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August 7, 2008
Ford is Figuring Out Who They Are
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Brand & Identity
David Kiley wrote a great article for BusinessWeek about James Farley, the new marketing czar for Ford. I zoomed in on this part of the article:
Ford had been through five failed strategies for its cars in as many years because no one could agree on what the brand stood for anymore. At first, [Ford CEO Alan Mulally] flailed, reversing a decision to dump the well-known Taurus name and publicly advocating reviving the "Have You Driven a Ford Lately?" slogan. Then he went looking for a new marketing chief.
That new marketing chief is James Farley, and he's helping Ford figure out who they are. It's going to take a lot of work, but it appears he's already doing a few things right. Two examples cited in the article include:
1. Farley is bringing in local dealers to be a part of the discovery of who Ford is and what they should be doing. Dealers control 75 percent of marketing budgets but until now, they've been absent from the corporate conversation.
2. Farley looked to Usha Raghavachari, a young marketing exec, to create a "brand book—a bible that spells out every attribute of [a new car launch]." Says Raghavachari, "We need the discipline of the brand book to make sure everyone is connected to the same idea."
I look forward to seeing how Ford figures this stuff out. I wish I knew James Farley because this is what Personality is all about—helping organizations figure out who they are and what to do about it!
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