Ford makes fresh start in Europe

May 13, 2013 06:01 CET

Ford will use this month's UEFA Champions League soccer final to launch a new pan-European advertising campaign that focuses on its affordable, user-friendly technologies. It is just one aspect of a multi-faceted marketing overhaul the automaker hopes will help to stem its sales and profitability slump in Europe.

"It will allow the perception of the Ford brand to be much more differentiated from our competitors," Elena Cortesi, Ford of Europe director of earned and social media, told Automotive News Europe.

The campaign will focus on one technology per model, for example the ability to link a smartphone to the Sync communications and entertainment system in the Fiesta subcompact. The aim is to reach 18- to 44-year-olds with a particular emphasis on women and the youngest people in the age group because those buyers are more inclined to change their opinion of a brand, Ford of Europe Vice President of Marketing Gaetano Thorel told Automotive News Europe.

Overall, Ford plans to increase its total advertising budget for Europe. It will keep its TV and print spending static until 2014 while increasing the money it invests in digital platforms, including social media, to 35 percent of the total budget by 2014, up from 25 percent this year and 15 percent in 2012.

The change comes as Ford struggles to end it sales slump in Europe, where it expects to lose more than $2 billion (1.5 billion euros) in 2013. Through March, Ford's European vehicle sales were down 20 percent to 224,883 units while the overall market fell 10 percent to 3.1 million, according to data from industry association ACEA.

'Competitive advantage'

In another part of its bid to offer something fresh to customers and boost sales, Ford announced at a special event in Amsterdam last September that it would install Sync in all new cars by 2015, adding that the technology would be available this year in the B-Max, Kuga, C-Max and Fiesta.

"Sync is a competitive advantage unique to us. None of our competitors in Europe have it," Raj Nair, head of global product development, said at the event. He also talked about the introduction of the MyFord Touch screen in the forthcoming Mondeo mid-sized model line, saying it would "replace many of the traditional buttons, knobs and gauges."

What Ford hopes to achieve through its intensified emphasis on tech features is a more favorable opinion rating of the brand among consumers planning to buy a new car.

The goal is to boost the rating to 60 percent by 2015 from a figure of 48 percent during the first quarter of this year, Cortesi said. "We strongly believe that a favorable opinion can be driven by giving a more complete message around the technology," she said.

Different approach

Social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are a big part of that. "Social media is close to 10 percent of the marketing budget. It was zero two years ago," Cortesi said without giving a figure on Ford's advertising spend in Europe. To feed content into social media Ford has increased its participation at non-automotive events. For example, the new Ford EcoSport made its European debut in February at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress rather than at the Geneva auto show.

Ford Chief Technical Officer Paul Mascarenas said that the debut put the EcoSport and features such as Sync in front of a different audience. "Many people didn't even know we had that technology," Mascarenas told Automotive News Europe.

Added Cortesi: "In the past, the big bet was on driving dynamics but we need to move on."

This shift toward technology still emphasizes driving pleasure but arrives at it from another angle, said Peter Walshe, global brands director at marketing consultants Millward Brown. "If the differentiator is technology then that's another factor underlying the driving experience," Walshe said. "It's not just about turning the steering wheel."





Technology emphasis

Key innovations in different models in Ford's European lineup
Fiesta – Sync smartphone connectivity
B-Max – Lack of B-pillar
Focus – EcoBoost engines
C-Max – Interior flexibility
Kuga – Automatic tailgate
EcoSport – Music streaming


Understandable options

That shift is also occurring at the dealers. At the Amsterdam event, Ford of Europe CEO Stephen Odell announced a new dealership design to be rolled out across the region. The change is being coupled with new training to get dealers to fully explain the technology.

Said Cortesi: "We need people to touch, test and prove our tech, so the biggest part is getting consumers to properly test the cars." That not only has the advantage of getting buyers to see technology – such as the foot-swipe-activated automatic tailgate opener in the Kuga medium SUV – but also makes it easier to sell.

"If you don't properly give the value of the object in front of you then everything moves toward bargaining. This way the discussion focuses on the content and not on the driving or the economic element," Cortesi said.

A pilot scheme called Tech Day took place in March across 40 dealers in eight different countries focused specifically on getting women to try out the technology. Salespeople were trained beforehand to better showcase the technology. "The feedback has been positive," Cortesi said. "They understood women want to learn more about technology and the car."

Traditional advertising will still play an key part in the new campaign, she said. For example, Ford will use more traditional and targeted advertising during the Champions League finale on May 25 with the Kuga serving as its star of the night. "We think the audience is very close to the people we want to reach for the Kuga and SUVs in general," Cortesi said, "and we're explaining the car mainly through the automatic tailgate."

Luca Ciferri and Douglas A. Bolduc contributed


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