Mark Fields takes the Ford CEO seat July 1, 2014 with the strongest operating inheritance any new Detroit Three CEO has been handed in a generation — and three unresolved communications problems waiting on his desk. Lincoln brand clarity. The China market. The cultural discipline of the Thursday BPR. The transition is the test.
Gail Wise bought the first Mustang sold to a consumer on April 15, 1964 — two days before the official launch. The car is still in her garage. Forty-nine years later, as Ford builds toward the Mustang 50th anniversary in April 2014, the brand-advocacy operation built around Wise is a study in long-form reputation construction every marketing leader should be reading.
Ford bought one of the first major brand placements on Facebook's newly-launched Logout Page in March 2012 — 7,000 shares in 13 hours, 17,000 likes, trade-press coverage that exceeded the media spend. The Mustang case study every automotive marketer is now teaching: distribution is creative, early access is pricing arbitrage, and the high-attention surface always moves.
Toyota is in the middle of the worst recall crisis in modern automotive history — and is running a 1990s communications playbook against it. Ford is running Scott Monty's social-media operation, the Fiesta Movement, and Alan Mulally's accessible CEO posture. The contrast is the case file every consumer brand should be reading.
Ford reported its first annual profit since 2005 in late January 2010 — $2.7 billion. Two weeks later, it's the only Detroit automaker to have avoided the federal bailout. The One Ford operating architecture, the Thursday BPR discipline, and the Fiesta Movement global asset pool produced the result. The collective-intelligence case every communications leader should be reading.
Detroit declared the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history in 2013 — and rebuilt. The Big Three, Gilbert, Ilitch, and the comeback narrative.