On a recent airport layover I picked up a copy of Business Week with picture of a Model T on the cover. The cover story was about Ford’s efforts to revamp their company, their brand and their marketing department.
After reporting record quarterly losses and a 50% reduction of market share since 1995, the company identified its marketing operations as those that could revitalize the slumping auto giant. So it hired a chief marketer away from Toyota - a creative and innovative leader among US car brands - and set on a new course. Put simply, James Farley’s task is the epitome of the “easier said than done” mantra: Infuse a market culture into the Ford Motor Company.
What did he do?
- Restocked their creative agency, WPP, with fresh, accomplished brand gurus from around the globe
- Invited 30 of their most influential sales dealers for a candid series of focus group meetings on everything from branding and slogans, to advertising and sales incentives
- Reorganized his team with brand managers reporting directly to him - ensuring bureaucratic procedures don’t fracture the new brand messages
The result is a renewed faith among the iconic auto maker’s faithful. Rising gas prices and decreased consumer confidence can be a death blow to a company that introduced the SUV and whose sales are decidedly pick-up truck-heavy. But with a few fresh ideas and a new commitment to sound marketing tactics the future appears brighter than it has in years.
2 responses so far ↓
ryster // August 21, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Seems to me that restocking the creative agency and reorganizing reporting structures is akin to putting lipstick on a pig, the end result is its still a pig.
Meeting with the dealers is a reasonable start. However, Ford (and GM and Chrystler) needs to change the very nature of how they perceive the world. Their mindsets have them competing with a 1980’s approach in a new millenium.
What’s required is to rewire their brains an focus on creating superior value for customers, rather than copying each other and flogging rebates.
Ford is not a bad as GM - I predict GM is show down their North American operations within 15 years. Chrysler is a wild card. Perhaps they are going to make it. Time will tell.
Peder // August 21, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Fair point ryster. I wonder if we’re not seeing some of that rewiring in progress. As my dad used to say, people don’t change unless the hurt is bad enough. I think US car manufacturers are hurting pretty bad these days, but as you say, time will tell whether or not these changes are substantive or merely cosmetic.
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