Wanna know what Ford thinks the difference is between Americans and Europeans? Check this out
I wrote the other day about the way Ford is offering personalization options to customers in Germany and Switzerland and, even though the options do not include ways to make your new Ford more fuel efficient, the promotional image for the service (called "Ford Individual") includes a zero-emission land-surfing vehicle in the background. Yesterday, when I went to Ford's media website, I was struck by the glaring difference in the Ford Individual image and the America-centered one above it, announcing Ford's "personal connection with consumers."
- Ford's ideal background for Europe: sails.
- Ford's ideal background for America: monster trucks. Also, a bull.
[Source: Ford]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
D Mullings 10:20AM (1/19/2007)
When you lose $6 billion in 2006, you've gotta do ANYTHING to try and sell your bread and butter - in this case TRUCKS. Too bad the truck boom is over and consumers have moed on to other types of vehicles. Let's just hope the poor blokes who do buy a Ford truck don't end up blowing a spark plug through the engine:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/01/ford_truck_engines.html
Last tip: Don't buy Ford stock anytime soon...Toyota is a much smarter company
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Shawn Hancock 12:44AM (1/19/2007)
Monster trucks in America draw in millions of fans every year. Grave Digger, Maximum Destruction, Bigfoot, Blue Thunder, Raminator, Avenger, War Wizard, Gun Slinger, Monster Mutt, Superman, and dozens of monster trucks around the country fill stands and sell out huge stadium events including the Georgia Dome, Alltel Stadium, the new Ford Field, and Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. Monster trucks are very powerful and build rugged. I believe Ford has taken notice to this with their line of Ford trucks by allowing 250,000 fans nearly every weekend the chance to see how durable and strong a Ford monster truck is. Flying 40 feet in the air, and pushing 10,000 pounds of steel down a straight-a-way at 70mph is no easy task, that’s where the sometimes 2,000 horsepower engine comes into play, allowing these beasts to do what they do and wow the fans every weekend. I believe Ford knows where their fan base is, and in order to continue receiving their sells they have to reach their customers in every aspect of advertising. Where else can you see a Ford pickup truck crush 6 Dodge or Chevy crush cars and fly over a retired school bus with vans stacked next to it as they launch 30-40 feet into the air, where the monster trucks land, make a sharp turn, do a donut, and/or fly over more car, van, or bus stacks. Ford, the U.S. Air Force, DC Comics, and other corporate companies are realizing that they can spend their advertising dollars wisely by marketing their products through monster trucks instead of oh, let’s say NASCAR, where it can cost a company 10+ million a year to sponsor a Nextel Cup car.
Yes, I am involved heavily in the monster truck racing industry.
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Murc 7:22PM (1/19/2007)
I think there PR guys got it right...they care a little more about have it be more friendly to the environments...While we all have a little texas in us.
yeeeeehaaaaaaaa
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John 3:59AM (1/19/2007)
Its no secret, Americans and Europeans are different creatures so to speak. What sells in America will not sell in Europe and vice versa. Ford would also have different campaigns for China, Australia and Mexico. To me, the US ads offer a rather sterotyped image of Americans.
Does the fact that a campaign focussed on bulls and monster trucks works in the US say something about Americans? I'm not going to wade into that one. From what I gather, Americans really couldn't care less what the rest of the world thinks of them. Its one of the qualities Americans have that can be both a souce of fascination and frustration for the rest of the world.
That's my Canadian perspective at least....a country that is culturally half way across the Atlantic between the US and Europe.
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Jim 9:42AM (1/19/2007)
Many people in the United States need trucks and use them properly. If you are selling trucks, advertising with sails isn't going to cut it.
Also, I really doubt that monster trucks contribute much to environmental problems, since there aren't very many of them.
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scopkins 8:24AM (1/19/2007)
Yes, 1&2 the trend exists in the American consumer mindset, but it's not the only trend. Advertising could be seen as amplifying an existing trend to make room within it for company X's product. There is a trend in America toward ecologically friendly transportation and Ford isn't investing in it. This is the trend that I believe will prevail because there are too many factors at play in it's favor.
If "Bold Moves" was more than window dressing for Ford they'd be the one's investing in the new trend instead of playing on the one that's passing away.
Monster trucks and country singers (and cattle) may say what Ford things about Americans, but in the end what Ford thinks about Americans says more about Ford than Americans.
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DriftPunch 9:00AM (1/19/2007)
Came over from autoblog...
This is silly! You are comparing truck ads here to car ads there! How about comparing car ads here to car ads there?
By that logic, Subaru must think that Americans are gay because you can find gay focused marketing in this market.
Monster trucks aren't my thing, but I wouldn't crap all over it just because I don't like it. I suspect that the sum total of annual environmental degredation due to the monster truck entertainment industry is less than the sum total of the various concert tours supporting left wing and environmental causes.
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Coruscation 11:37AM (1/19/2007)
I thought that was a picture of George Michael in the first picture.
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Daniel 9:38AM (1/19/2007)
Marketers gear their ads according to the audience viewing their ad.
When I watched the end of smallville I saw the army advertising an ad where you see the army in rough and horrible terrain. You hear rough voices saying that the Army is strong because our soldiers are strong. Perfect for the young male smallville viewer.
When I saw an army commercial on the 12 o'clock news the ad was a young woman talking in a soft voice saying how the army pays for her college and there is no background.
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Jim 11:27AM (1/19/2007)
Question: Isn't the top ad for a truck, and the bottom ad for a sedan/car? Aren't those two totally different target markets in Europe or America?
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Mike@HCVN 11:24AM (1/19/2007)
Based on my view from Texas and the truck owners I know down here, it looks like Ford's got their demographics nailed with their truck ad. It just drives me nuts that the summary is so easily captured.
Mike
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short 5:12PM (1/19/2007)
I understand where you are coming from. The truck ad is pointed at a segment of America. Not all Americans fit in that hole. The truck ad honestly turns me off to Ford . Do I own a truck? Yes, but it is used as an appliance for my business. I have never fallen into the mindset that a truck is an everyday driver.
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Bill Maher is an Idiot 10:42PM (1/19/2007)
Well, I know our cars don't have the door hair the French ones do. And Americans actually wash their cars.
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Phred 6:45AM (1/21/2007)
What do you meat you're not concerned about the bull? Cows are one of the world's largest methane producers, releasing it in their burps, farts, and by the fermentation of their... pies, and methane is the second most significant cause of global warming.
OK, well I bet they're at least a bigger problem than than monster trucks.
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