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Ford's Marketing...

Danager

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To say you are disappointed in the marketing is a fair statement. That doesn’t mean they are not doing their job. They have a playbook, and they will do their best to run that.
I believe part of the issue is people pressing for answers, or better yet pressing for updated timelines. When pressed, they are issuing the typical PFO statements. When pressed harder, they are tossing out just enough to keep the public occupied.
When a starving dog is snarling at you and you don’t have a piece of meat, you toss him a bone.

And then come here and see what people are upset about. Stitching colour, paint chips on a rear hinge of a tester, where are the wires from the upfitter switches, is that the correct sheen on the grille for this model of a spied truck... And we applaud spamming twitter accounts for those who could offer us a steak, if only we were patient. We get tossed bones and are angry when that doesn’t give us our fill.

This thing will run its course. They probably should have waited another few months to launch. Then the communication cadence would have been more of what we were expecting.

In the mean time, be grateful your on-the-job performance evaluation does not rely on what a statistically insignificant “potential” customer believes.
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rmc523

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So is the big beef that we don't have every little bit of information? Think of the alternative. They could have waited to unveil several months later. We would still be waiting to see what the Bronco looked like and what is it capable of.
Would that have made you happier?

Admit it or not, it's nearly impossible to keep a buzz going for almost a year. We aren't ordering till December and we aren't getting them till next summer so why is everyone so dang impatient? I believe the tough part will be after we order and have to wait 6 months before they start being delivered. Won't be much going on then. Although I'm sure all the armchair marketing managers will have plenty to talk about. :LOL:
This - 100% agree.

As I've been saying, whether we get B&P tomorrow or next week, we're still not getting the actual vehicle for another almost year. So, we can wait a bit longer for B&P or wait longer after B&P - either way you're waiting, I just don't get it.

I want more information as much as all of you, and I agree the missed timelines are annoying, but it's not going to change when we're getting the actual vehicle, so why all the stress and complaining?
 

level3looper

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Examples where the Ford business end has made things harder for engineering successes to shine. (Engineers, by there nature, don't cut corners) I am confident in Ford engineers.

1. July 13th.
I'm a data person and I think there are a bunch here that are also, The crashes on the opening reservations night were unacceptable. A spin excuse of too many people coming in does not fly. A transaction based system that could handle the demand should have been predicted and accommodated and then doubled to make sure. A company the size of Ford could have handled this - if they predicted better.

-----------------------
2. OJ birthday
----> Post COVID, they pick OJ Simpson's birthday for the reveal
----> They hear many people express themselves about this and they say they're not changing the date.
----> Within 3 days, Nicole Brown's sister speaks up... then they change the date.
-------> I can imagine the hours she sat on this hoping Ford would do something before she would have to say something.
----> Well planned out? I don't think so.

------------------------
3. Bronco Nation website
This website has not yet proven itself as a benefit to Ford or the Bronco. There is very little participation in the Forums and little information to offer. People excited about getting the new Bronco $signed up for BN with $70 because Ford put their name on it. And people are soured because they haven't gotten anything for that money and it looks like a long time before they will get return on that.
 
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lowmpg

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And yet, we're all sitting here waiting so clearly...they still have the interest.
 

Judd_Skin

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Honestly, it makes me very apprehensive to purchase a Bronco this year. Absolutely nothing that they’ve said or done has been on time, so I’m thinking the Bronco might be a mess this first go around.
 

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I agree for the most part. It seems that the roll out sequence should be moving along smartly with crisper execution, predicable continuity and reliable communication.
An Overview of Ford Bronco Marketing:

Old Ford Marketing Plan:
Develop Vehicle
Run a few Ads
Take Orders

For the Bronco, Ford decides to look into this new thing called social media marketing and how to use it for the Bronco Launch Plans:
7 things to do while in Prelaunch:
Find your Message.
Listen to your market.
Start the hype train.
Get your team ready.
Set up goals and metrics.
Leverage the launch day.
Choose your post-launch actions carefully.

https://viral-loops.com/blog/your-company-needs-a-pre-launch-campaign/
It would appear that Ford lacks the right Marketing Leadership with a deep understanding of social media marketing, who understands it is more than just cryptic tweets. Once the Launch Campaign was underway, with large orders, maybe they decided to cut budgets and trim back some of the Launch steps. More likely, the did not have a detailed, step by step plan from the start.

There are many features and facets of the Bronco that could keep the launch campaign rolling smoothly and keep customers engaged, periodic emails and technical data releases, short videos on packages, features, options and accessories and so on.

Instead, they hitch their wagon to a company that wants to run a Bronco fan website, for a high fee, and only attracts a handful of casuals observers, while all the true die hard Bronco enthusiasts are here at Bronco6g.
@Washbjj88 "They are trying to develop a culture and community of die hard bronco fans.
@BeerForMyHorses "You forgot to mention Ford's main marketing attempt: Bronco Nation. (BN claims to be independent but we all know Ford runs the show). It posts bronco "news", nice looking pics/videos, and creates community amongst "enthusiasts"."
In the end, Ford reverts to the tried and true, it has worked for 100 years, why change now!

New Ford Marketing Plan:
Develop Vehicle
Run a few Ads
Take Orders
Product Launches: 5 Unexpected Lessons from the Real World

Fanfare is a poor substitute for sustainable results. For product launches, long-term success relies on cornerstones of marketing research and execution, like a strong value proposition and full-funnel campaign.

Articles on product launches often lay out a start-to-finish strategy that applies tactics along a linear path to success. That rarely happens.

The key to product launches is to create a resilient campaign—one that can survive the nonlinear journey. This article details five unexpected lessons from real-world experiences to aid that preparation.

https://cxl.com/blog/product-launches/
 
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Studawg

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The full bronco was intended to be no more than a niche market concept vehicle at time of release.
Uhhh, no. Couldn't be more wrong. Bronco was and is intended to be the one and only competitor to the Jeep Wrangler, which sells a couple hundred thousand units a year. It was also supposed to come out at the same time as the Sport, but virus happened.
 

jkburg

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A little off topic but just a reinforcement of some previous comments. One of the biggest marketing challenges is top of mind recognition. Obviously you would like that to be close to 100% for everyone (or likely buyers) and depending on how you ask the question you can get different results. If you were to ask likely car buyers for the next year vs likely off-road vehicle buyers. I asked 10 people at work (4 of which are likely car buyers (within 12 months) and another 2 are current Jeep owners-none are off-roaders just mall crawlers) the simple question of whether they heard that Ford was bringing back the Bronco. One Jeep owner had "vaguely" heard something about that but no interest in changing. Otherwise, crickets. Interpret that as you will.
 

mrklas

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I appreciate your point of view and disagree with you.

Marketing's role is to create awareness - their job is to peak interest prior to the buyer making a decision on a transaction.

A product typically has a market demographic and marketing's goal is to connect with each of the demographics. And if you think about it Ford's marketing group doesn't need to do anything to get a message to the Bronco6g forum because this demographic is aware and the product design (features and benefits) will be how the sales team converts interest to an order.

Will marketing get everything right - of course not. However, I bet you heard the saying 'any publicity is good publicity'

The impact on COVID-19 on this product launch is significant. I'm not sure when they finalized the actual contracts, volumes and delivery schedules. Those details and associated plans if there are multiple sources for materials likely have taken longer to finalize given the work from home and impacted by multiple companies with some plants outside of the US with different quarantine restrictions.

Ford's stock price in 2-3 years may be a good score card for the success of the Bronco launch.
 

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jbf19

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I appreciate your point of view and disagree with you.

Marketing's role is to create awareness - their job is to peak interest prior to the buyer making a decision on a transaction.

A product typically has a market demographic and marketing's goal is to connect with each of the demographics. And if you think about it Ford's marketing group doesn't need to do anything to get a message to the Bronco6g forum because this demographic is aware and the product design (features and benefits) will be how the sales team converts interest to an order.

Will marketing get everything right - of course not. However, I bet you heard the saying 'any publicity is good publicity'

The impact on COVID-19 on this product launch is significant. I'm not sure when they finalized the actual contracts, volumes and delivery schedules. Those details and associated plans if there are multiple sources for materials likely have taken longer to finalize given the work from home and impacted by multiple companies with some plants outside of the US with different quarantine restrictions.

Ford's stock price in 2-3 years may be a good score card for the success of the Bronco launch.
Fair enough. But if any publicity is good publicity wouldn't more publicity be better publicity? I'm sure Covid has impacted the contracts, etc. but there should be enough details ready that Ford can give us more information than they have. Every company in the world has dealt with Covid. Using that as an excuse is weak IMO. We can agree to disagree.
 

level3looper

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I appreciate your point of view and disagree with you.

Marketing's role is to create awareness - their job is to peak interest prior to the buyer making a decision on a transaction.

A product typically has a market demographic and marketing's goal is to connect with each of the demographics. And if you think about it Ford's marketing group doesn't need to do anything to get a message to the Bronco6g forum because this demographic is aware and the product design (features and benefits) will be how the sales team converts interest to an order.

Will marketing get everything right - of course not. However, I bet you heard the saying 'any publicity is good publicity'...
They did create awareness... but now the other brands (at least 3 I can think of) are pumping out commercials and coopting some themes that Ford had in the reveal commercials. I haven't seen those or any new commercials from Ford since the reveal but lots from the other brands. ie: I'm quickly forgetting which car has associated itself with the climbing community...
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