These two brands have been in the news recently for entirely different reasons. But there is a common factor in the case of UK consumers,.
This concerns 'confidence' going forward. The reliability of the Toyota brand was built on a platform of Total Quality Management and building in quality to all processes from the drawing board to customer prolonged satisfaction. This was why Toyota repeatedly beat even all the other Japanese car manufacturers in the quality league (some doing!).
So what went wrong?...this is the question to ask...and solving the answer... before building the marketing and sales story to recoup the losses. In the UK, as elsewhere, Toyota now has a big question mark over it and it has lost it's quality USP. Consumer confidence is no longer a 'taken'.
And what of Cadburys? Those of us in the UK know that Cadburys chocolate never tastes quite the same abroad. Only Cadburys chocolate bars bought in the UK seem to have that, 'oh so special taste!' I suspect that over time, and as production moves to places like Poland, Cadburys chocolate will change and the Cadbury's 'taste' will be a dim and distant memory!
So the Kraft stakeholders may do well out of the Cadburys brand in global terms but UK Joe Public will have lost something very special. The UK consumer confidence in Cadburys will seep away.
Two very different brands losing a 'golden edge'.