Ford moves forward

After yesterday's post about GM, I thought I'd contrast that with a company that's doing something right, Ford.

Today it was reported that Ford's first quarter profit was $2.1 billion. That's a stunning number considering that just four years ago Ford was fighting for survival. And this isn't some paper profit driven by accounting acrobatics. Ford's market share is up to 17.4% from 14.7% in just a year and their sales grew by $4 billion.

Not bad. But how did they manage to do this in the teeth of a bad economy while other companies continue to struggle?

Here are a couple of thoughts.

First of all, they bit the bullet on costs early. Ford made some hard choices years ago – closing plants, laying off workers, cutting models – while they could still afford to.

They didn't let ego get in the way of success. Even though his name is on every car that rolls off the assembly line, Bill Ford was smart enough to realize the need for an outside perspective. Enter Alan Mulally. 

Then they got the product right. The Fusion, Focus, Taurus and Mustang are all pretty damn good cars. Car for car, category for category they're as good or better than anything from Honda, Toyota and Nissan. The F-Series continues its dominance in the full-size truck segment thanks to significant upgrades.

They've differentiated themselves from other Detroit car companies through their marketing. While GM trots out Whitacre to tell us how committed they are, and Chrysler shows us more sheetmetal, Ford focuses on its customers, putting cars in their hands and letting them tell the story.



These spots are just one element of an entire marketing program where they're using new media and technologies to engage customers in conversation. Interestingly Ford didn't need to change ad agencies to modernize its marketing. They still work with J. Walter Thompson, as they have for at least 70 years.

Lets hope the success continues.