Years ago, I had the privilege of writing and producing broadcast campaigns for one of the biggest car companies on the planet.  From a creative perspective, the experience was a nightmare more often than not…but it provided a nonstop education on the intricacies and contradictions inherent in automotive advertising. One memory strikes me as uniquely apropos for launching our Winner’s Circle series…I was cutting a commercial at a post-production house, waiting for my client to call with updated incentive numbers from corporate.  My client, it turned out, wasn’t willing to make the decision himself until he knew for certain what the competition would be offering.  Not, as you might suppose, so he could improve on their offer…but so he could match it! This strategy is typical in the auto industry and guarantees only one thing: the company that tailgates will never find itself parked in the winner’s circle…

In the last two decades, Ford Motor Company has watched its stock tank, its leadership position in the marketplace plummet and its consumer base defect to their competition.  While forward thinking companies are fast approaching Web 3.0, Ford’s websites languish in the past.  For this first, three part edition of our Winner’s Circle se-ries, we’ll take a top down look at Ford’s interactive presence and offer suggestions that, in our humble opinion, will draw more traffic, attract consumer interest and, ultimately, lead to a higher ranking in the marketplace…and maybe even a few quarters of profit!

Ford.com

Our first stop on this roadtrip is Ford.com, the launching pad for every brand under Ford’s American umbrella: Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda and Volvo. From here, a con-sumer can take in a 360 view of every vehicle in the Ford portfolio; glean basic information on the corporation itself, including company heritage and public relations news clips; learn about post-vehicle purchase options like parts, service and warranty information as well as find links to other Ford-related websites.

Ford.com is the best branded of the corporation’s websites.  The familiar blue of the Ford oval replaces any would-be white space with the oval itself an omnipresent element on every page.  If companies could be issued social security numbers, Ford’s would be in the single digits thanks to over a century in business. This website leverages that heritage in every way possible.  Currently, the company is celebrating the “100 Years of Innovation” since the dawn of the Model T.  Capitalizing on this, Ford.com has an entire section of the site devoted to the people, places, milestones and vehicles that have come since.  Colorful, uniquely interesting and comfortably American, breezing through this section gives users a sense of the impact Ford has made on our culture.  Unfortunately, this is as compelling the content gets at Ford.com.  Ford COULD have used this unique opportunity to build a larger community around their brand by offering consumers the chance to participate in the brand experience via blog or photo sharing or even conducting webinars or podcasts on their history.  Instead, the section is strictly read-only.

To give credit where it’s due: a consumer seeking a new vehicle can easily peruse their options on Ford.com and use it as a jumping off point to visit other nameplate websites.  A public relations firm desirous of integrating their client’s automotive heritage can easily find a library of information to launch them in the right direction.  Similarly, a reporter can use the global site to keep tabs on Ford and all the news the company sees fit to share.  Even investors, stung by recent stock shifts, have easy access to quarterly financial reports.  But, like the majority of their web sites, this one targets consumers as if they’re made of statistics rather than flesh and blood.  You are a consumer with passable credit, not a proud parent of an honor student or star quarterback; a jour-nalist with the potential to shine a positive light on their products, not a social animal with an intricate network of needs; an investor with a deep pocketbook, not a sentient being with valid emotional concerns. Your thoughts, beliefs and actions are all ancillary to what truly matters to Ford and that is the bottom line.

This desperate fixation is indicative of short-term thinking and, while it may function to move SOME sheet metal out of dealerships today, it does little to address long term strategies for retaining customers, driving repeat business, developing a two-way avenue of communication or even improving consumer confidence in their products.  Only when consumers continue to visit Ford.com and its sister sites AFTER they’ve made a purchase, can Ford be sure they’ve reached them on a visceral level.

To accomplish all of the above, Ford must stop treating consumers like brainless, emotion-free wallets.  It must stop telling consumers what they want and start listening to what they want (and deliver it expeditiously).  It must realize that, to motivate a consumer these days, they must be entertained on some level - even they’re perusing dry technical safety specs!  In addition, Ford should lend some personality to its vehicle line-up.  The company has spent billions developing its current roster of cars, trucks and SUVs and do them an injustice by portraying them as two dimensional.  Strategy revision must begin at the top and translate to the company’s most important web-site…FordVehicles.com.  Which we will address in Wednesday’s post.

Drew Bufalini is a regular contributor to SEOShootout and the Senior Writer at Fathead.   To have your company website included in one of these analysis posts, contact Drew at me@drewbufalini.com.  You can check out Drew’s creative and editorial portfolio at (you guessed it!) www.drewbufalini.com.  Thanks for playing.

Article Tags: Attracting Consumers | blogging | Brand Experience | Building Communities | driving traffic | entertainment | Ford | Ford heritage | Ford Motor Company | Ford.com | Fordvehicles.com | increasing marketshare | listening to consumers | online branding | photo sharing | podcasts | two-way consumer communication | user experience | web 3.0 | Web strategies | web tactics | Website Analysis

Filed under: Best Practices, Brand Experience, Online Advertising, Relationships, Web Writing, online marketing, web 2.0, web 3.0