Introduction
The marketing plan that Ford implemented for the Fiesta is a forward-thinking approach to the business of marketing. The automotive business in the United States is a highly competitive market in which a large number of well-established brands currently operate successfully and have a substantial number of loyal customers. This essay will analyze the marketing techniques employed by the Ford Fiesta Movement.
Ford’s US Fiesta Marketing Strategy: Outcomes, Benefits, and Drawbacks
Ford could attract many customers’ attention and participation across all of its social media platforms because of the efficient marketing strategies the company implemented. It is possible for a company to first stabilize its customer base by identifying its target customers and communicating with those customers using the marketing strategy that is the best fit for the target. The marketing team faces various challenges, one of which is the expense of the Fiesta Movement metrics, which are implemented as part of the Ford Fiesta’s commercial strategy (Stephen, 2017). The team must recruit agents from various social media sites, which can be time-consuming due to the necessity to evaluate and reject influencers incompatible with their marketing strategy.
The marketing company will need to offer new cars for their agents to drive and promote on social media after they have been recruited. It might be costly because owners do not know what will occur, giving cars to these influencers. The act of initially lending brand-new cars to influencers is fraught with high risk because the company does not know if customers will trust the influencers’ recommendations and consider purchasing the cars. In addition, if Ford overly influenced the efforts of its agents, no one could be certain that the favorable trends in impressions and familiarity observed in the first two months would result in a sale.
Performance Analysis of Fiesta Movement
Fiesta Movement calculated the cost of the automotives and the infrastructure. They computed the monthly cost of program maintenance. Other variables included vehicle familiarity, the number of test drives, workarounds, monthly visits to the Fiesta website, voice share, and demographics. They have established standards for their agents: the number of creative works generated. In some ways, the Fiesta Movement’s performance meets expectations; in others, it exceeds them. In the category of familiarity, they scored higher than the Nissan Cube by a margin of 42% to 23% (Stephen, 2017). The number of persons who visited the location far exceeded their estimates. Although there were numerous test drives and walk-around, they lacked a suitable benchmark for this evaluation because the number of vehicles available was substantially fewer than that of a typical prelaunch campaign. It prevented them from making an appropriate comparison during the relaunch. Even though none of the content provided by the Agents went viral, the numbers posted by the Agents were precisely in line with what Ford had desired.
Ford did not quantify the level of interest in purchasing nor limit their spending. If they had included a survey for test drivers or those who did a walk-around, they could have been able to establish whether there was an interest in making a purchase. Additionally, they may have undertaken their research through their Agents. If their money were controlled, they could analyze their performance concerning the campaign more accurately.
When seeking to assess the advancement of the Fiesta execution, the standard measuring tools of brand recognition and the other manner did not appear relevant or fair. Alternate evaluation methods include face-to-face interaction, mainstream media, Flickr images, and other prominent social networking websites (You & Joshi, 2020). While widespread publicity would allow new accounts of FFM combat to increase customer awareness and display the product’s component, the in-person event would include the test drive technique to be supplied to new clients.
The Control Assessment of the Fiesta Campaign
In my opinion, the campaign was not under control at any point. This experiment was somewhat novel for Ford, and although they repeated it a few years after the introduction of the first Ford Fiestas, I believe the controls were misplaced. The campaign was successful in generating favorable brand recognition and buzz among the millennials who were the targeted demographic; nevertheless, the “Agents” or the 100 bloggers did take the campaign into an unregulated atmosphere where they were given the ability to critique the product (Stephen, 2017). Even though using Ford Fiesta across various social networks can be a convenient choice, the result may still be unfavorable, especially if one loses control of the situation.
Fiesta Movement’s Methods Examination
Two of the most important goals of the Fiesta Movement campaign are to persuade young consumers in the United States to purchase a Ford Fiesta and to generate interest in the car while simultaneously educating consumers about the practical and advantageous value that can be gained from driving a sub-compact vehicle. Giving the vehicle to individuals with many followers on social media allows them to express their opinions, which may encourage younger people to purchase the vehicle.
Evaluation of the Roles, Function, and Actions of Marketing Agents
In exchange for enabling the agents to utilize the vehicle for six months, they were given a mission to complete. Each month, they will be given a new assignment in which they should identify a person who resembles a celebrity and then ask that person to perform a song in which they must visit every significant landmark in the city where they currently reside to advertise the product. Each month, agents are asked to create a video on the assigned theme, write articles on the same theme, and fully engage in social media to compile fiesta-themed promotional materials. I would choose the agents based on their specialism and past experience in marketing. I will direct them to be creative and focus towards the goal. The right agent is the one who understands the culture of the business and one who is creative and objective oriented. Alternatives to agents is the use of social media and referrals in product marketing.
Approaches for Enhancing Marketing Strategy and Tactics
Establishing a project workflow between marketing and the rest of the business is an essential component in the process of strengthening marketing operations. Businesses should set two to four essential key performance indicators to guide all marketing operations. The marketing staff will not have something to strive for if these benchmarks are not established first. Organizations should create a complete marketing strategy that spans 12 months and goals for the following five years, and then put them into action. Creating a strategy that includes different processes and outlines short-term and long-term goals compels management to assign team members and implement the tasks.
Conclusion
The growth of enterprises is directly correlated to the marketing techniques implemented. The Ford Fiesta Movement was exceptionally skilled in employing efficient marketing strategies, enabling the product to appeal to a diverse range of customers and, as a result, increased sales. Businesses should develop more effective marketing techniques to expand their pool of prospective customers. In order to make the necessary adjustments, it is vital to investigate any weaknesses in the marketing tactics.
References
Stephen, A. T. (2017). Ford Fiesta Movement: Using social media and viral marketing to launch Ford’s Global Car in the United States. INSEAD Publishing. Web.
You, Y., & Joshi, A. M. (2020). The impact of user-generated content and traditional media on customer acquisition and Retention. Journal of Advertising, 49(3), 213–233.