(Ford Motor Company: eRoom enables Ford to drive into new technology) II. Marketing Strategies:

Target Market: Target Market 1

This market consists of institutional sales with large manufacturers or independent manufacturing divisions of corporations having a huge network of broker, dealer or distributor network. For these categories the ideal vehicle suited will be the sports wagon and minivans. Only last January, the managers publicized the Ford Fairline concept at the Detroit Auto Show as their vision a new 'people mover' being a minivan category of vehicle. The Fairlane was on Ford's Mazda6-based CD 3 platform. However the plan has developed to an analogous styled vehicle which is built on Ford's larger D3 platform that started with Volvo. The two are front-wheel-drive platforms. Through the period of 2010, Ford will depend immensely on these two car platforms. The initial three vehicles on the Mazda-based CD3 platform which are the Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan and Lincoln Zephyr will be launched in the autumn of this year. The Volvo-based D3 platform that traces its beginning to the Volvo XC90 will be utilized for at least eight North American models, inclusive of a trio of Lincolns. (Wilson, 2005)

Target Market 2:

The marketing strategy for this category of customer should be the website of the company ford.com. In the web site will be inclusive of a showroom, information regarding Ford services and a dealer locator. Ford's early adoption has developed over the years into a virtual worldwide network of 5,000 dealers known as DealerConnection which are websites for five Ford automobile brands. At the time while the Internet started to emerge as a powerful marketing tool, Ford Motor initially started to stake out territory as a corporate entity. Very soon Ford acknowledged the value of each dealership having its own web presence. However along with its corporate identity and brand concerns, Ford had built up a dealer population who have a few computer skills and devoid of any ability to link to the Internet. (Ford Motor Company: ChannelNet Drives Qualified Leads for 5,000 Ford Motor Company Dealers Worldwide)

As a solution, ChannelNet the web partner joined hands with Ford to meet the following objectives in designing and implementing the DealerConnection. (i) make sure that every dealer website preserved the Ford brand and presented an exceptional customer experience (ii) including sales and marketing tools which motivated dealers to prevail over their resistance and participate in the web initiative. (iii) Let dealers to control dealership-specific text, images and promotions and to alter or update content in real time, without having the technical skills. (iv) Provide training not just in the DealerConnection solution, but also with regard to the fundamental computer skills and Internet best practices. (Ford Motor Company: ChannelNet Drives Qualified Leads for 5,000 Ford Motor Company Dealers Worldwide)

Target Market 3:

For the consumers representing this category of the market, it is acknowledged as one of the largest growth segments in the automotive business and is exhibiting some interesting trends. For instance data reveal that 50% of the consumers of this category personalize their vehicles from the time they purchase them and it is expected that they will buy 2 million vehicles in 2006 and as much as 4 million in 2010. Ford Focus is already popular among the young female customers and the new kit is an ideal match for the new genre of females. The Ford Mustang 2005 is a next-generation futuristic vehicle featuring an industry first, color-configurable instrument cluster which is among one of the several innovative features appearing on the car. (Ford is tuned in to Tuner Market)

Target Market 4:

For this category of consumer that forms the industrial segment, it would be through Trade shows and industrial exhibitions that the customer will be catered to. Apart from that the DealerConnection web portal which shows the look and feel of the Ford web site will have to be extended into a fast and reliable and feasible platform which is inclusive of the thousand of dealer sites across the world for the Ford Motor company like Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln and Mercury brands. Overall, the DealerConnection's "user interface, customer experience, brand management, content integration and management, and marketing characteristics" have transformed it into the most sophisticated online sales channel within the automotive industry. Individual dealer websites preserve the Ford brand, whereas every dealership will be able to customize its site along with the local promotions, images, content and contact information. (Ford Motor Company: ChannelNet Drives...

B. Marketing Mix:
J. Walter Thompson -- JWT who handles Ford's the direct sales activities through Interactive Advertising on TV is an innovator in the interactive space and was one of the first agency to work with Open TV's Wink on behalf of Ford. JWT enlisted Open TV's wink to assist in driving the brand awareness as also sales of car. Open TV's Wink crafted an interactive improvement for the commercial which would act as the lead generator for the car brochure. Ford's marketing goal was just to test this exciting new medium and to figure out the manner in which it could positively influence their campaign. In case of Ford, interactive advertisement can be regarded as either a part of the initial creative process while developing novel integrated marketing campaigns or as additional marketing tactics. At times, the creative is motivated by the interactivity and at times interactivity is derived from the creative. The communication strategy encompassing the campaign motivates the message and the media vehicles chosen with interactivity promote the over-arching message. (Success Story: Ford Motor Company)

Open TV's Wink enhanced interactive application meant for Ford expedition campaign reflected their CRM efforts and provided the users an opportunity to pick up and a customized brochure in an interesting novel manner. Apart from that Ford received data revealing the demographic profile of the people who viewed the advertisement. The creative team of Open TV's Wink was associated closely with Ford to improve upon the design of the interactive application such that it worked properly with the temper of the overall campaign. The graphics were designed for creating maximum influence and the easiness in response. The commercial consisted of a beautifully shot teaser ad that did not show the car till the final 15 seconds after the emotion was at high levels. The campaign possessed one of the highest interaction and Take rates for all of Open TVs Wink automotive campaigns with 2.3% of the viewers launching the interactive application and 64% of the viewers requesting for a brochure.

The most persuasive remained the fact that this campaign was the most cost efficient method in case of Ford to reach out to those prospects and who were most interested in their offer; the campaign also produced more leads compared to any of the other advertising programs. Additional media vehicles comprised of multidimensional tactics like direct mails, Yahoo! front-page rich media campaigns and other elements. Because this program was so successful that Ford signed an agency-wide contract for every Ford brand and is extending what they are able to do with ITV. By the process of integration of Open TV's Wink into other successful program, like their customized brochure program in which the customer can himself select the information they require in their brochure, Ford can make use of interactive advertisement as a means of direct marketing and place the information directly into their prospect's hand's 72 hours after having the data. (Success Story: Ford Motor Company)

III. Marketing Implementation

A) Marketing organization

The 'millennial generation' within the 16 to 24 age group indicates one of the biggest growth sections of the automotive business and half of them intend to personalize their vehicles since their buying and it is expected that they will buy 2 million vehicles during 2006 and as much as 4 million in 2010. This year at the Specialty Equipment Market Association --SEMA, Ford has unveiled some of its internal marketing research to give a glimpse into the minds of the present day consumer's and tomorrow's purchase trends. (i) Personalization: The present day youth is personalization/customization is all their products choices, having developed with the Internet and the era of personal technology right from the personalized web pages to that of the play lists for MP3 players. They are shown with endless choices. (ii) Ford is announcing a new Ford Ranger body kit to attract to this urban youth set. On display at the SEMA show, the Ford Ranger was available in 2004 through that of the Ford dealers and was designed to create respect in the trendiest of the urban cities. As the millennials have undergone their upbringing within the media, they are greater immune to advertisements compared to earlier generations before. As the 25 and younger group is the large set of users of such entertainment outlets as TVs and movies, it is worthwhile to place tricked out products in movies to link with the tuner market. (Ford is tuned in to Tuner Market)

B) Activities, responsibility, and timetable for completion

As…