Ford Launches Post-Purchase Test Drive
September 4th, 2007 8:34 AM
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Last season, Dodge ran tongue-in-cheek ads where they "secretly replaced" someone's Odyssey or Sienna with a Dodge van. Now The New York Times tells us Ford's doing it for real with full knowledge of the owner. Ford's new "Swap My Ride" marketing campaign asks new car buyers to drive a Ford for a week instead whatever they just bought– without telling them it's for a commercial. Then, in the guise of "market research," they ask for "raw, unbiased opinions" to "get real objectivity and honest responses." It seems to be working. An alert Murano buyer observed the Edge "has two sunroofs." Will the the marketing mavens be Ford tough enough to make a bold move and air negative comments from consumers who've driven a Ford lately? Yeah right.
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Ford ads have traditionally been pretty bad----that said, I believe Ford is on the right track with the challenge campaign....they have a very competitive product line to execute it against. Sure beats most of the banal car advertising including those flag waving spots from GM and Toyota. While they surely will not air the negative comments---Hopefully Ford will learn from them and apply to the product. Mulally's engineering driven management style seems to embrace facing the brutal facts not denying them (guess he better for what he is getting paid to do).
"Without telling them it is for a commercial" Do they happen to pay for gas? or something else? IMO it is deceptive and rigged, typical lack of honesty.
"We traded out your fresh brewed coffee for Folgers Instant Coffee Crystals!" Wow. Even their advertising is stuck in the 1970's. And what does a short-term swap of a new vehicle tell any potential customer about the overall value of Ford's product? One could also imagine that Ford may be swapping out an optioned-to-the-gills Ford product for someone who just bought a bare bones Toyota or Honda. The swapee is bound to be impressed but since he/she didn't actually shop for that vehicle, it's unlikely that they compared similar options packages at similar prices. Yeah, I'm gonna have to vote for "cheap gimmick" and maybe add the word "desperate" to the description.
Something tells me these will be just a sincere as those "guest editorials" in Car and Driver.