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Ford Bets On Social Media For Fiesta
Ford is gambling on the power of social media for the new marketing campaign surrounding the Ford Fiesta subcompact. The auto giant handed over 100 new Fiestas to "agents" selected from 4,000 applicants and created YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter accounts for them to relay their experiences. "Ford is taking a hands-off approach and telling participants not to hold back their opinions, bolstering the campaign's credibility. 'We've told them to be completely honest — that's the only way it's going to work,' Monty told us. 'We won't tell them what to say, nor will we censor or edit any of their content.' So far, it's working in Ford's favor. The tweets on the FordFiesta Twitter page are generally favorable, if a bit dry, as are the posts over at The Fiesta Movement Facebook page. None of the 80 pictures on the Fiesta Movement Flickr page show broken down cars. There are a few hundred videos on the FiestaMovement YouTube account if anyone's got a few hours to kill."
handed over 100 new Fiestas to "agents"
Perhaps 100 which received special care and attention, manufactured to higher tolerances than those of the actual production run.
The marketing may be honest, but that dosen't mean that there isn't B.S. there.
http://www.myride.com/images/no-transform/myride/promotions/images/images/2009%20Ford%20Fiesta%20five-door-f3-4_400.jpg
Ford fiesta? More like Ford Siesta.
Oops, I think I just killed ford's careful marketing strategy.
Why is Twitter suddenly such a big deal? Yesterday we hear that Oprah is starting to use Twitter, now Ford. But why?
Is Twitter really some kind of revolution, or is everyone jumping on a random bandwagon because they're afraid they'll look behind the times if they don't?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
We won't tell them what to say, nor will we censor or edit any of their content.
But we gave them a free car so out of a 100 people majority are probably going to feel bad about writing something negative. It could backfire badly if the car turns out to be a pos, but if the car is at least half decent this seems like a nice marketing move.
Btw, if Lamborghini ever decides to employ the same strategy let me be the first to volunteer
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
I owned a 1978 Fiesta. It was a blast to drive and got better gas mileage than most small cars today. The new ones look pretty sharp for a small car. Import 'em; I'll seriously consider buying one.
Don't give a shit about Twitter, though.
Or facebook, or myspace, or any other crap like that.
So Ford won't entice the reviewers for a positive review in any way, other than by giving them a free car...
There's an old robot saying that applies here:
DOES NOT COMPUTE
crazy dynamite monkey
Giving your product out free to people you've identified as key opinion leaders is hardly a new idea -- heck, dollar-wise Ford's getting off pretty easy just giving out a few of these cars.
With that said, I would like to take this opportunity to point out everyone reading this post, especially those in decision-making posts at large companies, that I am obviously an influential and important member of the community. I am respected because I have a low NUID and excellent karma, I'm occasionally funny and (most importantly) I am completely and utterly for sale -- exceed my embarrassingly low price and I'll pimp anything on the shmucks who read this site.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Ford Exec: "We need a new campaign for the Fiesta. Something HIP. Something the KIDS will take notice of."
Ad Guy #1: "My kids are always TWATTERING on their PHONES!"
Ad Guy #2: "Yeah, and they're into MyFace!"
Ford Exec: "You're onto something! Let's do it!"
Ad Guy #1: "What if it doesn't work?"
Ad Guy #2: "We'll rename it the iFiesta and hire Ashton Kutcher to shill for us."
Right now, I have a lot more respect for Ford than for GM or Chrysler. They are not going bankrupt, and the new Fusion Hybrid looks to actually be a decent car. But if the marketing drones an GM or Chrysler can actually locate these blogger cars and sabotage them, then Ford is going to have a Public Relations nightmare on their hands.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
. . . would have like totally eclipsed this campaign.
Get the name right next time, Detroit!
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Down here in New Zealand they're doing the marketing in a manner very similar to Robert Llewellyn's "Car Pool". @bobbyllew as you should know is Kryten from Red Dwarf.
Consultancy: If you're not part of the solution, there's money to be made in prolonging the problem
The problem so far with bringing in European-American cars has been the annoying desire by American auto manufacturers to "Americanize" the cars by making changes that in the end make them much less attractive. Almost invariably the nice interiors get replaced with insultingly cheap plastic, small and efficient engines get replaced with boring, me-too offerings, and turbo-diesels are dropped from the lineup.
I've been complementing Ford on their Fiesta ever since I drove it in Europe last year. Two people with considerable luggage, combined city and highway, we got 42 mpg (US) on the turbo diesel, even with my lead foot. I am 6'3", and I was quite comfortable (with an understanding that it is a small car, so no, this is not the Town Car-type of comfort). The interior was very pleasant. How much of it will make it to the US? I remain incredulous.
End anonymous moderation and posting on
It sure makes sense for Ford to give cars to those who will write positively about their brand, like prolific writer and Fiesta fan Jim Anchower. And it wouldn't hurt to have searches for Ford pictures to return something less tacky.
I REALLY wish I could get the new diesel Fiesta here in the United States. From everything I've heard, it's just an excellent car with insanely good gas mileage (better than a Prius). Too bad America hates diesel...
I once drove a Ford Fiesta
Squirrel!
Instead of trying to "relate to" and market to the "new demographic"- just focus on building a car that wont fall apart on the way off the lot.
Mini has made a bunch of electric Mini's, that they're trying to get into the hands of drivers. After going through a long and actually pretty funny questionnaire, I didn't hear anything from them for six months.
Last week they called me to say the car was ready for me if I wanted it. Unfortunately, the terms were unchanged from the original offer -- they want $850/month for a one-year lease -- and there is no way to keep the car longer than that.
I suppose they'll get some people to sign up for it -- and an electric Mini is a lot more exotic a car than a production European Fiesta, but still...$850/month (they suggest that it's probably more like $1K/month after various fees and such)
Haven't seen one on the road yet.
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
Dear CmdrTaco,
Since your current editors are apparently way too busy to Google for a couple of important links (some of which are even mentioned in the summary), I decided to help out.
Here they are.
Am I hired now?
(Also, that is one butt-ugly car. I'll stick with my Mazda3, thank you.)
G.M. has a convertible note payment due on June 1, 2009 upon which it will default unless the note holders take a 100 percent equity position in lieu of payment: G.M. will opt for Chapter 11 to kill their pension obligations. This will destroy the organized labor movement in North America.
Chrysler is alleged to be working a deal for a joint venture with Fiat. Fiat is smarter than Chrysler. Why pay more for the joint venture than what they can scavenge from a Chapter 7 cents on the dollar purchase of Chrysler assets? Chrysler will go into Chapter 7.
I hope this helps your hedge fund positions.
Yours In Socialism,
Kilgore Trout
The best ad for the Ford Fiesta ever.
It's one thing to test drive a car - maybe it handles great, smells great, is comfortable, has some new whiz-bang electronics gizmos, great gas mileage etc. This is like test driving an OS - seeing some flashy eye-candy, it being fast and responsive, etc.
But that's not why people don't buy Fords, or hate Vista.
When you go through a water pump ever 32,000 miles, and a transmission every 60,000 miles - and your car looks like a pile of rust after 90,000 people remember that. That's why they won't buy a Ford.
Just like when you install Vista, and half of your hardware no longer works, and other problems and incompatibilities arise in real-world every-day use, that's why people hate Vista.
So to base anything on this kind of "first-glance" review, isn't going to pull Ford, (any other US auto makers, or Microsoft) out out of the crapper.
Until they start thinking and working long term, that won't change. And no, it can't happen overnight. It took the Japanese brands years to overcome their image as these flimsy little cars.
Goodness me. What with GM trying to belatedly throw a billion dollars into an electric car that is years and billions behind what Toyota, Honda and others have been doing (petrol electric? Please........) and Ford trying to turn a car into some social network phenomenon the big US car companies must be getting desperate. Maybe if they'd started having these ideas and doing this research years (well, decades) ago then they might have had a chance, but they don't. They've relied on selling crap to their home market for too long.
Will it result in more sales? Probably. The more consumer touchpoints you have, the more opportunities you'll have to listen to the customer and pitch to them.
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
This Fiesta is not the first Ford to carry that name. Back in the late seventies, early eighties, Ford also produced a car called the Fiesta. My mother bought one. It was a piece of junk which made even the escort look luxurious. From starting on fire (because the battery cable was draped *across* the battery, allowing it to short the terminals together when the insulation failed...) to rusting prematurely (it was only 3 years old in 1984), to blowing a waterpump during a 1400 mile trek, it was an unmitigated disaster of cheapness.
Other interesting facts:
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
Which means it may not be the normal ford junk.
After driving foreign cars for years we decided to give the Ford Fusion a try after hearing good things about it. Wow, we honestly were impressed, the price was great so we bought it. It drives nicely, European-like handling, has an interior that surprised us for a domestic, and the 4cyl gets great mileage for a car of this size. If the Fusion is any indication of Ford's direction, the Fiesta could be a hit. I know everyone on Slashdot automatically beats on domestics (I was there!), but really, they seem to be really trying. Plus since Ford didn't beg for any bailout money, that makes us feel even better about our choice. Way to go Ford, it was nice to be able to include a domestic on our shopping list.
If you were one of these 100 people, you'd have to pay taxes on the car, right? I wonder if Ford takes care of that. You might want to be a government appointee one day.
This post climbed Mt. Washington.
It's called viral marketing. It's used by big companies since the Internet became mainstream, and by local companies since there are communities. And it is the most sneaky and crooked of all marketing techniques. Fortunately, it often reeks of the uncanny valley of fakeishness, and then it fails epically. ^^
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I used to think the same thing but have done a 180 in the past few months. Please let me elaborate:
But no, you just keep sitting over there in the corner sulking. Twitter as a business may be silly (God love em) but how else could you bring an idea like this to market?
I honestly think it's started changing some markets. There is a specialty beer store here that posts it's current daily list online. Nightclubs and their acts. Need to know the weather? A scrabble word?
Give it a try at least. Email me and I'd be more than happy to point out some more stuff.
Cheers! Veni
How much was this worth?
and charge for the support. Where else did I hear about that?
I drove my previous Fiesta for over 125,000 miles, with better gas mileage than anything I could buy to replace it.
I think they're smart to bring this car back to the US>
That is an excellent analysis. I had the same prejudices, until my girlfriend dragged me, kicking and screaming, into the Mercedes dealership to test drive the A180 CDI. We own one now.
It's a shame that Mercedes doesn't sell it in North America. Probably, they don't want to undercut their more expensive models.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
with tax payer's money!
There, fixed for ya.
The Fiesta is a relabelled/reskinned Mazda2 -- that is successful in many other parts of the world. I doubt highly that it is a POS as you call it.
i think you got that backwards. the fiesta line of cars has been around a long time. i drove one built '90 and it was well established by then. mazda only started reskinning ford models when ford bought shares in mazda. (mazda3 is based on the ford focus for instance)
According to the WP article, the current Fiesta and the Mazda2 share the Mazda D platform, but it's unclear which spawned which or how similar they are. I suspect that neither was obviously spawned from the other; rather, that the D platform was always intended to be used for both.
In the UK at least, an earlier version of the Ford Fiesta was sold alongside a "Mazda 121" that was very obviously the same car with changed badges and a slightly different grille.
Discussing cars and their lineage on the basis of names is confusing anyway, because marketing and engineering are generally separate.
Sometimes cars which are essentially the same or very similar are sold under different names in different markets; sometimes even in the same market (see above).
Sometimes the same name is used for unrelated cars in different countries (e.g. Ford Fusion).
Sometimes the same name is used for similar or related cars in different countries, but then the lines diverge (e.g. Ford Escort, whose first American version was based on the then-current European Escort, but later diverged with a Mazda-derived model not related to the "Escorts" being sold in Europe by that time.
Sometimes the names are harmonised so that (e.g.) the Vauxhall Nova line was replaced with the new Vauxhall Corsa, although the Novas were already known as Corsa elsewhere in Europe.
Lots of cars overlap in terms of parts and basic platform as well; e.g. the original Ford Ka was built around an older Fiesta platform, but it's obviously a model in its own right.
And of course, it all depends on how much you consider the different generations in the "Fiesta" range to be the same car- at least in evolutionary terms- or merely convenient marketing names. Some versions are obviously related, others less so; but the current Fiesta is obviously a completely different car to the original 1976 model.
And yet people still buy cars on the strength of a known name even if it's debatable if it's really the "same" car... that's marketing.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
the name! It reminds me of silly Jerry Seinfeld commercials for some odd reason.
Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"
if you were even a little quick on the clutch, you'd squeal the tires.
does this remind anyone of the CueCat? that is, companies trying to get consumers to take part in blatant, unengaging advertising? there's no incentive for a consumer to look at youtube videos, twitter posts, etc if it's clear that they're voluntarily watching commercials.
Thought it was just me.
Usenet, Email, web, google, ebay, amazon, RSS, facebook, Spotify - I eventually found a place on my favourites list for these 'great new things' over the years.
Many of the early contenders (e.g. altavista) sortof faded away, but usually as something better still came along.
Twitter is rubbish. I mean I really really fail to see the point of it - and thought maybe I was just wasn't down with the kids any more.
Altough that car exist in Europe since many, many, years, the Ford Fiesta is facing fierce competition. There are just sooooo many European and Japanese subcompact that are just, well, better from every standpoint than the Ford Fiesta.
Besides the original GT40 and the Mustang (even if this latter is just a muscle car unable to perform well on a real race-track [want a 24h run between your Mustang and my 911 on the Nurbugring's long Nordschleiffe for a good laugh?]) Ford really didn't produce anything worthy of mentionning.
Let such company dies, it's polluting the American economy.