Branding Strategies of Ford Company - Essay Example

?Introduction Ford Focus is one of the leading brands of Ford Motors operated under different models throughout the world. Ford Focus is considered as one of the best known brands from Ford because of its excellent exterior design, technological sophistication as well as the luxury it offers. Some of the unique selling propositions of the brand include its strong brand name as well as the overall technological superiority and appeal. Ford Focus is regarded as a luxury brand however, it is still reasonably priced. A closer analysis of the overall strategic direction of Ford in recent years would suggest that the Ford focused on the raising of new finances in order to completely restructure the company besides ensuring that it focuses on only those businesses and brands which it can successfully develop and market. This strategy, attributed mostly to Ford Chairman Alan Mullaly, provided the firm the necessary resources to develop a very conscious and deliberate branding strategy. The continuous marketing and development of Ford Focus- one of the leading international brands of the firm shall therefore be viewed from the perspective of this new change in focus and the approach. (Daye & VanAuken, 2010). The current brand management program for the car is mostly focused on exploring the brand name of the Ford itself as well as the new and renewed strategy of managing only those brands which can be successfully marketed. The new paradigm in Ford therefore is based upon successfully managing the existing brands by cutting down those brands which cannot be successfully marketed. This report will discuss critically the current brand management techniques adapted for this brand besides performing the external environment assessment and how the firm can actually improve its CRM as well as MKIS for this brand. Ford Focus- a brief Review Ford Focus is one of the most successful brands of Ford which is being successfully marketed all over the world under the same name. The main features of the car include the overall bold style of the vehicle, key free system, independent rear suspension as well as the smoother and automatic power shift features. These features provide Focus a relatively unique position in the market owing to its critical features and their attraction. It is also important to note that the Focus is priced reasonably however, it is still considered as one of the luxury brands aimed at consumers who are willing to afford high priced luxury cars. Due to this market segmentation strategy, Ford has been able to consistently market this product across the different markets with relative success. One of the key aspects of the overall brand strategy for this brand is the deliberate strategy for not rolling out the different brand extensions. It is generally believed that the brand extensions in automobile industry tend to weaken the existing brands and it is therefore critical that the automobile firms must engage into the practice of brand consolidation in order to ensure that the existing brands continue to perform and develop into leading market brands.(Lambin, Chumpitaz, & Schuiling, 2007). Current Brand Management Program As discussed above that the Ford has adapted a deliberate strategy of managing its current brands by discarding those brands which are hard to sell and manage. Due to financial crisis, most of the automobile firms faced significant financial constraints and reverted to further rationalize their product lines in order to become more efficient and effective in managing only those brands which can be successfully marketed. An effective branding strategy requires the successful leveraging of the power of the brand in order to cover the market more effectively. (Aaker, 2002) In order to effectively understand and critically analyse the current branding strategy for the Ford Focus will suggest that it is a sub-brand of the Ford itself. Given the market power of Ford as well as its overall market reputation, Ford Focus therefore tends to thrive on the strong brand image of Ford itself. Further, Ford Focus can also be considered as the part of the umbrella brand of Ford because of the fact that it is managed as a part of the family of brands by Ford. (Olson, & Thjomoe, 2010). The above discussion is critically due to the fact that the Ford Focus may inherent the implicit weaknesses of the Ford Brand as a parent Brand and therefore may face the same challenges as faced by the Ford itself. It is important to note that the constant competition from the small and more fuel efficient car makers may make any strong brand strategy vulnerable despite the strong brand image of the product or the firm itself. This therefore makes it more critical for the brands like Focus to cater to the needs of the target market in more innovative manner. The existing brand management program for the Ford Focus is therefore part of the larger strategic initiative by Ford to consolidate the brands and manage only those brands which can be successfully branded and marketed. Based on this grand strategy, the individual branding strategy for the Focus is based on the management of same brand across the different geographic locations. The current strategy is based upon the umbrella branding strategy of the firm and focus is branded as a FORD brand rather than as a vehicle which can offer the luxury and the technological superiority. Further, the brand is marketed across the regions within same price ranges indicating that the firm is following a standard umbrella branding strategy to manage Focus as a main brand and its different brand extensions. Ford Focus is also marketed under the different brand extensions i.e. Ford Focus Style, Focus Zetec and Focus Sports each with a different price tag. This suggest that the umbrella branding strategy of the firm is to focus on exploitation of the existing brand strength of the company itself and than subsequently adapt an umbrella branding strategy to manage different main brands and their extensions. This strategy can be inherently weak because it assumes the same risks and weaknesses as that of the Ford’s main branding strategy. Though the current strategy of the firm is considered as successful however, considering the changing market requirements and the consumer preferences, it may become difficult to continue to peruse same strategy for longer period of time. Appropriate econometric for customer, product and shareholder In order to effectively measure the success of the brand as a whole and several of its attributes which may be of importance for the different stakeholder groups, it is important that a regression analysis may be used. Marketers typically face the challenge of determine the statistical relationship between the different attributes of the brand with that of the key stakeholders of the firm i.e. consumers and the shareholders therefore it is critical that a better and more comprehensive measure technique may be used. It is important that the both qualitative as well as quantitative form of measurements should be used in order to effectively measure the brand and its effectiveness. A qualitative analysis will allow the board to look into the different behavioral factors attributed towards the success of the brand and how firm can actually improve them. A quantitative analysis will further allow the firm to measure the success of marketing efforts of the team in terms of achieving the sales objectives. Further Ford can also use the same data for further strategic insight into the development of new brand extensions. Regression analysis will be more appropriate because it can allow the quantification of different qualitative variables and their relationship with each other. It is however, important to note that the firm must look into such factors and must than formulate the strategic direction for the firm in the light of the new factors and their relationship with each other. External Competitive Analysis Some of the key factors affecting the brand in the EU and UK region are discussed below: Economic Factors Like most of the developed countries, the economy of UK also went through significant decline in the recent past. Overall purchasing power of the consumers declined and owing to the credit crunch finance available for car purchases declined too. Because of this reason most of the first time buyers relied heavily on purchasing the second hand cars rather than buying the new ones. Due to this shift in the consumer preferences, the overall demand for the new and more luxurious cars declined significantly thus creating challenges for many international firms. Environmental Factors Automobile industry is currently facing the though challenge of meeting the increasing compliance requirements with the environment. The focus on the production of fuel efficient cars as well as the sustainability issues are some of the key areas which can significantly dominate the future of automobile industry. Further the consumers are becoming more and more ethical in nature and prefer to trade with those firms which are friendlier towards the environment and are producing technologies which are environment friendly and focus on the development of alternative technologies. (Harrison, Newholm, & Shaw, 2005). Though the Ford Focus complies with the CO2 emission requirements however, there can significant challenges in the future. Technological factors The overall focus on the new changes in the technological development in the automobile industry is based on the development of cars which are environment friendly and utilize the alternative fuel technologies. Major research and development activities falling within the domain of automobile manufacturers therefore are based upon the development of technologies which can effectively utilize the alternative fuels. The technological progress therefore in this era is mostly focused on the development of such technologies which are environment friendly. In future such technological changes therefore have to have greater impact of Focus because in order to sustain and develop into a long lasting brand, Ford may be forced to develop the different brand extensions for Focus which are effectively built on the use of alternative technologies. Social Factors Social factors may not be so strong in this context however, given the fact that the consumers tend to buy the luxury products because of their perception about the luxury and quality associated with such brands, the social factors become more significant. (Chaudhuri, 2006) Based on the use of consumptions of symbols, brands can therefore effectively serve as the strong source of luxury. The notion of you are what you buy therefore can play significant role in ensuring that the consumers remain related with the brands and continue to enjoy the perceived benefits from them. (Blackwell, Minard, & Engel, 2006) The above discussion suggest that the Focus may face strong challenges in future specially due to the constant changes in the technology as well as the more focus on the development of environment friendly cars. A VALID CRM AND MKIS In order to overcome the significant challenges outlined above, it is important that the firm must develop a comprehensive customer relationship management program and develop the necessary information system support to gain the competitive advantage. A good and valid CRM would allow Ford to develop multi-layered connections with the different groups of customers. Since the automobile industry works through dealerships it is therefore important that Ford must further develop a better decision support system as well as ensure the enterprise agility. Brand management in today’s context is mostly a data driven strategy and since the firm adapts the uniform brand strategy across the different regions, it is therefore critical that the firm must effectively channel or link its CRM with its overall branding strategy for the Focus. Further an effective MKIS will allow Ford to look into the consumer patterns and therefore develop and make changes in the overall brand offerings in the future. In order to successfully achieve this aim, it is critical that the Ford must be able to strategically use its strategic alliances with the dealers to get a deeper insight into the information about its customers. Since consumers are becoming more focused on the use of more fuel efficient cars, it is therefore important for more luxury brands like Focus to keep on looking for highlighting some of the key unique selling propositions which can actually incite the consumers to buy the product. In order to achieve this, it is important that the firm must build a better and more robust CRM which can utilize the data extracted through the more agile and robust marketing information system. (Egan, 2007) Conclusion The overall branding strategy for Focus is based upon the umbrella branding strategy of Ford. During the recent past, Ford has focused on the development of a unique branding strategy wherein it has attempted to capitalize on its core strengths whereas at the same time focusing on the development of its other luxurious brands. The branding strategy for Focus- as a brand is same also wherein the firm is not only cashing on the brand image of the Ford itself but also attempted to manage only a key portfolio of brands which it can successfully manage. However, in order to achieve the overall objectives of this strategy, it is critical for Ford to use different econometric techniques to get a critical insight into some of the qualitative as well as quantitative attributes of the brands with its key stakeholders and than subsequently develop the strategies to overcome them. On external front, it is critical to note that brand is facing significant challenges in terms of ensuring the compliance with the changing environmental concerns as well s the sustainability issues. The focus on the development of more environment friendly technologies may therefore create significant challenges for the firm in future to deal with. Ford can overcome such challenges if it can actually further utilize its CRM and MKIS in more strategic manner. References 1. Aaker, D. A (2002) Building Strong Brands, 9th Edition, New York Free Press 2. Blackwell,R, Minard,P & Engel,J (2006) Consumer Behaviour 10th Edition, Thomson 3. Chaudhuri, A. (2006) Emotion and Reason in Consumer Behaviour, Butterworth Heinemann 4. Egan, J (2007) Marketing Communications. New York, Thomson 5. Harrison, R., T. Newholm, & Shaw,D (2005) The Ethical Consumer, London, Sage 6. Lambin, J, Chumpitaz, R & Schuiling, I. (2007) Market Driven Management – Strategic and Operational Marketing 2nd Edition Palgrave 7. Madichie, N (2009). Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being. Management Decision,. 47 (5), pp.845-848. 8. Olson, E & Thjomoe, H (2010). How bureaucrats and bean counters strangled General Motors by killing its brands. Journal of Product. 19 (2), pp.103-113. 9. Paterson, M. (2005) Consumption and Everyday Life, London, Routledge Read More