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Just the facts

Ford marketing strategy stresses four pillars: Drive Quality, Drive Green, Drive Safe and Drive Smart

MICHAEL VAUGHAN

Last November at the Los Angeles Auto Show I ran into Jim Farley, the vice-president of marketing and communications at Ford and one of the handful of top executives who reports directly to CEO Alan Mulally. I asked him about his marketing and public relations plans for the coming year and he said: “The way we spend money may be a little bit different in 2009.” I asked him to give me an example and he replied: “I think it’s a series of things. But I can tell you what it’s not going to be – it’s not going to be a bunch of fancy TV ads.”

Farley’s been at Ford just over a year and you can see some big changes already in the way Ford communicates with its customers and potential customers. “Fancy TV ads” – which I presume refers to the old “boys gets car gets girl” formula – are indeed gone from Ford’s playbook.

Says Farley: “I think it’s going to be a lot more authentic marketing, more investment in public affairs, more investment in auto shows, more investment in our dealers’ training. People are smart. If they know there’s something new out there, they’re going to at least go try it.”

At the L.A. Auto Show, Ford was handing out T-shirts that said, “Why waste your money on Camry or Accord? Ford Fusion gets more miles per gallon.” Usually car companies never even whisper the competitors’ names. I asked Farley about this new aggressiveness. “We have to have product evidence,” he said. “We have to actually out-perform them, like Fusion does with fuel economy compared to a Camry. And you have to make sure you have the trust factor so people won’t feel they’re taking a risk”.

Building the trust factor is no easy matter in the automotive business. If you’ve lost it, it can take years to win it back and more than a few Canadians still remember their “Rusty Fords” of 25 years ago. That’s why Ford is concentrating on the basics – on their values and on their technology. Farley’s “authentic marketing” is built on four pillars.

David Mondragon, president of Ford of Canada, picks up the story. “We’re launching what we call the Showroom Strategy in 2009. We’re working on four pillars that are Drive Quality, Drive Green, Drive Safe and Drive Smart. We’re going to talk about the great things on each one of those fronts. The perception of our brand is not equal to the reality of our brand”.

Now quality is built in early in the design and engineering process and since 2005 each new Ford model has consistently delivered better quality than the models they replaced.

Drive Green starts with Ford’s Blueprint for Sustainability, which targets the development of short- and long-term solutions for making vehicles more environmentally friendly. Ford’s EcoBoost, the direct fuel injection system with turbocharging, delivers a fuel economy improvement of up to 20 per cent without sacrificing performance.

Drive Safe involves Ford technology that both helps you avoid accidents and protects you if you’re in one. For example the Safety Canopy helps protect you in the event of a rollover, while Ford says their new cruise control is almost like having a co-pilot.

Drive Smart is about improving the driving experience by helping you stay connected while using the features and functions in your vehicle. Ford’s "Sync" multimedia and communication system is an example of what Ford means by Drive Smart.

The four pillars are serious messages, but in the automotive industry, sex sells.

“Not any more, not in today’s environment,” says David Mondragon. “We’ve done recent research that says today’s consumer, with all the bad news that’s going on, is not looking for a funny ad – they’re looking for facts. Our websites are voted best in the industry. We’ve got a lot of research ability in our websites that let customers get in and build and price a unit. It far surpasses what it could do six months ago and in six months it will far surpass where it is today.”

This article reflects solely the opinions of their authors and not of Ford Fusion as the Information Feature Sponsor