Autoblog

Ford's boxy new Flex crossover wagon is far from meeting its sales expectations. And while part of its slow sales can be chalked up to the overall downturn in the auto market, and specifically sales of large 'utes, some believe that there could be more than meets the eye to this particular story.

Up to this point, Jim Farley, Ford's main marketer, has been running a very stylized advertising campaign to accompany the launch of the new people mover, and certain members of Ford's board reportedly believe that a more mainstream or conservative launch would have worked out better.

Farley defends his approach to The Detroit News, and he points out that half of all Flex's are sold to conquest buyers from other brands, especially from foreign-made minivans. Plus, more are sold loaded with all the goodies and are going for prices in the high 30's. Regardless, expect to see more ads touting the Flex's roominess and sound core family values moving forward.


[Source: The Detroit News]

Ford sponsored the Toronto Raptors back in 2006, and one of the promotional ties in the deal was a special Ford Fusion Raptors Edition (here is the promo video). The car is replete with a magical selection of colors and images on the outside, and basketball-themed colors and textures inside. Check out that b-ball steering wheel, and those seats, and the TV in the trunk that would allow you to both ruin your eyes and watch games at a truly awful angle. If nothing else, we're impressed that it took two and a half years to show up on the used car sales floor. Less surprising is the fact that it's only done 5,900 kilometers in that time. It can be all yours for $25,000 Canadian... or you can just check out the high res pictures below. Thanks for the tip, Lance!


[Source: Autotrader Canada]

Despite Ford's mostly successful efforts to yank its product line along by the earlobes, it still needs to find cost savings. To that end, the advertising arms of the Ford and Lincoln-Mercury divisions have been combined, bucking the traditional Balkanization in the marketing wing.

Ford traditionally maintained separate sales and marketing groups, though a single person did serve as brand overlord for all three. Now, the marketing and sales efforts will be by product type, rather than brand, so the Edge team will also shill the MKX, for example. To execute this change, a game of musical chairs has been going on, with Brett Wheatley moving from general manager for Lincoln-Mercury to the customer incentives group, Lincoln brand manager Tom Grill will be joining the global marketing group, while global media manager for Ford, Mark Kaline, has separated from the Blue Oval. This deck shuffling may wind up with a good marketing hand, or it could be a whole bunch of worthless cards.

[Source: AdAge]

After spending a few days with Ford's main-marketing-man Jim Farley and his team, we can truly say that the excitement surrounding the company's new Drive One marketing strategy is palpable. They believe that the story they have to tell is rather compelling; the real struggle will be convincing car-buyers that their vehicles are every bit as good as their competition from Japan -- as recent studies indicate. To show people what's going on behind the scenes, Farley and his posse brought Ford's best and brightest engineers with them to Las Vegas to introduce their dealer-base to the new campaign. They let us tag along so we could see what all the fuss is about, and the dealers we spoke to seemed pretty pumped about Drive One and felt that Farley's new team at Ford was finally listening to them and doing something with their input. Keep reading to find out what else we heard in Sin City.