WHEELS Jan 2016 The Future of Ford Australia.

[P6LTD351]

Originally Posted by Express

I disagree, the public are not showing any interest in Ford and its image problem includes the company’s heritage.

Henry Ford may have been an innovator in his day but now he's ancient history and so is all the Ford product of yesteryear.

Consumers have it set in their minds that companies like those from Asian do it better and Ford needs to change that thinking.

The company needs to be seen as a modern vehicle manufacturer designing and building a great product and therefore Ford needs to tell the public where the cars are being built, how many international awards they win, how well they sell in other markets and why they are good cars.

No humorous ads, no ads belittling or comparing other brands, no heritage ads, no ads focusing on an age specific target and no ads touting tech that is considered to be everydayish for most consumers.

Their ads should be single minded in stating for example this car comes from Europe or it comes from Asian, it’s a big seller and highly regarded in other overseas markets and it is now available to Australians, get on board.

Ford needs to change the consumer’s mindset by showing what a modern manufacturer of world class vehicles they are and not reinforce its past.

A grassroots change is needed.

Most people don’t know anything about their cars, not even where they come from and they are easily led by something as inane as Ford makes good taxis and sells the leftovers to us mentality and that kind of thinking needs to be killed dead.

One of the problems when discussing marketing strategies with informed consumers like those on this forum, is those strategies usually have no chance of achieving their desired results when used on the uninformed.

Teach the consumer about who Ford is these days and then a change may occur.

You make good points, especially the need for change at the grassroots level.

However, you can be seen as a modern maker - with the credibility of basically being the INVENTOR of the mass produced car.

Whether people are Ford fans, they should at the very least, respect the brand. That is not happening. That needs to change.