Ford Marketing, or lack of it!

[Spammy]

Does anyone actually know for a fact (which to be clear is different to an opinion) that Ford does not spend loads of money promoting the falcon to Fleet managers?? Or is everyone just upset that Ford doesn't advertise the Falcon on the TV channel/Radio Station they watch/listen to at exactly the moment they are sittng in front of the tele or listen to the radio.

Fleets are the audience they actually want to attract and who in turn buy Falcons rather than people who are armchair advertising experts. Like any sensible company, Ford know where their advertising dollars gets the best return and I'm sure Ford have very foccused methods to reach their intended targets.

[Buntz]

Originally Posted by jpd80

Your argument doesn't hold water.....lol
It's even more counter productive to spend $232 million of your own money
and then deliberately kill off a product cycle early without recouping the investment.

Maybe they will with Territory. But they couldn't let it go to 2016 with no updates at all.

And in the scheme of things... it's not really all that much money in a bases productions. Spread over two models.

But Ford being so tight-lipped is driving me insane

[Buntz]

Originally Posted by Spammy

Does anyone actually know for a fact (which to be clear is different to an opinion) that Ford does not spend loads of money promoting the falcon to Fleet managers?? Or is everyone just upset that Ford doesn't advertise the Falcon on the TV channel/Radio Station they watch/listen to at exactly the moment they are sittng in front of the tele or listen to the radio.

Fleets are the audience they actually want to attract and who in turn buy Falcons rather than people who are armchair advertising experts. Like any sensible company, Ford know where their advertising dollars gets the best return and I'm sure Ford have very foccused methods to reach their intended targets.

One model for fleet, and five for consumer. Where do you think advertising needs to be again?

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Buntz93ED

But Ford being so tight-lipped is driving me insane

I nominate this for Post of the day.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Joe5619

EXCATLY!!

Which is why I've been worried about the lack of marketing for Falcon. So if I see Ford giving the Falcon some good marketing dollars, I might be a bit more up beat about its further. It is the symbolic meaning behind the marketing dollars (or lack of) that is important for me.

Probably because it was too successful and they were losing too much money, need to bring that back a bit so they can get it trickling out enough to last till 2016, no point killing it this year.

I have seen half page ads in todays Herald Sun with the title "performance-now with LPG", promoting the EcoLPi XR6.

About time they started doing something to promote LPi, but the question needs to be asked why the f this wasn't done when LPi was released, or during the FGII release at the latest.

Not 9 months down the track, thats pathetic.

[Spammy]

Originally Posted by Buntz93ED

One model for fleet, and five for consumer. Where do you think advertising needs to be again?

75 sales to fleets for every 25 sales to the public and both numbers are headed south at an alarming rate.

You have a product that is no longer relevent for private buyers, middle Australia has set sail to other brands never to be seen again but the fleets are still buying from you in OK numbers - however, are being tempted by Subi/Mazda/VW

Now where do you spend your advertising budget??

[Buntz]

Originally Posted by Spammy

75 sales to fleets for every 25 sales to the public and both numbers are headed south at an alarming rate.

You have a product that is no longer relevent for private buyers, middle Australia has set sail to other brands never to be seen again but the fleets are still buying from you in OK numbers - however, are being tempted by Subi/Mazda/VW

Now where do you spend your advertising budget??

Where do you get these fleet/consumer percentages?

[falconnut]

Ford has basically dropped of the face of the earth advertizing wise.

The only ford ads i see are the actual new falcons on the streets.

[Spammy]

Originally Posted by Buntz93ED

Where do you get these fleet/consumer percentages?

They are quoted in any number of articles and reports. Even on here:
http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11309342

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Spammy

75 sales to fleets for every 25 sales to the public and both numbers are headed south at an alarming rate.

You have a product that is no longer relevent for private buyers, middle Australia has set sail to other brands never to be seen again but the fleets are still buying from you in OK numbers - however, are being tempted by Subi/Mazda/VW

Now where do you spend your advertising budget??

Ford have sales people who liase with the fleets, they provide them with info, pricing and provide them with whatever they may require. They have always had this, its nothing new. They also do drive days etc with fleet managers to try new products. This form of sales would only be a fraction of what they spend on advertising to the public, so you've got this mixed up if you think their advertising budget is heavily skewed towards fleets, cause thats simply not the case.

TV, newspaper and radio ads would take up a very large slice of the budget. Even racing would probably be part of the promotion budget.

Advertising to the general public is what they aim at, not fleet managers. They have a direct line to fleet managers that they don't have with the buying public.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Spammy

They are quoted in any number of articles and reports. Even on here:
http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11309342

But what they don't say is just how many of those fleet sales are in fact user chooser novated leases.
There's a reason why so many sales to fleets are XR6 falcons and not just plain old ordinary XTs.
What's hurting falcon and Commodore novated sales is the change to FBT liability which on
+40,000/year has increased from 7% of costs to 20% of costs, a huge change in salary sacrifice hit.

[Spammy]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Ford have sales people who liase with the fleets, they provide them with info, pricing and provide them with whatever they may require. They have always had this, its nothing new. They also do drive days etc with fleet managers to try new products. This form of sales would only be a fraction of what they spend on advertising to the public, so you've got this mixed up if you think their advertising budget is heavily skewed towards fleets, cause thats simply not the case.

TV, newspaper and radio ads would take up a very large slice of the budget. Even racing would probably be part of the promotion budget.

Advertising to the general public is what they aim at, not fleet managers. They have a direct line to fleet managers that they don't have with the buying public.

Given Ford currenlty spend SFA on advertisng the Falcon - one can only duduce that the direct channels to Fleets are in fact where they expend time and money.

Fleets are not captive audiences - not advertising is ads on commercial radio...marketing at trade shows, golf days for fleet managers etc etc is all advertisng.

[Spammy]

Originally Posted by jpd80

But what they don't say is just how many of those fleet sales are in fact user chooser novated leases.
There's a reason why so many sales to fleets are XR6 falcons and not just plain old ordinary XTs.

Correct - they don't give a split as to what is user chosen novated but it's obvious that the number is getting smaller.

My neighbour used to get the choice of a new falcon or commodore every years as part of his job. A few years ago the choice was expanded to include Subis and Mazdas - plus the higher residuals on the smaller cars meant lower percentage payments He and the bulk of people in his company moved away from the falcodores at their next change over.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Spammy

Correct - they don't give a split as to what is user chosen novated but it's obvious that the number is getting smaller.

My neighbour used to get the choice of a new falcon or commodore every years as part of his job. A few years ago the choice was expanded to include Subis and Mazdas - plus the higher residuals on the smaller cars meant lower percentage payments He and the bulk of people in his company moved away from the falcodores at their next change over.

Salary sacrifice payment is everything to people signing up, they still get a car but less hurt in the hip pocket..

[Hayden1]

Don't know if its been mentioned but there's a XR6 MKII add on the radio, heard it this arvo

[falconnut]

No TV ads though :(

[Spammy]

Originally Posted by jpd80

Salary sacrifice payment is everything to people signing up, they still get a car but less hurt in the hip pocket..

Correct + fleet managers are very mindful of residuals. If they have a choice between car A and carB and car B has 10% higher residual at year 3 ....then brand loyalty goes out the window.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Have they advertised on a radio station that has listeners under the age of 80?

I've heard nothing on Fox, MMM or Nova just to name a few.

The drive time slot I've heard the EcoLpi ads a fair few times in the two days I listened to it.

[gokhan]

Half-page ad in today's Herald Sun Cars Guide: "Performance. Now available in LPG" shown above an XR6.

[4.0i OHC]

I haven't been exposed to any Falcon advertising whatsoever. The two radio stations that I regularly listen to (both on AM) carry no Ford advertising whatsoever.
That said, the F30 3 series (a great car in itself) is heavily advertised on both these stations. BMW certainly knows how to promote their product; every ad is centred around how enjoyable the car in question is to drive, even if that isn't the case (F10 5 series/LW Focus). Why doesn't Ford do that? Ford could do well by positioning the Falcon as the driver's local alternative that it is.

[jobeli]

Yee ha. At last. Some ECO LPI advertising. I saw a very nice looking xr6 in a half page ad in the herald sun. Spruiking the power and torque figures of the lpi.
I also heard vroom vroom type ads on 3aw today, again pushing the power/torque benifits of the lpi. Looks like the ecolpi campaign has finally gotten off the ground

[csv8]

Queensland isn't getting the radio ads??? I listen to 94.9 FM or 4BH...

[My poor XF]

Originally Posted by csv8

Queensland isn't getting the radio ads??? I listen to 94.9 FM or 4BH...

Every second ad on Triple M here in Adelaide is either the xr6 mk 2 or eco lpi.

Getting too much, they might surprise themselves and sell something and we can't have that /sarcasm

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by 4.0i OHC

I haven't been exposed to any Falcon advertising whatsoever. The two radio stations that I regularly listen to (both on AM) carry no Ford advertising whatsoever.

Wow, I didn't know that they still transmitted in AM....

[Windsor220]

Originally Posted by falconnut

Ford has basically dropped of the face of the earth advertizing wise.

The only ford ads i see are the actual new falcons on the streets.

The Focus/Fiesta ads are on every day. The Territory ad is on every now and then too.

Its just Falcon they have given up on.

[csv8]

Originally Posted by gokhan

Half-page ad in today's Herald Sun Cars Guide: "Performance. Now available in LPG" shown above an XR6.

Todays Courier Mail ,has same ad.....

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Windsor220

The Focus/Fiesta ads are on every day. The Territory ad is on every now and then too.

Its just Falcon they have given up on.

Quite strange isn't it, looks like chasing after fleet sales is going to take longer than anticipated.
Still as revitalized Territory has shown, sales come back as soon as Ford starts doing the right thing.

So i wouldn't say Ford os giving up on Falcon as much as market delivery has been to heavily skewed to fleets.

[rjr]

I watched the GP telecast on SKY UK and they had a brilliant Focus add on.

It could be on Y/T.

[Hayden1]

Originally Posted by falconnut

No TV ads though :(

I'm not sure if I was dreaming but I saw an FPV ad last night haha, about the clearence of the MKI models I think

[AC]

I see FPV ads on OneHD all the time. I even heard a XR6 Ute ad on the radio this morning.