority-owned businesses that sell its products and provide it with parts.

Toyota also plans to spend millions more on ad campaigns that directly target the African American and Hispanic communities in the US.

The company said it had hired a new black-run ad agency to handle campaigns aimed at African-Americans and other blacks.

Dubious efforts

But the value of Toyota's latest efforts are dubious, considering the commitment is but a fraction of its total North American operations.

This is not a short-term effort nor is it a sheer numbers programme

Jim Press, chief operating officer, Toyota US

And it is unclear how the new initiatives differ from the company's previous programmes.

The deal's details were announced on Thursday by Toyota and Reverend Jackson at the Rainbow/PUSH coalition annual meeting in Chicago.

"This is not a short-term effort nor is it a sheer numbers programme," said Jim Press, chief operating office of Toyota's US enterprise.

"It seeks real, solid, tangible results while following a model of success and profit," Mr Press said. "We fully believe we can advance diversity and business goals at the same time."

For his part, Revered Jackson welcomed Thursday's announcement.

In comments before the annual meeting of the Rainbow/PUSH, a social-justice organisation he founded in part in 1971, he said, "The impact of this will have an impact on all imports as well as an impact on Detroit."

Controversial postcard

Ads were the source of a controversy that caused the Reverend Jackson through his Rainbow/PUSH coalition to call for a boycott of Japan's largest car maker.

Jesse Jackson: "The only thing missing is the watermelon"

Earlier this year, Toyota began distribution of promotional postcards touting the company's RAV4 sports-utility vehicle (SUV).

The cards featured a Puerto Rican man smiling with a miniature RAV4 embossed on a gold-capped upper tooth.

The cards were the brainchild of ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and Reverend Jackson called on Toyota to fire the firm.

A Toyota spokesman told the BBC: "The issue about the promotional post card was put behind us rather quickly."

He said Toyota management recognised the promotion might be considered insensitive and cancelled it before any complaints surfaced from the public or Reverend Jackson.

Voluntary action

"That was a voluntary action," the spokesman told the BBC.

Toyota pulled the card in May, and Reverend Jackson suspended his call for a boycott a month later, after "inconclusive" negotiations with the car maker led Jackson to believe the company was earnest in efforts to improve its image within the African-American community.

As part of its efforts, Toyota said over the next three years, it will spend $150m with minority-owned advertising agencies and establish a new relationship with an African-American advertising firm.

It also said it had established a diversity panel, comprised of Toyota employees, to review upcoming advertising and provide feedback.

Toyota, whose automobiles enjoy a loyal following in the US, has the largest number of minority-owned dealerships of any foreign automobile manufacturer, according to the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers.

Of Toyota's 1,400 dealerships, 63 are minority-owned, ranking it fourth among all car makers.

In order to increase the number of minority-owned dealerships, Toyota said it will increase its budget by $25m and has set a goal of finding up to six new minority dealers this year.