A meeting of the minds ensued.
Ford promised more stylish and more efficient cars. Plants were closed and operations restructured. They cut costs and brought in innovative and creative thinkers. They did everything that a management team should do, except one thing.
They didn't change their image.
The new and future consumers who are coming of age to purchase their own cars do not remember when Ford produced stylish vehicles that were the envy of their neighbors. Unlike their parents, they only remember the lackluster, expensive, gas guzzlers of recent years. The Ford brand has become a burden and the leaders of the company, perhaps lost in pride, seem unwilling to change even the logo. Do you think things would be different if Apple had continued to call its computers Macintosh instead of iMac?
Being a male, I have an innate attraction to cars. I stare at them on the road and look up pictures of new car shows on the internet. This past week I came across a picture of car not yet released (which is why this low quality photo is the only one available) and it caught my attention. The car is sleek and stylish but also looks powerful and luxurious. It is truly a great design.
It is a Ford. A Ford Taurus to be exact.
Here is a new, hip, and young design being named after a model whose only sales recently have come from old people and car rental companies. Is Ford STILL this out of touch? Washington should not be bailing out poorly run companies who make these type of decisions. Why would Ford market a new design filled with hope and grand potential after such an unpopular model?
Some could argue, that is like Barack Obama changing his name to George W. Bush.
Is the Taurus unpopular or is it just unpopular to you and your demographic? They must figure that they have built up a lot of brand equity in the Taurus name – they have had that car a very long time and have sold a ton of them (#1 in the US in 92 and 96). But maybe that’s just your point they should show a huge shift in strategy to reflect the drastic change in customer preferences since the Ford models were so popular. I get that. However, I think that the drop in domestic auto sales isn't so much a function of poor operations and stragety on the part of the domestic producers as is it a revolutionary production model pioneered by Toyota in conjuction with their keen ability to anticipate the needs of the global consumer. I think the automobile for the US went bye-bye a long time ago. We haven’t put nearly the eye on the industry that other countries have and now it’s pretty much too late. We haven't been competitive for some time. The US no longer has a comparative advantage in the production of the automobiles – we should shift the production capacity to something we do have a comparative advantage in. Alot of people would argue that the auto industry only received a bailout because the capital and credit markets are frozen and we can't afford such a big hit right now. I read something the other day saying the if the like two of the big auto makers went under 10% of the entire bond market would be in default - thats pretty large. If we were just in a regular recession we could probably handle the collapse of the domestic automakers.
ReplyDeleteFord needs to loosen its grip on its failing image. The picture of their new car looks great, my first reaction was, “yeah I would drive that.” That reaction changed right when I read that it is a Ford TAURUS. How can a company be so blind and naïve to think that they don’t need to get rid of the names of their failing cars? Not only change the names, but how about changing the emblem to something that doesn't resemble the blue oval acronym for "Found On Road Dead." Unfortunately Ford has become a failing company, a company undeserving of any government bail-out. Instead of changing its image, they continue to produce overpriced, increasingly ugly and inefficient piles of crap. Their trucks have been the only thing keeping this company afloat for this long. Subject to a union stranglehold and inspired by uncreative thinkers, the only direction this company was headed was south.
ReplyDelete"You work hard and smart, you get raises. You shirk responsibility and perform lazily you get cut. That’s it, simple!"
ReplyDeleteBlame it all on the Unions.
ReplyDeleteUnions are a communist machine. The people who run these machines are the kinda people that say i hope none of the economic stimulus money goes to skilled workers or white male construction workers.
Obama's a dictator, 5 executive orders in a week.