Introduction
Ford Motor Company is considered as a radical innovative automobile company. Ford also is the first company to use an idiosyncratic approach such as moving assembly lines in manufacturing under the leadership of Henry Ford. Ford is always seeking the leadership of the market which was achieved earlier by inventing Model T1 that caused the global standard for cars manufacturing to be changed.
The management of Ford innovation didn’t only include manufacturing processes and quality but also it included a new era of corporate cultural for their workers. After sometime, Ford reached the point that they needed to change their pricing of the cars and make it affordable. Ford become focused on the customers needs. Since then and till now, Ford keeps changing its innovation strategy to be always on the top of the summit of the automobiles industry.
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Ford faced many challenges and some loses during its history but it came back every time more determined and more powerful. To reach that summit of the industry, Ford made and still making an enormous effort to reach its clients all over the world. Ford keeps a close eye on its clients though every possible channel especially the social media. And based on the collected information about the clients’ needs, Ford changes its marketing and pricing strategies in order to keep its customers devoted to its brand.
Background
According to Ford cooperate (2000),Ford Motor company was founded by Henry Ford in 1903. Only five years later, the outstanding Model T was introduced in 1908. This model’s demand was tremendous so that Ford developed new method for mass production to manufacture this huge required numbers of the model. In the same year, Ford oped its first international branch in Paris.
Ford Motor company owns different brands such Lincoln and ford. Ford also owns some shares of Mazda Japan and Martin Aston in the United Kingdom. Moreover, Ford has owned some other brands such as Jaguar and Land Rover which were sold to Tata Motor in 2008, and Volvo which was sold to Geely Automobile in 2010. Based on the annual vehicle sales report in 2015, Ford comes the second main auto producer in the united stated and fifth-biggest in the entire world.
Ford Mission statement is “One team. One plan. One goal”. The company believes that they can meet the customers demands if they increase the pace of development of their products which will lead to enhance the financial situation of the company and eventually the teamwork will be better. This mission statement is the core of Ford’s competitive strategy which led them across the years to success one after another.
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis is a powerful method to analysis the business and helps to build a strategy that makes the business to grow and be profitable. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The strength and weakness terms are internal factors of a company. On the other hand, the opportunities and threats terms are external factors of a company. Using the SWOT analysis is common for companies. We are will use it to know the different factors that build the marketing strategy of Ford Motor Company.
Strengths
Strong and global brand recognition: Ford is known for its robust brand image which is one of the most resilient reasons to attract Ford’s customers and keep them loyal. The value of Ford’s brand reached to 11.2 billion dollar as shown in Fig.(1) and according to Statista 2019.
Research and development is considered as one of the most main strengths of Ford because they are dedicated to develop new products. Ford keep improving various factors such safety, efficiency, fuel and client’s satisfaction. Their budget of the research and development reached to be 8.2 billion dollar as shown in Fig. (2) and according to Statista (2018).
Diversity and Hugh network: Ford offers diversity across 62 countries around the world. They offer different vehicles models to meet the various needs of the different clients.
Weaknesses
The major weakness of Ford is its dependence on the US and European market which limits its profit and revenue because the experts forecast that future markets such as India and China will be the top markets for car selling.
- Higher costs: Ford’s costs and prices are higher comparing to the other competitors like Toyota
- Products recall: Ford’s product recalls frequency is higher than industry average. In may 2016 and according what was published in CNBC website, 2016 that ford recalled about 830000 vehicles to replace faulty side doors . This caused a massive loss and affected the brand image.
Opportunities
There are several opportunities that Ford can create in the markets in order to create new segments of customers around the world . For example, producing cars that are friendly to the environment which will attract the customers who cares about the eco system.
Moreover, Ford can penetrate other markets such as China and India to get shares of those markets and expand in those developing countries. One more opportunity for Ford is the AI vehicles because Ford spent 1 billion dollar on Argo-AI to build the self driving cars. This was published on TechCrunch website by John Biggs, Feb 2017.
Threats
There are many threats that Ford faces such as the aggressive competition between the rivals of the industry. This aggressive competition causes Ford to struggle to maintain its innovation position in the market.
The increase of the raw materials al so be serious threat for Ford affecting its profit’s margin.
Another threat is the technology corporates like Apple and Google because they also investing in building driverless cars. Those cars can compete against Ford’s driverless cars and take many shares of the markets as well.
The SWOT analysis shows how Ford is strong brand in the global markets. Also, it presents great opportunities for Ford to grow and to expand. On the other hand, the analysis demonstrated some of the weakness that Ford has and need to fix and to avoid. Furthermore, the analysis exhibited some threats that Ford need to handle carefully. Thus, Those four aspects of the analysis are considered as an efficient initiatives to start a solid and new marketing strategy.
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