Ford Lead Marketer Farley On Bailouts, Blogs and BRIC

You might say that Jim Farley has to keep both hands on the wheel these days. As the man who oversees global marketing for Ford Motor Co., Farley is also spearheading the launch of new vehicles like the Figo in India and, back here in the States, the much-blogged-about 2010 Fiesta—a “supermini” that’s racked up 10,000 orders even though a single car has yet to roll off the line. The car’s highway-mileage rating of 40 m.p.g. probably has a lot to do with that interest, but Farley attributes it to a social media-backed campaign a year ahead of the official launch, and the blue oval’s ongoing push to make media dollars work more efficiently. (WPP Group's Team Detroit is Ford's lead agency.)Farley, who first learned to lay marketing rubber at Toyota (in 2006, he was Brandweek’s Marketer of the Year), recently got on the line to talk about Ford’s shift to social media and how the company is faring as the sole U.S. automaker that’s not on life support.Brandweek: What are the top three items on your to-do list right now?Jim Farley: I’d say No. 1 is launching all of our products globally. We’re really now in the height of our new product launch cycle, which we’ve accelerated. We’ve got the new Figo in India and the Fiesta that is now launching in the U.S. The other big function is providing a really good voice of the consumer in the product development system because as we’re globalizing, we’re identifying some really exciting new products that have one vision for the whole world. That’s new for our industry, which [prior to now] had regional products. The third is organizing our marketing functions across the globe so we eliminate waste. In the past, we’d have more than 20 different ad campaigns around the world. But as now we’re one company—one Ford—we can’t afford to waste money on [marketing] just because it needs to be different.BW: The auto industry went through a major upheaval last year. Are things looking better to you now and for the rest of 2010?JF: Globally, the auto market is pretty vibrant. The BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India and China] countries are really expanding. We’re positioned very well to take advantage of those markets that are now in take-off stage where people’s household incomes allow them to buy a car for the first time. In developed countries like the U.S., things are a little bit more sobering. We expect to see modest growth in the industry this year. Consumers are really looking for value and new products. That’s the one thing we noticed about our improvements in terms of brand and share and pricing—it’s really been around our new products. So, even though it’s challenging at an industry level compared to what it was three years ago, it’s really a good time to have the freshest lineup.BW: Ford was the only one of Detroit’s Big Three not to accept government and taxpayer bailout money. To what degree—if any—has that helped consumer perception of your brand?JF: We hear every day how much consumers appreciate the fact that we have transformed the company on our own. In fact, we’ve had customers send us money. One person sent us $10 just to say “Thank you” and for “doing it the old-fashioned way.” We wouldn’t trade places with anyone, and the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.BW: Digital has rapidly become a big part of Ford’s focus. How would you characterize that progression?JF: Before I got here, Ford was the most aggressive in [digital media] in the auto space. One out of every four [dollars] we spend now is in digital. We’re really changing the way we spend money on digital, and it’s about coming up with great ways for people to experience our product and to give [them] the tools to share content with others. BW: How do you view content created by consumers versus Ford in the case of social media or viral campaigns? Do they carry the same weight?JF: Social media isn’t just about your own content. A YouTube video about a consumer driving a European Fiesta a year before it launches in the U.S. is frankly more powerful and has much more importance than the Taurus video that [we] created. It does two things: It creates awareness of the product before it even gets here, so [we] can spend less on traditional media.BW: Can you give us a quick marketing outlook for the auto industry from where you sit?JF: You will see more competitiveness in the upfront market. Almost everyone is realizing that what is driving the market today are new products and everyone wants to get their message out. So we’ll see more media inflation, especially as the economy comes back—from U.S. automakers, from all of us. You’ll see more aggressive advertising plans, and to me, the most important change will be the messaging. And what I mean by that is that all of the companies are really emphasizing what their products can do. I [also] see a really big shift in terms of all the brands that are competing on an equal level and those who have new products. Consumers are ready to try new brands for the first time in the U.S. They’re starting to ask if there’s something better out there. BW: Does Ford have a new product that revs your engine more than others?JF: The Fiesta. It goes on sale in the U.S. in a few months. We didn’t have an entry in [the minicar category] in the U.S., but by spending just a little bit of money on experiential marketing and social media, we now have awareness and play at the top of that small-car market.

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Ford Lead Marketer Farley On Bailouts, Blogs and BRIC

Elaine Wong

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Elaine Wong