By Josh, Kyle, Elliot, Ellis & Maggie Ford By Josh, Kyle, Elliot, Ellis & Maggie

Product Offering Ford Motor Company is an American automaker and the fifth largest automaker based on worldwide vehicle sales. Ford offers a range of products over a number of product lines, from conventional cars to crossovers, SUV’s, trucks and vans as well as the luxury Lincoln line. Ford has sold over 40 million F-series trucks since it first went on sale in 1948, making it the best-selling American vehicle of all time (FOX NEWS, 2017). Ford Fiesta is the best selling model in the UK for the seventh successive year and the largest vehicle-selling brand with a market share of 12% (Biswal, 2017).

Brand Image Brand imagine is the consumer’s mental picture of the offering (Dobni & Zinkhan, 1990) and is defined as the reasoned or emotional perceptions consumers attach to specific brands (Low & Lamb, 2000). The “Go Further” tag line has helped position Ford as a viable option against Toyota and Honda as another quality, fuel-efficient choice for automobile buyers.

Brand strategy - personality Aker (1997) defines brand personality as a set of human characteristics associated with a brand. Marconi (2000) suggests that brand personality is important in marketing as building an identification with a brand can lead to strong brand loyalty. Great vehicles are great for drivers everywhere, and that’s the foundation of our business’s strength. To meet demand, Ford is in the midst of its most ambitious manufacturing expansion in 50 years. We’re increasing capacity in the United States and adding plants around the world.

Brand strategy- Core Values/Mission Ford Motor Company is a worldwide leader in automotive and automotive-related products and services. Their mission is to meet our customers’ needs. How do we accomplish our mission is as important as the mission itself. Fundamental to success for the company are these basic values: People Products Profits Acras Advertising (2016)

Brand strategy - promise Quality Safe Green Smart A strong brand promise is one that connects your purpose, your positioning, your strategy, your people and your customer experience.

Attitude branding Attitude branding is the choice to represent a larger feeling, which is not necessarily connected with the product or consumption of the product at all (Gupta, 2009). Attitude branding involves marketing a larger feeling that's associated in the minds of your customers about your business. With attitude branding, your brand contributes to the consumer's sense of identity and self-expression.

Conveying target market North America and Europe are two important geographic regions for Ford Motor Company. Automobile demand from the Asia-Pacific region has been increasing at a rapid pace lately. Ford has also been improving its presence in the region to capture the major portion of the demand coming from emerging markets such as China and India. Ford’s market share fell from 11.1% in 2005 to 7% in 2015/2016

Globalisation Ford is spending $5 billion to build five plants - including three assembly plants, an engine plant and a transmission plant -- that will more than double its Chinese production capacity to 1.7 million vehicles by 2015. (CBS News, 2013). Ford Motor Co. is close to finalizing India as a development base for its new vehicle platform targeted at the emerging markets in Latin America (Livemint, 2016).

Glocalisation “It is important for perfume manufacturers to adopt the local approach with the global attitude in order to be a market leader in the ethnocentric Indian marketplace” (Gbadamosi, 2014). Just as it is for car manufacturers like Ford. For example Ford’s participation in Australia’s most popular motor racing series v8 Supercars uses an Australian only model Ford Falcon. After scrapping the Falcon, there was speculation that Ford would replace it with the American Taurus, but this never materialised due to extreme disapproval. “We wanted people to think about the Ford brand and move on from some ideas they have” (Richard Beard, marketing manager of Ford UK) Ford UK’s brand association = fresh and exciting, shows UK’s status on the globe as a world leader in innovation and technology Sharp contrast to the Ford Brazil brand.

Reference list Acras Advertising (2016) - Acras Advertising. (2016). Ford's Statement of Mission, Values and Guiding Principles. Available: https://www2.gwu.edu/~umpleby/mgt201/Ford.doc. Last accessed 5th Mar 2017. Aker, J, L. (1997). Dimensions of brand personality. Journal of marketing research, 34(3), pp.347-356. Biswal, B. (2017). Brexit hits car giant Ford for $600m. Available at: http://www.cbronline.com/news/verticals/etransport/brexit- hits-car-giant-ford-600m CBS News (2013). Late to the Chinese market, Ford aims to catch up. Available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/late-to-the- Chinese-market-ford-aims-to-catch-up/ Chahal, M. (2016). Ford is launching 'cars with personality to change perceptions. Available: https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/12/14/ford-changing-perceptions/. Last accessed 5th Mar 2016. Dobni, D, Zinkhan, G, M. (1990) In Search of Brand Image: A Foundation Analysis. Advances in Consumer Research, 17(1), pp.110- 119. FOX NEWS. (2017). Ford F-Series marks 40 years as USA's best-selling truck. Available at: http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2017/01/04/ford-f-series-marks-40-years-as-usas-best-selling-truck.html Gupta, S. (2009). Branding and advertising. New Delhi: Global India Publications. Gbadamosi, A. (2014). Handbook of research on consumerism and buying behaviour in developing nations. 1st ed. Kiefer, B. (2017). Ford campaign asks people to 'unlearn' what they know about the world. [online] Campaignlive.co.uk. Low, G, S, Lamb C, W. (2000). The measurement and dimensionality of brand associations. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 9(6), pp.350-370. Livemint (2016). Ford plans new car platform in India, targets emerging markets. Available at: http://www.livemint.com/companies/UPjAD7eXGVQu0ure2wobPP/ford-plans-a-new-car-platform-in-india-targets-emerging- markets Marconi, J. (2000). The brand marketing book: creating, marketing and extending the value of your brand. Lincolnwood: NTC business books. NewsComAu. (2017). One tricked-up pony: Mustang returns. [online]