Have you heard a Ford marketing slogan… lately? After "No Boundaries" and "Bold Moves," FoMoCo is pulling the wraps off their latest rhetorical gambit: "Ford. Drive One." The new tagline– which thankfully doesn't include the words "We're Begging You"– is aimed at stemming Blue Oval defections (I'm leaving that joke alone). According to The Wall Street Journal, this latest effort differs from previous head office marketing initiatives; Ford's actually coordinating their efforts with their dealers. "In the past, when it came to the corporate or Ford primary brand campaign, it was their campaign, they developed it on their own and let the dealers know what it was going to be," says Mark Smith, chairman of Ford's dealer council marketing committee. "I'd say there's been a little bit of frustration among the dealer body." Hold the hosannas. The "Ford. Drive One" is targeted at "consideration:" a marketing term for getting consumers to consider the brand. Sales are something else entirely. Obviously.
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This is it! They’ve finally done it and not a moment to soon. Oh, how I had started to lose faith, but Ford somehow pulled through and came up with the marketing slogan that will save the company!!!
Wow. I now feel oddly compelled to go drive a new Ford. Must…leave…now.
Well since Nissan took the “drive” campaign – Ford did one up and added another word. Give Billy a $20m bonus for such good work.
Honestly – the Edge isn’t that bad of a truck. Had a rental over the weekend (yes these go to retail fleets too). But I’ll never trust Ford with my life outside of occassional rentals.
Well—I just finished reading the link (as opposed to just reading Edward’s prose)
It appears that the new Ford tag has strategic rationale from brand positioning standpoint—you know the marketing 101 stuff that recent Ford company marketing efforts seem to have missed.
That said—the devil is in the details. How this new strategy is activated will determine success. It had better have a healthy combination of action orented rational and emotional resonance–otherwise it will fall flat just like the very abstract Bold Moves campaign.
How imaginative they are…
Is that the best they can do? Rely on slogans?
How about improving their quality and durability so that I want to own a Ford for 150K miles.
Their ads and their slogans are not going to make me want a Ford. Their cars have to pass “the test” of ownership.
Busbodger:”How about improving their quality and durability so that I want to own a Ford for 150K miles”
Uh—have you not seen what Consumer Reports and JD Power have been saying about rising Ford quality for the last few years ? It is at least equal of Toyota and they seem to be launching vehicles with less initial quality issues than Toyota (see recent Edge & Fusion launches vs. Tundra & Camry)
Net, absolute quality appears to be improving at Ford—perception of quality is what needs work. If the new “Drive One” campaign does not address this perception issue—-then the campaign is a BIG loser.
It’s another variation on the equally ho-hum “Have you driven a Ford lately?”, but at least their slogan more coherent than Pontiac’s new one: All your base are belong to us Pontiac is CAR.
well, it was either that or “have you burned down your house lately?”
JD Powers surveys are nothing but a marketing tool to me. I watch the domestics in the fleet owned by family and friends around me for an impression of quality. I own a Honda and VW so I cna’t judge the quality of the domestics first hand.
Also inital quality means very, very little to me b/c few of us buy new. Furthermore we aren’t so worried about initial quality b/c the vehicle is under warranty and the problems are the car maker’s costs, not our’s. (Ignoring the time and hassle of working with a dealer). The quality I want to hear about is how good are these vehicles after 150K miles?
I have had some very good times with high mileage imports while my family and friends have alot of problems with their domestics at much lower mileages with a few exceptions (2003 Camaro with 250K miles, 1999 Saturn with 200K miles = both cars have been excellent).
Saturn Vue with CVT tranny on the way out at 75K careful miles, Ford Ranger with a few nagging problems at 79K miles that my imports save for 130K+ miles, 1999 Camaro with serious rear axle problems (replaced whole thing), Envoy with a few problems, Chrysler minivan with a laundry list of problems, etc etc
Quality is mostly a moot point these days. Build a car I actually want to drive.
The Focus holds Ford back by trying to be too many things. They want it to be uber cheap entry level, then at the same time sell up to the 20k mark with the Rabbits, 3s and Civics. They need a smaller car to hit the low end which would free up the Focus to actually compete with its class.
Domestics need to learn to accept the smaller margin on smaller cars, and build them well.
Where will the Fiesta fit in? Above or below the Focus?
‘Drive one’? That’s what we’re supposed to do with ’em??
I’ve already done that twice (owned 2 Fords in the past). With all of the trouble they both gave me, it’ll take a lot more then hilariously unimaginative marketing slogans to ever get me to drive one again.
It’s like the Idiocracy version of “Have you driven a Ford lately?” That one ran for quite a while, IIRC.
And in the last few years they’ve changed them a lot. “If you haven’t looked at Ford lately, look again.” (same message again!). “Bold Moves” (what the f*ck does this have to do with anything?)
Now they’ve resorted to the imperative. This is getting pretty bad.
They must have spent ages considering whether to go whole hog for: “Ford. Drive two or more.”
I own a Honda and VW so I cna’t judge the quality of the domestics first hand.
It’s pretty brave of you to claim that you would never own a Ford because of reliability issues, yet seem to think you’ve made a far better choice by purchasing a VW. I understand that JD Powers and CR can be full of bullshit sometimes, but they’re the best tools we have to determine quality of new products. And frankly, the domestics have to be doing something very right to get the quality nod from CR. Furthermore, it’s gotten to the point where domestic manufacturers offer such deep discounts on new cars that you could damn near purchase one of those for the same price as a slightly used Toyota or Honda. What’s the better choice? Don’t kid yourself-I’ve seen someone drop the tranny out of a 4 cylinder Camry at less than 80k miles, and I know a teenage girl with a Sebring with 190k on the original tranny and it’s still going strong. Compared to domestics, used imports are far too expensive, especially when there’s no guarantee that they will be any more reliable. Worse case scenario, you have to drop a few grand for expensive repairs on an import that you already paid too much for. Best case scenario, you save a bunch of money on a domestic and it runs forever. Which is the more economical choice here?
Ford: “Drive one.”
Me: “No.”
*umterp85: “It appears that the new Ford tag has strategic rationale from brand positioning standpoint—you know the marketing 101 stuff that recent Ford company marketing efforts seem to have missed”
No, the new tag doesn’t have anything. Its just a marketing slogan. It doesn’t do or change anything at all or have any independent powers. The tragic thing is that this new slogan will be expected to actually be something more than a name by the hapless fools that approved this idea.
Ford doesn’t actually need to invent a new slogan and spend bazillions of marketing dollars trying to make people remember it and re-re-organizing the company all over again to correspond with the obscure meanings of it. Instead they could focus all that energy on following the processes that they already have, investing in R&D, eliminating waste, and marketing the slogan and the vehicles they are currently neglecting. Inventing a new slogan is a cop out. Its completely non-value added waste of time and money that no one outside of Ford gives 2 shits about other than the lazy exec who came up with the idea out of a desire to promote him/herself rather than the company.
*not a flame against umterp85 just against new Ford marketing slogans.
-It’s pretty brave of you to claim that you would never own a Ford because of reliability issues, yet seem to think you’ve made a far better choice by purchasing a VW.-
Well to be honest the VWs (all four that I’ve owned) have all been 100K+ used cars. The current driver has nearly 150K miles on it currently. I’ve spent less than two modest new car payments to fix all of the tuff the previous owner broke, and to get it to 50K further down the road. I think it is in good shape and ready for another 50K miles. I’m not including oil changes and tires in that amount.
All of the VWs I’ve owned have had problems with dumb stuff breaking – plastic things or minor electric things. Things that were obviously cheaped out on and easy to break by a careless owner. None had anything expensive go wrong.
Admittedly a person 100% reliant on the honestly and quality of a mechanic and a repair shop would have long ago declared this VW expensive to maintain but the parts are in fact quite cheap.
Water pumps, plastic water necks, axles, broken plastic trim, and stuff like that. I do all of my own repairs so the cost is only the price of the parts. Would I own a new VW? Nope – for their reputation as a sub-average quality car just like Ford – even if I do like the styling of the European cars.
I am watching two late model VWs I know of to see what kind of service those cars return. One belongs to my sister in-law who took my VW preference to be a sign of a good car. I cringed when I heard that she bought a new Jetta. She has historically been hard on whatever she drove so I am anxious to see how the car fares during her torture test. The other is a high mileage Beetle turbo diesel (190K miles) owned by a coworker. So far, so good.
Are domestics any worse or any better than they used to be? I honestly don’t know. The VW was a $5K used car so I don’t have alot risk at stake. Would I buy a new VW or a $15K used VW? Not likely.
We may be in the market for another late model commuter car in the next year or two. I will certainly look at the used domestics because I want to like them and I want to own one – it’s the right thing to do for our country.
I find it unlikely I will buy a used domestic at $5K or $15K though. My money is hard won enough that I can’t risk the chance of buying something that will leave me needing an engine, an expensive a/c repair, or a transmission during my ownership. We have achieved a nice lifestyle with modest means, that means careful choices.
You note the imports are more expensive to buy and own but I argue the opposite – if they are well cared for. I paid $20K for our ’99 CR-V new. It now has 155K miles on it and has required a radiator ($200 self installed), front brakes ($45 OEM self installed), brake rotors (less ~$100 self installed), timing belt (~$50 self-installed), and some fluid changes. That’s it.
In the extended family/friends during this same period were two Taurui (?) that both needed transmissions before 100K miles, a Lumina that needed a tranny at ~125K miles, Sebring = new engine, a Chrysler minivan that needed an engine and major a/c repairs (maybe a tranny too), a Saturn Vue CVT AWD making noises like it is going to need a tranny before 80K miles, a Saturn sedan that needed an engine, a myriad of water pumps, fuel pumps, alternators, a Camaro rear axle, everyone has needed rotors at some early point, a failed dash (Ford Contour, dashpad hugely shrunk), failed Mustang intake manifold (bastard engine and the repalcement parts are GOLD plated, figure $800+), burned Saturn valve, failed Durango rear axle, Envoy fuel line problems (could have resulted in a vehicle fire, she was lucky), S-10 Blazer tranny at 25K miles (5 speed), weird 4WD electrics (GMC, Explorer), A/C compressors on several, a leaky 3.4L Buick intake manifold, Windstar that needed new coil springs???, etc etc etc
Compare that to list of VWs, Toyotas, Hondas and Datsun/Nissans that returned mostly troublefree service for 150K miles+ (one Accord was last seen with 275K+ miles on it) from the same circle of friends and family over 20+ years. It may not be what the stats and test magazines reveal but that’s been my experience.
Add to that the features and styling of these cars. I prefer cars that are designed primarily for smaller engines. Four cylinders I mean. Domestics seem to be styled with a chunkier looks and shapes to them. They do seem to be heavier. They do mostly seem to be better suited for 3+ liter V-6 engines (torque). While some seem to get decent mileage at reasonable highway speeds (Buick Century = 31 mpg with three adults and luggage on long trip), alot of them are low 20s mpg or worse (minivans, SUVs, and trucks). You are correct that the CR-V only gets ~26mpg but in 1999 there was only a tiny number of CUVs to choose from – the Suzuki and the RAV4 and maybe the Daihatsu something or another. Wagons were hard to find in the $20K crowd from manufacturers I trusted and that is really what we wanted. I almost bought a Jetta TDI. 26 mpg was good for the era from a CUV. You are also correct that the Eurovan only gets ~19-20 mpg. In Europe it would return 31 mpg with a turbo diesel. If I owned a Eurovan I’d want to sneak a diesel into it and get 31 mpg. I don’t care if it would be slower than a Windstar. I don’t own a Eurovan though.
-Don’t kid yourself-I’ve seen someone drop the tranny out of a 4 cylinder Camry at less than 80k miles, and I know a teenage girl with a Sebring with 190k on the original tranny and it’s still going strong.-
Yes – and this is the question that haunts me. Would I get better service out of some of the fleet operated by the family and friends? Would some of the “bad cars” be better with an owner that took better care of them? I don’t know. Why not? I know some of the problems were because they drove their cars into the ground or drove the cars despite the noise coming from under the car “because they didn’t have time to fix it”. That explains a few of them. Not all of them.
Do I want to spend $15K to test this theory? NO. Not even sure I want to risk $5K. I have the “risky” VW because I know their vehicles and know of their problems – all of which are reasonable to repair in my garage for $20 here (split plastic waterneck) and $10 there (broken emergency brake cable).
As the old saying goes “some people could break an anvil…”
I’ll be looking at domestic small vehicles next time I suppose and by then we’ll see how well the Focus and the Astra have fared. There is a Focus in the family now. Doing okay so far. Will also be looking at the Mazda minivan and 3-series. Also the VWs too.
Thanks, Busbodger, for sharing a very informative post.
One thing left me wondering: “Water pumps, plastic water necks, axles, broken plastic trim, and stuff like that.” Water pumps are wear items; plastic can be flimsy or get brittle. But axles? That’s a problem I’d expect only with boulder-jumping offroad use.
Axles – haven’t you ever heard an axle popping as a FWD car makes a hard turn? I hear them several times a year in traffic. Just a high mileage CV joint wearing out. With rebuilt parts from the FLAPS (friendly local auto parts store) you can generally source a lifetime warranty axle with two rebuilt axle joints and new boots for less than the dealer will supply one new CV joint. I
I think my most recent VW rebuilt axle was about $80 with a lifetime warranty. Earlier axles for my VW van (70’s era) was about $70 from a different FLAPS. They often even supply the grease to pack the CV joints. Not fun but even with rebuilt axles/joints they have lasted for me another 80K or so. I usually replace all the seals at the transmission as a matter of preventative maintenance (so I don’t have to go back and do the job over b/c of a bad seal. My ’97 VW has a design for the axle flange at the transmission that I really dislike. C-clip that requires compressing a hidden spring by pushing on the flange. Made a tool from two long bolts and a piece of scrap steel. Not hard just a mystery the first time I did the job. An internal seal was ignored by the mechanic that put the replaced the axle at 100K miles. At 140K the oil leaked out of the transmission, made the CV joint geal runny, and ruined the joint.
But that is prob too much info for the comment isn’t it. I ramble too much…
Ford just loooves to dish these phrases out like crazy. Until they build a car i’d actually want(besides the Mustang) they’re going to have to add the word “please” to the end of that slogan.
Guyincognito: “No, the new tag doesn’t have anything. Its just a marketing slogan.”
You are correct a new tag doesn’t mean jack s–t if there isn’t strategic rationale and and a integrated plan to operationalize it and back it up.
For example, If Ford wasn’t working to raise quality levels to and above competition you would have a point. But they are so you don’t.
Also, if Ford was launching crap like they have in the past…you would have a point…but you don’t. In fact, it is a matter preference rather than product superiority if you choose over the Fusion or Edge.
Additionally, if Ford wasn’t thinking about their business in an integrated way by ignoring how its dealers fit into the grand marketing plan…you would have a point.
Last, if Ford wasn’t operationalizing to support what they want to stand for for—you would be correct—and this tag would be as hollow as those that preceded it including the Bold Moves fiasco.
I encourage you to read the WSJ in full (read it again if you have to) to see where I am coming from. You still may not like the “Drive One” theme….but hopefully you will appreciate that there is a little more “meat” to this idea than you think.
NOTE: If Ford falls short in their promise to operationalize around their new rally cry and communicate it meaningfully—-I will be the first one to call them out on these pages as they would have wasted their last opportunity to make Ford relevant once again.
With most Chevy SUVs and Trucks – at 120k miles you need an entire new rear end. Each GM truck I’ve owned I had to shell out $2k for a new rear end or I wind up ditching them long before.
As for Ford – seeing their new commercials touting their safety and how much Ford cares. That’s a bunch of BS – how many people have died from their houses burning down b/c of cc fires, Explorer rollovers (Ford is now just getting hit with the multi million dollar punitive damages lawsuit), and do we even have to go back to the Pinto. Sorry but Ford is run by corrupt accountants that happen to make cars in order to have cash flow.