Ford Vehicle

Nissan recall, Toyota recall, Ford beating GM in sales More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com If you’re older than 35, you can remember a time when Ford cars and General Motors cars always seemed to be the subject of auto recall news.
You can remember when Nissan and Toyota were symbols of quality and the term "recall" was never associated with them. You can remember GM selling a lot of cars, too. Well, that’s in the past. Today, the news leads with a massive Nissan recall, a Toyota recall that’s crippled the brand, and Ford beating GM in sales. Why the 180 degree turn in auto industry brand expectations and performance? Before this blogger focuses on that question, a recap of recent events. On wednesday, Nissan announced a recall of 539,864 vehicles for brake pin and fuel gauge problems. The recall effects six Nissan brands (Titan, Armada, Frontier, Pathfinder, Quest, and Xterra), the luxury Infinity model the OX56. While Nissan, like other car companies, has had recalls of individual model brands from time to time, this is the largest recall in their history. The Nissan press release with the full information is here: NISSAN RECALL INFO. Just a month before it was Toyota with a massive recall effort that’s now damaged the brand’s reputation for quality and safety. The culprit? A gas pedal accelerator problem that results in sudden car acceleration. The Toyota problem impacts millions of their cars around the World, and is now exacerbated by the perception that Toyota’s management is moving too slowly to fix the problem. Toyota and Nissan are starting to look very much like the Ford and GM of the past. And in the 21st Century, it’s Ford that’s emerged as the quality, top selling car brand. Ford is the one U.S. auto organization that did not accept a large American government bailout (even though Ford Worldwide has pressured the German government to extend that nation’s version of the "Cash-for-Clunkers" program), making key concessions with its unions to lower costs and avoid additional layoffs in 2010.

Now, Ford is hiring: an additional 1,200 workers at its new Explorer plant in Chicago. Ford has also beat GM is sales and leads for the first time since 1998, to some small extent because of "bailout backlash" but the real reason is Ford has really worked the rental car and business market and Toyota has the problems mentioned above.
Part of the reason is Ford finally has some interesting cars at lower prices and hot cars like the Mustang never seem to wane (but there’s Lincoln brand, which this blogger maintains is not what it used to be and has been badly mismanaged).

What’s happened is the end of the fall of the American car company. After decades of market share reduction, cross-tech sharing with foreign car makers and Worldwide auto market focus, the Ford, GM, and Chrysler brands have become the Japan of the 21st Century. Ford, in particular, has made cost cutting concessions and taken on innovative marketing approaches in the case of the Ford Fiesta that seem far different than what the firm was historically known for.
It’s a new day. While it’s too early to call it "the new normal" in this industry that seems to be in a constant state of flux, the result is the slow resurgence of the American car and at just the right time.

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The Nashville Predators and the Mid-South Ford Dealers have begun a multi-year corporate sponsorship, the hockey franchise announced Thursday. The sponsorship will see Ford display new model vehicles inside Bridgestone Arena in addition to new signage throughout the stadium. "The Bridgestone Arena provides us with a great downtown venue in which to display our new product lineup. Our display has a real Nashville look and feel that people will enjoy," said John Barker, owner of Two Rivers Ford and chairman of the Mid-South Ford Dealer Advertising Fund. The Mid-South Ford Dealers group includes 152 Ford dealerships from six states. Predators Executive Vice President of Sales Chris Parker said the deal with Ford was the latest evidence that the organization is making inroads in the Nashville community. Two weeks ago the Predators announced the new naming rights deal with Bridgestone, which replaced Franklin-based Sommet group. According to Parker, the team also has generated deals with Nashville area corporations like Mars Pet Care, Lochivar and Vanderbilt University under a local ownership group. "Business is up year over year, and has seen some pretty steady increases since the (2007) change in ownership," Parker said. "I think it’s significant because we’ve gone through the worst economic period since the Great Depression, and while it’s been difficult, I think our strategy and our philosophy is one the market has received." According to Parker, the franchise broadened its sales and marketing strategy by giving prospective clients more "points of entry" to work with the Predators.
"We’ve taken the overall approach that this is not just a Predators platform," Parker said. "This is a 365-days-per-year marketing and advertising platform." Ford’s display will include new models of its F-150, Fusion hybrid and Escape lines. Terms of the deal with Mid-South Ford were not released.

OSU head coach Travis Ford talks with Obi Muonelo after Saturday’s win. Stephen Pingry/Tulsa World

View commentsComments | Posted by Lee Odden on Mar 9th, 2010 in Interviews, Online Marketing, Social Media Share When you think of successful consumer brands in the social media space, names like Dell, Zappos and Pepsi come to mind.
Another is Ford. Last year the Ford Fiesta movement generated tremendous amount of awareness (and pre-orders) for a vehicle that wasn t available to the public yet. At the same time, it inspired a community to engage, create content and continue discussions about the Fiesta with over 7 million video views. While in Dearborn, Ford s Head of Social Media, Scott Monty, extended to me an invitation to The Henry Ford Museum, The Rouge Truck Factory and a visit to Ford s World Headquarters where we did a short interview.

In the interview, Scott talked about the place for social media with Ford s new product lines, local social media work with Chapter 2 of the Fiesta movement and advice for companies on empowering communities.
Being able to learn about the history of this 100+ year old company through experiences at The Henry Ford and Rouge Factory tours was very informative. Being able to sit down with Bob Kreipke, Ford s full time historian and hear stories about Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, company history and the evolution of Ford was priceless. Fast forward over 100 years and Ford is a very different company, as is the automotive industry. It s not enough to be innovative but to be able to innovate quickly and connect with customers in more meaningful ways. Based on my discussions with Scott, Ford is very committed to making those connections. В Watch the interview below to get more insight on how Ford is approaching social media: By leveraging technology and the social web, Ford is moving from being known as A truck and Mustang company to a Car, utility and truck company .

В I think the decision to focus on local social media marketing is great evidence of understanding audience in a social strategy. So much of what companies are doing in the social space is a shotgun approach based on popular applications vs focusing on where and how actual customers spend their time. Check out the The Ford Story, a great example of a corporate social media aggregator not only of Ford social web participation, but of what others are saying about their brands. I can t imaging any active brand online not launching a site like this. What are some great examples of consumer brands you think we should focus on in future posts? What kind of insights would you like to learn more of from those kinds of companies when it comes to the social web?