The American Auto Industry Still Doesn’t Understand Branding
I saw two new commercials yesterday. Ford came out with their new branding. Here it is:
Our cars are quality and as reliable as Toyota or Honda. Brilliant huh? I’ll bet my yearly paycheck that if I went out and asked 100 regular Americans where they thought Ford’s quality rated amongst Honda, Toyota and a few others they would rank near the bottom.
Why does Ford persist on trying to change their poor brand image? They should focus on core strengths not weaknesses. But they can’t focus (pardon the pun) on strengths because they have absolutely no brand identity!
Volvo owns safety (owned by Ford), BMW owns driving, Mercedes own luxury, what does Ford or GM own? Shouldn’t they own “American”? Like the Mustang/Corvette muscle cars? Americans will buy that product all day long (good gas mileage or not). It’s not about being green or gas mileage, it’s about wants and desires and fulfilling them.
GM came out with their even more ridiculous “be everything to everyone” campaign.
We’re smaller, more nimble. We’re gonna focus on cars that get better gas mileage, greener blah, blah blah.
C’mon GM, seriously? When is the auto industry going to learn that green cars, better mileage doesn’t really matter. It matters when gas is at $5/gallon but it’s quickly forgotten when gas is at $2/gallon. People buying Hummers didn’t buy them because they got great gas mileage or were trying to be green.
Developing and owning a brand identity is what has made auto makers like Volvo, BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Honda, Toyota and others successful. They each offer a differentiating factor not a “me too” factor like our American Auto Industry. Do you think Toyota would say their quality is as good as Ford’s?
What do you say Kahunas?
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June 23rd, 2009 at 9:58 am
I agree with most of what you say whole heartedly, but the position of the green car brand is certainly open. Imagine if, for a second the Prius looked like a Miata, or if the Tesla was priced like the Prius. A green car with better mileage has not really taken hold yet because one does not exist that is both super sexy and affordable.
The iPhone was not the first smart phone, but it was the sexiest and attainable by everyone. The same dynamic is at play here. If Ford had a hybrid that looked like the Tesla or the Fisker and was priced like the Focus, they would have something to position themselves with.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:27 am
What about “Built Ford Tough”? It’s one of the most widely recognized branding statements in the world.
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:16 pm
ah, for their trucks maybe. What about all the cars they sell? And a tagline does not make a brand identity. Again, if you went out and asked 100 average Americans what Ford meant to them I think you’d get 75 different responses. Ask someone what Volvo means to them and see the difference (and Ford owns Volvo).
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Only if Ford wanted to have a “green” brand identity. They would need to own it like Volvo owns safety. Which would mean that Ford would make all their cars and trucks green. Wouldn’t that be awesome? But they are too chicken shit to make something like that happen. But when was the last time Ford owned anything? They used to but now they try to be like Honda and Toyota.
July 3rd, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Good post.
Question, though. What does Honda own? What does Toyota own? It’s too easy to point to BMW and Mercedes and Volvo, all of which aren’t really trying to be general market vehicles. I’m not sure that Toyota owns a particular brand identity either.
The Prius has a very different brand identity than a Camry, and I don’t see the common brand identity for Toyota across the board.
-rsh
July 5th, 2009 at 9:33 am
I think Toyota holds reliability and Honda owns Quality. When people buy Toyota they think, hey nothings gonna go wrong because it’s a Toyota. And Honda makes some damn good cars. There’s a little overlap between the two and yes the individual brands do have some of their own unique brand identities.