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Automaker Riding The Hip Parade
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Who's Blogging  |
Cause that's the only way to live it
I push it to the Edge
Never stop at the limit.
Ford will sponsor a sweepstakes on Spanish-language Univision.com where the winner will see Knowles perform live at a concert in Monterrey, Mexico, in July.
Ford's marketers also think they've got a strong shot with Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese customers and younger people who don't feel the built-up antipathy toward American brands. The ads featuring Wook, a wildly popular soap opera star and musician, are running in major Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese newspapers and magazines around the country.
Ford is using remixes of Wook's music in commercials for the Edge that will play on Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese cable stations that cater to those groups, mainly on the West Coast. Ford is also putting new music from Wook up on a company Web site.
Ford has a lot of mainstream marketing for the Edge, too. Leading up to New Year's Eve, it is sponsoring the 585-square-foot super-sign billboard in New York's Times Square -- the largest curved electronic billboard in the world. Still, the campaign is one of the company's largest efforts to target African American and Asian American customers
With the Edge, Ford is trying to break into a stronghold of Japan automakers, the market for lightweight, fuel-efficient sport-utility vehicles, called crossovers. The crossover market has grown from 7.2 percent of the U.S. market to 10.6 percent in 2006, according to Edmunds.com. Next year, the crossover segment is expected to grow to 12 percent.
The segment, ruled by Toyota Highlander and RAV4 and Honda Pilot and CR-V, is highly competitive. Mazda recently introduced the CX-9, and a smaller model, the CX-7, is due next year. Audi has the Q7 crossover, its first SUV. The Edge is priced from $25,000 to $30,000, in line with the RAV4 and CR-V.
The segment, once ignored by Detroit, is getting tougher. "These are products designed from the ground up to compete against the import crossovers," said Jesse Toprak, director of industry analysis at Edmunds. "That's why we see such strong marketing efforts behind the Edge."
Ford has a lot riding on the Edge as it tries to wean itself from large SUV profits. The automaker has leveraged virtually everything it owns, from car factories to the car logos, to borrow enough money to rebuild the company. Ford also wants to change the company's image as a proliferator of gas-guzzling SUVs.
"The great thing about the Edge is it really does change people's perceptions about Ford," said Jeri Ward, the Edge's marketing manager at Ford. "It's key to have products that break through and get their attention."
As Toyota grabs a larger share of the U.S. market, it has been at pains to show in its own marketing that it has deep American roots. Though locked in competition, Alan R. Mulally, Ford's new chief executive, has said he likes the way Toyota runs its business. Last week, he met with top officials at Toyota and could be interested in working with the Japanese automaker on joint projects.
