Ford Unplugged: Leadership Opens to Dealers



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The Ranger platform also forms the basis of the upcoming Ford Bronco SUV in 2020. It is part of a plan to replace 75% of the Ford lineup by 2020, raising the average for the next year. portfolio age of 5.3 years to 2.3 years from here the new decade. .

The bulk of the portfolio will be electrified and it is planned to increase from 30,000 sales of electrified vehicles to 600,000 over the next five years. In two years he should overtake Toyota as the best seller of hybrids in the United States. The day will come when Ford will sell more hybrids than V-6s, said Farley, and all new vehicles have a hybrid or plug-in hybrid version, including F-150, Mustang and Bronco. "It's a big bet on the part of the company."

Separation of the sedan

This was good news for dealerships, but Ford's decision to roll out sedans and many car segments is a lingering concern.

Ford will continue to offer cars, with a different silhouette than a sedan, said Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford North America. The sedans went from 57% of the market in 2010 to 23% in 2019. Even a good vehicle in an endangered segment is not a good investment, he says. Investing in SUVs, trucks and commercial vehicles is more cautious and, ultimately, the total number of nameplates will increase from 20 to 23 today.

Dealers are also worried about the loss of entry-level cars at an affordable price for first time buyers. Farley assured them that there will be vehicles under $ 25,500, such as EcoSport and Escape, but they will not sink into the pricing territory of the Fiesta.


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Need to hear the boss

Hackett and his team were reassured as to what direction they would take in the business at a time of uncertainty and swirling issues.

Hackett is leading an effort to reduce costs by $ 25.5 billion and to spend $ 11 billion to transform the builder, which will require employee reduction and retention of talent in the company. 39; interval. Ford's stock remains below $ 9 a share, Wall Street questioning the strength and speed of Ford's restructuring.

This week, we had a better understanding of how the top managers spent last year. In North America, Galhotra has made a difference by reorganizing product development around nameplates, looking at products from a product perspective.

The 11th floor has been transformed into a series of franchise rooms: Ranger, Transit, etc. There are 13 product rooms and four process rooms for topics such as the consumer experience.

Inside each room, the walls are covered with information from all the disciplines that affect this product. The visual attack means that sales and marketing managers now know the engineering and manufacturing data, that purchasing managers see the intimate details of the design and that engineers assimilate the customer profile and competitive prices. Nobody can plead ignorance on any subject.

The exchange of information has increased business knowledge and led to some surprising discoveries, such as the fact that Super Duty microphones have a profit margin of $ 10,000 in some regions and $ 20,000 in others. This makes it easy to decide who buys trucks when stocks are low.

On Wednesday, Galhotra, CFO and Head of Sales, Marketing and Product Development, trains an entourage who moves from room to room to observe the evolution of the vehicle, answer questions and make decisions on the spot. . Example: Expeditions production stopped with a four-inch infotainment screen, as these models were based on many terrain, while SUVs with eight-inch screens were captured.

This questioning also led to a radical transformation of the marketing side by reducing the role of the long-time advertising agency WPP and by incorporating BBDO as well as Wieden + Kennedy for some projects. Some of the work is also done internally, with 100 employees added to develop the message and voice of Ford.

breaking Bad

A new advertising campaign debuts this weekend around the motto "Built Ford Proud". He continues the message "Built Ford Tough" but introduces the message that Ford is a 115 year old family business and that employees are extremely proud of what they build.

The actor Bryan Cranston of breaking Bad is the face and the voice of the new spots. He was chosen to be a "no-baloney" right handed shooter when Ford has to express his message simply and clearly, Farley says. "We found an excellent voice for what we already knew to be our voice, I do not know why we did not talk like that before."

He was born of a moment "aha" when the builder realized that he had dropped his leadership in customer loyalty. "When we saw our lead decrease, we realized we had to act," Farley said.

There are 13.5 million F-Series trucks on the road. It's time to reward everyone who owns a Ford nameplate rather than spending most of their budget trying to attract buyers of other brands.


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Loyalty program coming soon

Next year, Ford will introduce the FordPass Rewards program, Delta Delta's customer loyalty program, aimed at providing a better customer experience. By deciding to install modems in all new Ford in order to make the vehicle an extension of your smartphone and its applications, the manufacturer has the necessary tools to make the lives of its customers easier, that it this is an oil change or a Ford credit service. Said Farley.

Dealers' response to this avalanche of information has been a relief, optimism and some blame for not sharing some of this information a few months ago to dispel their concerns.

They also appreciate the promise that the time between ordering and delivery of a new vehicle will increase from 82 to 38 days, which will facilitate proper inventory management while freeing up working capital.

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