Ford Motor Company Has Been

Ford Motor Company has been more than a century old institution. It enjoyed a strong brand image in the minds of Americans for a long time when everything American was valued. However with competition entering the U.S. from all over the world and Ford's poor quality issues coming to surface, the brand image suffered a major setback. Ford has since been suffering from serious brand images problems and is in a dire need of revival.

The problem with Ford has been its carelessly planned advertising campaigns. Many models were launched one after the other without much planning going into their marketing campaigns. What message did Ford want to send across? To cash in on customer's sense of nationalism and patriotism is a lost cause now. This kind of approach worked best during the early days of Ford when country was in turmoil and everything foreign was frowned upon. Those days of war have long gone and customers no longer allow companies to play with their national sentiment. Foreign goods are in huge demand and people expect American firms to beat the competition by playing a fair game instead of cashing in on emotions. For this reason, Ford being American is no longer a viable advertising strategy.

And Ford cannot even blame Japanese or German cars for its consistent failure. In 2005, even its biggest American rival Chevrolet went ahead in sales and the same year Ford lost its domestic market stake by 15%. But it is true that foreign cars enjoy much better and stronger brand image and hence are far ahead in sales and in consumers' mind than Ford's vehicles. Honda and Toyota stand for reliability and quality. Ford in one of its recent brand said that its vehicles were just as reliable and high quality as Honda or Toyota. For one, no one really believes it. Second, by saying this in a commercial means Ford is reinforcing the notion that Japanese cars are high quality and dependable. This doesn't really turn the attention away from those companies but instead reinforce their brand image. Ford needs to stop playing a "me-too" game. (Economist, 2006)

Ford is focusing more on its weaknesses than its strengths. For one, customers have yet to be convinced that Ford vehicles have any real strength but there is a long history of manufacturing behind Ford and it can certainly develop its core strengths which must not be ignored during marketing. Second, by focusing on its weaknesses, it seems even more vulnerable and hence drives potential customers away.