Here is an article talking about Jim Farley. He's the guy that Ford got to come in from Toyota as their new VP of marketing and communications. Pretty interesting read.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=...ch_phrase=ford

 

He is going to do wonders for the ad section of Ford. He started the whole Scion underground advertising ideas (not mainstream, but at concerts, clubs, etc). Plus if you didn't see his picture yet, he looks eerliy like the late Chris Farley, as he's his cousin. I like this move ALOT!! I see better ads coming. My 1st priority, get Mike Rowe to do more truck commercials, and get my girl Jill Wagner to come help out the Blue Oval side!!!

 

I agree. Farley should get rid of all the cheesy ads, and instead begin focusing on classier, more upscale ads that draw from Ford's storied past and then focus on the best products it produces right now...then maybe even show a few tantalizing flashes of cars like the MKR concept as an example of the company's direction for the near future.

And get Mike Rowe to continue doing the voiceovers. He has that deep baritone voice of authority Ford needs right now.

And for god's sake, get rid of crap like this.

That's what I would do, anyway.

 

Farley should keep Mike Rowe and the people in charge of his commercials, they're great, fire everybody else.

 

wow i didnt know he was chris farley's cousin.....definetley interesting. Anyways there are a lot of high hopes for him. I personally hope that he changes things up a bit, Ford needs a new look to take advantage of their new cars.....and quality.

 

Jill wagner

 

I agree, keep Mike Rowe. He is awesome. Also, I like the idea of flashing in images of concepts, maybe that Interceptor concept. Kind of like what Dodge is doing with the Challenger in it's new commercials. I think that is very cool.

 

Easy there '97, she's mine!!!

 

Maybe after I'm done with her she can be yours!

 

Typical Detroit response. Baffled as to why their old, boring, bland and outdated designs aren't selling, do they devote 110% of their efforts to bolstering their engineering and design staff and capabilities? No.

Rather, they look on the failure of not being able to successfully ply their non-competitive product as marketing or money problem. Thus, instead, they pay upteen millions of dollars hiring suits to pump up their sales propaganda or simply bribe the consumers with ruinous rebates.

In my estimation, one of the biggest problems with Detroit is that the roles of marketing and fanancing have taken a hugely disproportionate level of importance to the roles of design, engineering, manufacturing and service. Detroit seems to feel that if they get the marketing and financing right, they can skimp on the latter roles. Instead, if the got the latter roles done correctly and built truly superior class-leading cars, they would be able to skimp on the propaganda and bribery divisions. I get the feeling that in the upper echelons of Detroit management, the ratio of MBAs and Marketing degrees is about ten to one to design and engineering degrees. It should be the other way around.

 

I agree. All the marketing in the world can't push an inferior product in such a competitive global marketplace.

But I remain hopeful that Ford is working on ALL these issues holistically. Perhaps that's hoping for too much, given the company's track record, but I keep hoping nevertheless.

The addition of this Toyota guy is a smart move, as such moves go. If you've seen Ford's pre-Mike Rowe ads, you'll understand why.