Who hear has the ear of Ford HQ?

[Bossxr8]

No point advertising now, production finishes this week and won't restart until Jan 12, and December and January are dead months for sales, and everyone is focused on Christmas.

Better off waiting until mid January to start advertising, Ecoboost could be done a little later as it won't be released until Feb.

If they haven't started to advertise by February then its time to start warming up the lynch mob.

[jpd80]

National Ad campaign, probably cost around $10 million..
let's say split across a max of 3,300 vehicles for the month
instead of a flat 1,500.

Now, $10 million amortized across 3,300 cars equals $3,000 a piece but by
not spending $10 million and only make 1,500 and you've probably "made" more.

It's a strange concept to get your head around but Mulally has taught Ford
the virtue of right sizing production to true market capacity and that not
every cost is fixed like so many GM-o-philes would have us think,
you can save a bunch by not having millions in car stockpiles.

[DanielXR8]

Originally Posted by jpd80

This month, FGII launches and sells let's say 1500 at full RRP
while Holden in discount mode sells 3,500...

The business plans couldn't be any clearer....

Just think of the profits when they drop sales to 1000 per month!

Ford is a mass market car company. They would happily make 3000 Falcons and discount every last one of them from retail prices (they already are anyway), but they are finding it hard to find those things called customers.

Nothing to do with some brillaint business plan as you constantly allude to, but rather the reality of the market Falcon and the brand find themselves in.

Ford Australia manufacturing is not a boutique business by choice.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by DanielXR8

Nothing to do with some brillaint business plan as you constantly allude to, but rather the reality of the market Falcon and the brand find themselves in.

this is where you seem to have the blinkers on at the other end of the scale. for some reason you think the sliding sales is unique to falcon, and yet other large cars are sliding at the same rate.

the fact is, there is a good chance toyota, holden and ford all have varying plans and ideas of how to stay viable in australia. what seems to work for one doesn't mean that is how the others need to operate.

don't try and pretend that a company that runs half the hours and manpower (guessing) has the same overheads and expenses as the bloke up the road who runs double. also, these 2 companies that started out with very similar product directions, have recently started heading down 2 separate paths. i'm sure both heads of these companies would also wish each other well in their endeavours.

people have been forecasting the demise of falcon for decades. nothing new there.

i also feel this forum isn't really for you. these types of topics are the ones you frequent the most and you never have anything positive to say.

[P6LTD351]

Originally Posted by DanielXR8

Just think of the profits when they drop sales to 1000 per month!

Ford is a mass market car company. They would happily make 3000 Falcons and discount every last one of them from retail prices (they already are anyway), but they are finding it hard to find those things called customers.

Nothing to do with some brillaint business plan as you constantly allude to, but rather the reality of the market Falcon and the brand find themselves in.

Ford Australia manufacturing is not a boutique business by choice.

Bingo. It's not rocket science.

[LTDHO]

Originally Posted by MAD

Advertising before availablity works for console games...
Different markets, but some part might be translated.

Advertising the Ecoboost now might make a fleet manager hold off for the release.


What about ads shouting from the rooftops that Ford have just taken out a ton of the ABC awards? Nothing there either.

I remember a recent time when Ford went 3 years in a row at Bathurst, and we heard nothing about that either.


It gets really annoying knowing that there is plenty a Ford fan can be proud of, but none of it gets reported to the world.

Exactly.
Seems Ford marketing dept is not proud of the Ford brand.

[XWGT]

Originally Posted by prydey

so these non car related forums are aware of fords new products and you think marketing/advertising isn't working?




.

They are aware because I alerted them via discussion. there are a few other notable Ford enthusiasts who promote Ford around the web. The main comment beside product related discussion is "Why dont I see this advertised"

Hence the creation of this thread

[Fev]

Originally Posted by Falc'man

Hear, hear! Let's all congregate around HQ and learn'em how it's done on the intermenet.

This would probably work hey. Like Reverse viral marketing. The buyers and not the company doing thet marketing for them.

Ford enthusiasts actually protesting about the advertising and marketing that the company they love is actually performing, saying they should be doing more!

It's so out of left field that news outlets would pick it up and it would go viral very quickly online.

Just need a good catchy war-cry about it

"WE'RE HERE - FOR THE FALCON (ecolpi) - HURRY UP AND TELL US - THAT WE NEED TO BUY ONE!!"

Or something.. Sorry, don't put me into marketing just yet lol Or do it Perhaps i'm on to something here hahaha

Get all the Vic Ford car clubs together all in one go for a drive-by show n shine, call the news outlets, make heaps of placards and signs and have a sausage sizzle and make a big fuss about it.

Even if it didn't work and the news didn't show atleast it would be a good day out! Organise for the NSW car clubs to make a road trip out of it, invite some automotive reporters down for the road trip. They could make a lifestyle article out of it

[GT 160]

Yet i can't escape VW's Car of Year advertising atm.

Radio, both pay and free to air tv, print, internet.

Heard there radio ad's 5 times on 3 different stations in a 30 min trip this morning.


VW obviously have no idea.

[I6DOHC]

No doubt they have to at least throwing a few advertisements for the updated FGII out there soon. I wonder if they are holding off until the Ecoboost is available, so that way they are able to fire all their guns at once?

Anyway, hopefully they can string something together like they did with the BA (the one with the XR6T hooking around the corners), as in my opinion that is perhaps one of the best adds Ford Oz ever put out. Certainly made me sit up and take notice and I can still remember it now, nearly a decade on.

Some of the ford ute adds they used to put out were pretty good as well, but I haven't seen one of them for ages either. If they have I can't remember them.....

[imugli]

FoA engineers are responsible for 1 world car, one sub-compact that won COTY in India last year, they're working on a small car specifically for China ATM and they have the EcoSport that they've contributed to as well.

Mondeo is second highest selling medium car in the country, Ranger looks set to be big seller next year, new focus has just been released and should further boost sales.

Now let's look at Holden.

They are currently making the Cruze, which is design and engineered overseas (excluding the hatch).

Commodore export program is all but gone (and PPV isn't selling). Ute and wagon, which were only given green light on basis of exports, are one market products and the only reason Holden wasn't sold off 2 years ago was that Ruddy chipped in a $200m line of credit (though admitedly this was never drawn on).

In the next 12 months, Ranger will probably outsell Falcon (so may the Territory for that matter). I dare say both of these will come with higher margins per unit sold.

Holden on the other hand, will sell more Cruze than Commodore. I imagine Cruze makes LESS margin per unit.

I know which HQ I'd prefer to be walking the halls of.

Ford ISN'T the Falcon Car Company any more and yes, they HAVE chosen to be more niche than they ever have been, all over the world. The fact is that before they made that choice, they were making 100,00 cars, selling 30,000 of them and having to give the rest away at a loss.

That doesn't happen now. Check GM. Im sure they can't say the same thing,

Ford now more closely resemble VW than they do GM or Toyota and this is a good thing.