Ford Poaches Top Toyota Marketing Maven

by Robert Farago

Published: October 11th, 2007

The Detroit News' Daniel Howes reports that FoMoCo is following Chrysler's lead, hoping top Toyota talent can right their sinking ship. James D. Farley, group vice president of Toyota Motor Co.'s Lexus Division, is set to join The Blue Oval Boyz as their first head of global marketing and communications. Howes sings hosannas to Farley's new boss Alan Mulally, sees no downside to the deal and singularly fails to mention the astronomical pay packet involved. "That a rising Toyota star, the head of Lexus and a founder of its Scion youth brand would bolt the Japanese juggernaut for the struggling Blue Oval is a testament to Mulally's leadership, the strength of Ford's current lineup, the promise of its future products and the upside in it all." And once again we feel compelled to point out that Farley, like Chrysler's Jim Press, is the product of a consensus management system, rather than its originator. In other words, one wonders how he fares in the ass-kicking department. Watch this space, and all of Ford's advertising.

Robert Farago

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Andrewg on Oct 11, 2007
"BTW—he took a similar approach at Boeing—-very successfully I might add." He's been gone a year and Boeing is having some difficulties already. Did his departure cause the problems or did he get out just in time? I do not know.

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Umterp85 on Oct 11, 2007

Andrewg: The only "problem" Boeing is having is getting the 787 to market in time to meet the massive pre-orders it is having. Despite the 787 delay, Boeing stock is trading near its 52 week high and the Boeing strategy (crafted by Mulally and his team) helped cause the implosion at Airbus.

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Becurb on Oct 11, 2007
Jeffer : October 11th, 2007 at 1:44 pm I have seen a few Toyota TV spots that I consider above average. I liked the ants crossing the road, only to be run over by a Corolla. One of the ants glares at the ant that was looking for traffic. Lookout ant says something along the lines of: "What? It was a Corolla!" Toyota did a good job with the Tacoma ad, especially with the jilted/neglected girlfriend, but the Loch Ness ad is getting a bit tiresome. I like the Mercury ads, except they spend too much time showing automobiles. :-) Bruce

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DearS on Oct 12, 2007

I think American companies are just not adapting, they're still riding the "its patriotic to buy American" system. Its BS! Getting real and having integrity is the only way to appropriately sell cars. I believe it will really show in the cars. Honda does a good job of this IMO.

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