Integrated Marketing Strategy for the Ford Motor Company - Case Study Example

One of the most successful marketing strategies belongs to Ford Motor Company. Its compact car Ford Fiesta has become the sales leader in its segment in the Europe market. It's such a city car: small, compact and well run. The driver can always find a Parking space. The car is very nimble and can easily squeeze between the rows. The wheels are wide and as close to the bumpers. This gives good handling and small overhangs. This is a very reliable car and breaks down very seldom. Drivers should add oil only and provides maintenance. The car has good noise insulation. Most of the superfluous sounds remain behind and its aerodynamic noise is minimal. Ford Fiesta equipped with advanced technologies, including automatic braking system Active City Stop, LED daytime running lights, entertainment system Ford SYNC with voice-activated and navigation, keyless entry system and engine start button Keyless Entry and Start, and the MyKey system. The car has a good brand image. It should inspire the target group with the desire to travel, whether it is a fun trip out of town with friends or shopping. So, the main task of the brand image creating for Ford Fiesta was to generate the image of a reliable car for balanced, high-quality, but light and bright lifestyle.

The company makes minor adjustments and upgrades of existing models constantly. This creates dissatisfaction with the old car and motivates the purchase of new one. Also, the company motivates its customers by stereotype that the owners of the Ford Fiesta have a good style and taste. The main target audience of Ford Fiesta was European buyers. In 2013 Ford Fiesta was called "The best female car of the year". Therefore it is possible to make conclusions that the target market is European women aged 25-45 (the core target audience is 30-40), with incomes average or above average, a resident of major cities with population from 600 thousand persons, married, 1-2 children under the age of 10 years, office worker. Her characteristic features are purposefulness and active vital position. She appreciates the stability, comfort and regularity. This woman has a measured, planned and relaxed lifestyle. Her nature of shopping is follower. She buys popular trendy things but at the peak of their popularity. She does not make impulse purchases. She trusts the opinion of friends and relatives and tends to show the following desires: the shopping for the family confirms her status as a doting mother and a good homemakers; shopping for herself confirms her status as a modern and active woman. She has a hobby but it gives them a bit of time and prefers outdoor recreation, picnics in the countryside or at the cottage parents. The main target audience plans to purchase 2-3 months prior to its execution. She makes a selection uses the following sources of information (descending influence on the decision): the experience of friends, reviews and comments on the Internet, the opinion of her husband's experience, parents advice and sales assistants. She prefers to buy on credit.

One of the causes of the Ford Fiesta successful sales became the strategic objectives correctly formulated. The main strategic goals of the Ford Motor Company is to satisfy its customers through the delivery of high-quality cars and trucks, the development of new products, reduce the time of the new vehicles commercial introduction, improve the efficiency of all business and production processes, creating partnerships with employees, unions, dealers and suppliers. The main essence of the company's marketing strategy is that it is pointless to organize mass production, if there is no mass consumption. This means that workers should earn enough to be able to buy company’s own products. A wage increase in the measure of productivity growth leads the markets and profits increasing. Thus, the basic elements of marketing strategy are: the high standardization of production, the labor division, the high level of workers material incentives, the high degree of the production process efficiency, accelerated cash flow. Also, the company gives a lot of attention to positioning strategy. For example, here are the compare characteristics of Ford Fiesta (2016, May 28, the official website of Ford Motor Company) and its competitors (Table 1):

Table 1. The compare characteristics the of Ford Fiesta and its main competitors

Model

Length, mm

Wheelbase, mm

Cargo capacity, L

Engine power, HP

Hyundai Solaris Sedan

4375

2570

470

107; 123

Kia Rio Sedan

4377

2570

500

107; 123

Renault Logan

4346

2634

510

82; 102

Nissan Almera

4656

2700

500

102

Volkswagen Polo Sedan

4384

2552

460

85; 105

Ford Fiesta Sedan

4320

2489

455

85; 105; 120

So, Ford Fiesta has some technical specifications below than its competitors. But it has a number of other advantages. Among them are: a stylish and attractive design situations, parking sensors, dim ambient lighting, wipers with rain sensor, the soft gradual shutdown of lighting in the cabin, electric folding mirrors, windshield heating and climate control. Front and side airbags provides the safety of Fiesta passengers, anti-lock braking system ABS with impeccable car on wet and slippery surfaces.

One of the tools to inform buyers about advantages of company’s cars is advertising campaign. The company attracts the most famous bloggers who are asked to evaluate a model of the Ford Fiesta and share their opinion with the community. And as a result it was more than 50 000 pages of unique content, more than 30 million visitors to display different scenes using the Ford Fiesta in social media, sales growth. The next advertising campaign was successful also. The company has provided the opportunity to the 100 participants to evaluate the Ford Fiesta 2014. The participants were asked not just talk about their impressions of the car but to perform a series of exciting missions for the performance which the voting was conducted on the website dedicated to the project. The best stories was broadcasted by Ford on the rating channels, entertainment shows, were published in prominent magazines. Ford has provided all the tools necessary to accomplish missions. Ford is cooperating with rating channels at the national level, major entertainment shows, including American Idol and X Games, as well as with the legendary music festival Bonnaroo. In fact, Ford is trying to create its own show with the use of social media. Fiesta became mandatory attribute of the entertainment content that helped undoubtedly to form the correct image characteristics of the brand. The advertising campaign for such extraordinary vehicle like Ford Fiesta must be original, non-standard and memorable. The first promotional video in the campaign “This is Now” (2016, May 28, Ford Fiesta "This Is Now") is really different from the flow of standard automotive creativity. The main hero of the video is Ford Fiesta that gradually “gathering” from the set of a TV with different directions of contemporary art. It embodied the Fiesta as a "style icon" car that gathers together all the current cultural trends. Also television screens show the bright and fashionable concept, represent the trendy design of the car that attracts a lot of attention everywhere - from home lawn to exclusive areas of the city. Bright and fashionable Fiesta represents a unique image of a modern city car.

Public Relations campaign is an indispensable condition for successful sales. The main methods of PR that Ford Motor Company used regularly in its practice for sales promotion are: the creating and keeping communication with the current and potential customers; dissemination of information about the company, products and services on the website; the information dissemination about the company, its products and services in the newspapers; surveys, feedback channels; sponsorship. The company monitors public opinion constantly. It is important to know the customers brand loyalty. Also, Ford Motor Company uses PR campaign for the launching of a new product on the market and for the formation of positive public opinion. The Public Relations campaign of the company based on several principles. The first one is that always tell what actually is. That is, that the company gives a true information about character, ideals and practices of the company and to confirming the information by the action of the company. PR campaign is directed on the analysis of public opinion and management of it. Also the company managers understand that the best PR distributors are the stuff of the company. Therefore, the first action from which the company starts promotion is creating corporate policy that based on the values and ideals of the company and the brand. Seminars, meetings, training of staff, general corporate "gatherings" are served to achieve these goals. A successful PR campaign could be campaign which is based on the competitor’s ads. As the opponent is the business is the partner for marketing. It will increases the strength of the brand and gives a lot of information for the news media. The best competitors for Ford Motor Company is the leader of the US car market General Motors.

An Internet marketing campaign of Ford is widely developed in social networks and takes into account the complexity of the company activity: greater competition in this market segment; the target audience has the stereotypes about the products and forms of its realization; widely developed network of partnership among the car dealers and services. The most effective tool of Ford’s PR company is PPC advertising method. It allows to “chase” the user while his visiting the Internet resources. The company is also working actively on the promotion of its site. For this, the responsible department of the company provides SEO of dealerships sites, technical audit and optimization, links development with social networks and partner resources, the campaign with the deployment of PPC advertising, usability correction and content sites in the direction of communicative increasing, formation the user response, encouraging them to phone calls or filling out the pre-order form. The second part of the goal is online visitor retention. There are some tools in the company’s site that stimulate the certain user actions lead him in a certain direction. Except the advertising just mentioned, the Internet marketing campaign includes such kinds of ads like banner advertising and product placement. Internet marketing campaign is an integral part of a direct marketing campaign. The essence of direct marketing activities can be defined as direct (and usually private) address to clients. The company has a good developed direct marketing campaign. The most prominent tool of it is the system customer surveys on the official website of the company. Each visitor site is asked to answer a few questions. At the same time, contact details of the user are requested. Thus, the company's managers have an opportunity to form data base of potential clients and to analyze their opinions of the site and the company as a whole. Thus the basis for Customer Relationship Management is formed. CRM-applications that are integrated in the official site of the company are used as key tools for winning and retaining customers. This minimizes the human factor during operation with customers and allows increasing the transparency of activities in the areas of sales, marketing and customer service. The managers of the company conduct training for consultants, elaborate the concept of communicating with customers, organize events for clients.