Introduction
Ford is an automaker that has a multinational setup and is based in the United States of America. The Ford Motor Company is set in Detroit, a suburb in Dearborn in the state of Michigan. Henry Ford found the company and in the 16th of June 1903, it was fully incorporated. Ford Company deals majorly in commercial vehicles and the sale of automobiles, with these under the brand name of Ford, while the company produces luxury cars under the brand name of Lincoln. The company had been producing tractors, heavy trucks and varied components of automotive in the past. The company further have stake in the United Kingdom’s Aston Martin and Japan’s Mazda. The Ford Company is listed among those businesses in the New York Stock Exchange despite having minority ownership, controlled by family of Ford. (Batchelor, 1994)
The company introduced the manufacturing of cars in large scale and its workforce is managed in a large scale sequence of manufacturing crafted as the assembly lines which was later to be largely known as Fordism by 1914. In the United States of America, Ford Company is listed among the leading automobile manufacturing, taking the fifth position in terms of size of production in Europe and worldwide in terms of its vehicle sales as at the year 2010. In 2009, Ford Company was ranked the fifth in Europe by the Fortune 500 list in terms of revenue. Its employee base of worked adding up to approximately 213000 people and a production of 5.5 million automobiles adds to its market strength.
The Ford Fusion
The Ford Company introduces the Ford Fusion model in the year 2003. This was a model that was aimed at thrilling the automobile industry and adding up to the efficiency and comfort of the consumers. The Ford Fusion was defined as being hot as it was good looking and had a mid-sized four door. The model was had its windshield raked steeply, it has a tail that was nearly fastback and had a touch of greenhouse which was sleek. The model was greatly pioneered by the Hyundai Sonata and the Mercedes Benz among other models. The Ford Fusion car was at least more detailed and was more efficient and luxurious. The introduction of the Fusion was widely accepted in the United States of America and spread beyond borders to European countries among other global markets. The introduction of the Fusion was a great step towards market dominance and productivity increase for the Ford Company. Many consumer could get the new touch thus offering a wide range of variety of sleek automobiles to chose from.
Marketing mix
Marketing mix stimuli includes advertisements, products, packaging, brands and the ultimate purchase points. The marketing mix stimuli involve the management and design that goes a long way in influencing the responses by the consumers. The consumers are always moved by the brands which do inform on the customers’ choice. The marketing mix stimuli do influence the affective, cognitive and the behavioural responses to various products. (Pride & Ferrell, 2011)
Consumer behaviour
The marketers of all the companies need to study groups, organisations and individuals. This is referred to as the consumer behaviour. Consumer behaviour evaluates the various processes that are used in securing, selecting and the disposal of products, experiences, ideas or services with an aim or satisfying the wants and needs of the society and the consumers, having an impact on the whole processes. Consumer behaviour deals with the study of how the customers are informed psychologically, sociologically, socially anthropologically and economically.
This aspect has been greatly applied by the Ford Company in an attempt to try and get to understand the processes of decision making of its customers. This has been vital in identifying the facts that do inform the decisions made by groups and individuals concerning the various products from the Ford Company. The company has been involved in behavioural and demographic variables. This has been in its verge to identify the wants of the customers. This has enabled the company to assess the different influences that are on customers alongside other groups such as friends, family, reference type of groups and the entire society generally. This was the factor that initiated the introduction of the Fusion into the market.
Ford Company acknowledges that the customers play various roles that include payer, buyer and user. The behaviour of the customers is always based on the buying behaviour of the consumers. Though the consumer behaviour is usually difficult to accurately predict, the Ford Company has been professionally studying the consumer behaviours. Emphases are always laid on the management of customer relationship, consumer retention, marketing done one to one, customisation and personalisation.
Consumer cognitive response
Cognitive response is always developed as a result of communication which is always done persuasively thus triggering the change attitude. Cognitive response does affect the customers’ attitude as concerns making choices on the various products. This is always fast tracked by the persuasive communication which always goes a long way to the customer’s interpretation, elaboration, integration and manipulation of the information that a customer has received. In this case, customers are always exposed to various information concerning the products that are always offered by different companies which have been done through advertisements in the internet, print media, and billboards among others. The persuasion is always successful when a marketer uses some information which had earlier been viewed as optimistic and viable. In relation to marketing of products, consumers are always easily and fast persuaded.
The Ford Company has done this persuasion in reference to their earlier products; this has seen most of their newly introduced products become acceptable and easily bought by the consumer. The Ford Company has seen its products well received and measured in the level of their previous products. The cognitive kind of response usually involves a connectivity developed in relation to the response that had initially been fronted by the customers and the resultant attitude that followed.
Consumer affective response
The affective response is always based on the opinion or thought that one makes based on the images, symbolic and perceptual representation. The images are always marked and have an either positive or negative formed feeling that is in most cases always linked to the somatic status indirectly or directly. Positive marking to the images do become an incentive signal and do go a long way in increasing the accuracy of the decisions taken by individuals or groups of consumers. This trickles down basically to the advertisement and the images that are always presented by produces.
The Ford Company has applied the affective aspect of consumers in succeeding to effectively inform them on the decisions of trusting in the Ford products. This has been done through extensive marketing visually. The visual representation of the Ford Company’s products had been intentionally done in a magnificent way, constantly depicting the company’s products to be among the best of the bests in the market. This has created an informed decision on the consumer field and there has been a largely informed perception that all the automobiles and products from the Ford Company are of quality and meet the pricing that is always attached to them. This has led to an increased sale of the company’s products thus leading to huge profits realized by the Ford Company.
When a positive marker is linked to an image, it becomes a signal of incentive. He hypothesized that somatic markers increase the accuracy of the decision process and the absence of these markers, mostly seen in people with certain type’s brain damage, degrades the ability to make good decisions. This hypothesis arose when observing patients with damage to their prefrontal cortex who had severe impairments in personal and social decision making despite their other abilities.
The Four P’s
Marketing mix is always used as a tool in marketing by various businesses and professionals in marketing. Marketing mix is always a very crucial aspect as it always determines the brand and product’s offering. The marketing mix always goes a long way in applying the price, the product, promotion and the place, usually referred to famously as the four P’s of marketing. There has since been an expansion of the four P’s to eight P’s in order to address the emerging service provision nature. Concurrent to the application of four P’s, the four C’s has also been applied. This includes the cost, consumer, convenience and communication. (Hoffmann, 2008. a)
The Ford Company has managed to stay at the top in terms of production and sales. This has been majorly because of its exhaustion in terms of the market stimuli. This was further informed by the introduction of the Ford Fusion model. The company’s employment of marketing mix stimuli has kept the company’s a major stake in the automobile industry. Ford has explored various products, prices, promotion and place.
Product
In the view of the four P’s, the product refers to the items which do meet the customers’ expectations thus satisfying a customer’s wants or needs. This is always a good that is tangible or can be a service that is not tangible like the services offered in hotel industry, tourism, financial industry, etc. the tangible products do have existence which is physical and independent. Most of the manufacturing, processing and assembling industries do offer tangible products. Among them is the Ford Company which deals in automobiles production. Other industries that produce tangible products include the disposable razor producing industries. (Hoffmann, 2008. b)
In order for an industry to succeed, it must ensure that its products are of desirable qualities to the consumers. All the products do have a life cycle which does include the phase of growth, the phase of maturity and finally the period where eventually sales do go down. This research is very inevitable for all those in the production market because it will go a long way in assisting the producers to plan and know how to tackle the market as far as the different stages of their goods are concerned. This goes hand in hand with the product mix which involves the increase of various product mix vis-à-vis having an increase on the product lines number. Moreover, the exploitation of the brand is always vital by the marketers alongside the exploitation of the resources on the various companies. This is always done but with a close relation to configuring the product mix and eventually complementing all the products. The strategies to develop the product are always explored by the marketers. (Hoffmann, 2008. c)
The Ford Company has applies the market mix and the product overview as concerns the four P’s. This is because the various products that the company produces have been having the desirable characteristics. Such products like the automobiles, trucks. Buses, tractors and many more have reached a thresh hold of customer satisfaction. For instance, the company’s automobiles are of a wide range in which the customers can easily choose from. This ranges from luxury automobiles which are produced under the Lincoln marquees and are spread all over the globe. The introduction of the mercury brand, edsel brand and the merkur brand saw an increase in sales as a result of customer preference to them. Further introduction of the jaguar and the Land rover models was received well in the marker for their convenience and quality. The company has also diversified in its production. This has trickled down to production of buses which have been used by schools and trucks for the purposes of building and constructions. The tractors from the company have been marketed as the best in terms of their performance and the company has also explored production of sports cars for racing.
Price
Price refers to the amount that a customer always pays in order to get a product. Pricing is always an important aspect in business as it is by prices that a company establishes the losses and profits thus enhancing and playing a pivotal role in its survival. Prices are always changed depending on the demand of the products, the sales or the product’s price elasticity in the market. Eventually, the change of prices does have a great impact on a company’s marketing strategy. It is always wise in setting prices that complement the elements that are in the market mix. Setting a price does require a marketer to have the knowledge of the perceived product value by the customers. This is always determine through market penetration pricing, neutral pricing and the market scheming. (Hoffmann, 2008. d)
There must be consideration for the differential value which includes the customers’ views with regards to the attributes of the product versus those attributes of the customer alongside the reference value including the customer’s view on the competitive view of the customer as concerns the price of the product. The Ford Company has had a professional touch in its pricing, a factor that has contributed to it being a leading company in the transformation of the current business world. The company has created an automobile company which has been contemporary. The company has ensured a price level that matches the customer expectations and the quality of the products. The company has intensely marketed its products and the different brands in deferent price indexes which have remained emotionally and culturally relevant, being in match with the other companies’ products. The company is committed in the delivery of products whose qualities match the prices. The products by the company have been of efficiency such as the hybrid and electric vehicles, which have greatly matched their prices.
Promotion
Promotion is always vital in the marketing and growth of a company. Promotion is the communication methods that are always employed by a company’s marketer in order to provide the relevant information to the various customers concerning the products by the company. Promotion is an amalgamation of various processes like public relations, sales promotion, personal selling and advertising.
The Ford Company has intensified its promotions and advertisements of its varied products. The company has engaged in internet and radio advertisements, cinema commercials, billboards and through print media that is paid for. Public relations has been a vital aspect and brought a lot of influences in the company’s growth and realization of profits. The company has been involved in indirect paid for sponsorship deals, events, trade fairs, seminars, conferences, exhibitions and press releases. This has greatly impacted on the realization of more profits for the company. The For Company has also been engaging in word of mouth communication which is a form of informal communication. This has been done to customers who have been satisfied and other specific people to maintain the momentum of the market. This has increased the popularity of the products alongside the sales. (Hoffmann, 2008. e)
Place
The provision of products in places where they are conveniently needed is always important for every business. Distribution is also an integral aspect of the place. There are strategies that are always employed in the distribution of products. These do include distributing the products exclusively, selective distribution, franchising and intensive distribution. This is always used by the marketers in order to complement the marketing mix aspect. The Ford Company has established various distribution companies all over the globe. The company has had distribution in various parts of the world including the North American countries. The company has established supplementary companies in European nations including Britain and Germany. Other places include the Japan, Brazil and Argentina in South America, New Zealand and Australia in the Asian Pacific among other parts of the world. This wide distribution of the Ford Company’s products has contributed to the immense sales and increase of the profits of the company.
Conclusion
The Ford Company has managed to be a key market player in the automobile industry. This has resulted from the fact that the company’s management and marketers have effectively and extensively exploited the four P’s in marketing alongside the various customer responses. This has been vital in the realization of high levels of sales an ultimately making the company a preferred choice in terms of the products that it offers to the market. The Ford Company has ensured that it leaves nothing at stakes as in the sense of keeping its advertisements and consumer packed information as concerning their products that they offer. This has gone a long way in ultimately informing on the decisions that the consumers have taken as to their choice. For instance, the company has had classy and flashy pictures in billboards that have greatly influenced the consumer perception to their products. The media adverts have been designed in a manner in which the consumer is convinced that the products from the Ford Company are the best to have. Exceptionally, the Ford Company has ensured that its products are spread across the entire globe thus making it accessibly easier for the customers to buy their desired products. The costs have been outlined and the qualities of the products do match up the coats.
References
Ray Batchelor (1994). Henry Ford: Mass Production, Modernism and Design. NY: Manchester University Press ND
Stefanie Hoffmann (2008). Are the 4 P's of International Marketing of Equal Importance to All Firms? What Factors Might Cause Some to More Or Less Important Than Others?: A Short Article. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag.
William M. Pride, O. C. Ferrell (2011). Marketing 2012. London: Cengage Learning.
www.guardian.co.uk/...business/video/ford-barb. Barb Samardzich on the future at Ford's blueprint for the company.
www.youtube.com/v=kzRnZjY82xE. The Ford Motor Company: Moving America Proudly Since 1903
.jpg)
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment