It turns out we got it semi-wrong when we reported that FoMoCo's new tagline is "Ford. Drive One" (pearl two). Wandering around their auto show stand, it's clear The Blue Oval Boyz' marketing mavens are hedging their bets. They're rotating their taglines a la Nissan (Shift BLANK), Pontiac (is BLANK) and Mercedes (BLANK like no other). Three separate LCD's proclaim three separate reasons to drive a Ford product: "Drive Smart," "Drive Green," Drive Safe." (It hardly seems likely that Ford will stop at three taglines, so feel free to suggest further variations on the theme below.) The lack of a single sales message does not bode well for branding, but it certainly should satisfy the divisional mandarins within Ford's Byzantine bureaucracy (our turn!). Meanwhile, a word of warning to prospective Flex buyers: if you want to put adults in the way back, opt for the convex non-sunroof sunroof option. Otherwise, neck compression is a given.
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DRIVE: Something else?
As a branding guy this approach will…
DRIVE: Me Nuts
RF: Agree—stick to one tagline…especially when you are trying to re-establish your brand. Besides—it appears a copy of Nissan.
Also—what other observations did you have about the Flex “up close”. Interested as you seemed to have a positive initial impression of the concept.
Drivel
“Ford produces vehicles that are fuel efficient and fun to drive. No need to sacrifice one or the other.”
Really? Where might I find these vehicles? Do they mean the I-4 Fusion?
How about:
“Ford Mazda and Volvo produce vehicles that are fuel efficient and fun to drive. No need to sacrifice one or the other.”
I love the strikeout html code.
Mike Solowiow :
DRIVE: Something else?
Took the words right out of my mouth.
“Drive Smart” made me laugh. Well, if a person really is smart, they won’t be driving a Ford to begin with…
meocuchad – I was thinking the same; isn’t “Drive Smart” an invitation to look elsewhere?
Catch Fire?
Based upon my assistant’s Ford:
Drive Crap
John
Drive: Mediocrity
Drive: The best American car that begins with the letter “F”
Brendon from Canada :
March 20th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
meocuchad – I was thinking the same; isn’t “Drive Smart” an invitation to look elsewhere?
JK43123 :
March 20th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Based upon my assistant’s Ford:
Drive Crap
John
meocuchad :
March 20th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Mike Solowiow :
DRIVE: Something else?
Took the words right out of my mouth.
“Drive Smart” made me laugh. Well, if a person really is smart, they won’t be driving a Ford to begin with…
I’d much rather have the ad slogans drive me crazy than drive ANYTHING made by Ford or one of it’s affiliated companies. This is why i drive a Honda. Better quality, reliability, resale value, OH HELL…Just better everything when compared to a FoMoCo product. !!!!!!!!!! At least Honda will be around to back up and honor the warranty which is something i can’t say for Ford the way that company is going (dare i say down the toilet???)
DRIVE: The Tires Off?
Uh, how about taking the upteen millions spent on marketing and invest in making their Euro products affordable stateside.
Just imagine… a great product line that doesn’t need to be pushed down people’s throats. You know, kind of like what Honda does.
Drive complacent.
By the way, Ford needs to learn a few things about adverbs. Drive safely, drive smartly would be more correct. Greenly doesn’t seem to work, though. In my suggested tagline above, I was merely following Ford’s example of using an adjective where an adverb should be used.
Ford:
Drive – away from the dealer as fast as you can
GM: We’re Just Crazy
Quality is Job 1! My 1987 Ford went 7,400-miles and a lawsuit before the engine was replaced.
Have You Driven a BLANK Lately?
Bend over, we’ll Drive: You Home.
DriveShift_LikeNoOther in the Pursuit.
Do all these companies go to the same marketing company or something?
Purl
red dawg:
You couldn’t be more off base about Honda honouring warranty work, I have a friend with a honda civic, and I have never seen a company weasel out of doing warranty work quite like the honda people, its always “thats how its designed” uh huh the car is not designed to have crappy door seals, and not being able to hear anything while driving at any decent speed over the wind coming through the crappy seals but honda says its “normal” so it must be normal, and windows that fall down when you close the doors, and a transmission that just won’t go into 1st gear in the cold, again honda says its the way its designed. Well if thats the case they have some retarded engineers/design team working for them. Perhaps its just where I bought my car but my Ford dealer has been awesome, never tries to screw me on warranty work by claiming they couldn’t find anything, any problems, which have been very few of, are always fixed with no hassles. But honda backs up there products, RIGHT!!!!
And please I’d really love to know, if honda makes such a great high quality product why does their 06 civic have like 12 recalls and my 06 Fusion have none?
Tell that to my coworker who went through 3 transmissions on his 2001 Mercury Cougar all on his dime and dealer treated him like crap – except to get him to trade up to another car – but with $4k in negative equity on his Ford he couldn’t afford to – but didn’t stop them from urging him to. He did further research to find out that the FWD Cougars ate up auto transmissions like they were going out of style. Also isn’t the Ford Focus the most recalled car in history? But sounds like your Mazda6…ooops Fusion is a great car. Just has a nice rebadge on it.
Dealers can be pricks and arrogant – Hondas are in demand and your misfortunes are b/c of that dealer rather than the corporation. Just look at the skeletons in Ford or Hondas closet. Ford has quite a lot of fatal fire safety issues regularly for the past 30 years versus Honda. I’d rather trust Honda with my life or have a bedroom over the garage with a Honda cc device rather than any Ford.