Ford’s popularity in India has been declining and the reports suggest that some of the key reasons include misreading of the consumer market, huge investment in a second plant that didn’t get fully utilized, and Asian car makers’ positioning In India. Marketing can play a crucial role in positioning in the market. But if it goes wrong, it can hamper the brand’s image. Here’s one case study on how a popular brand such as Ford’s marketing campaign backfired.
Caricature marketing has been one of the popular techniques to bring the attention of people. But when things are misfired it can impact the brand image. Not just the marketing team but the entire definition is critical for the position of the brand. In a year that was dominated by women-safety topics, Ford ran the worst possible ad campaigns for its newly launched Hatchback.
Ford Motor Co. brought in such firepower in the ad but what went wrong? Here are the three ads that blew it off:
Advert 1: Formula One
This ad showed Michael Schumacher in the driver’s seat with the rivals namely Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, and Fernando Alonso. Tied up at the cargo compartment.
Advert 2: Fashion and More
A cartoon Paris Hilton on the wheels, winking at the 3 Kardashian sisters.
Advert 3: Political trigger
The worse of all three Ads that brought in political angle to the context. Satirical image of Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi driving with gagged ladies in the trunk of the car.
So what went wrong for the Ford Campaigns?
Compact cars have been booming the Indian auto market for a large portion of over a decade. The whole campaign was designed to portray how large cargo space depiction went wrong. These ads were published soon after India had been concreting its new laws against sex crimes, Safety, and well-treatment of women in India. Worse of all, the tagline in every AD “leave your worries behind” was enough to drive political strains and anger drives. The Kardashian sisters called the ads “disgusting, vile and offensive to all women.” People felt these ads were against women as well.
The ad was pulled out with an apology quoting “ Should never have happened” by the agency that published this ad, JWT India, which is a unit of one of the world’s leading advertising groups WPP. It was also clarified by the agency that these ads were uploaded by an individual within the JWT as a part of a creative exercise for an ad competition. Ford went on to clarify in its official statement. “The posters are contrary to the standards of professionalism and decency within Ford and our agency partners.”
After a bad few last quarters, reports suggest that the new vehicle sales from Ford last month increased 36.6% from one year ago compared to industrywide sales that declined by 10.5%.
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