Ford Motor Company

INTRODUCTION "We are a globally diverse family, with a proud heritage, that's passionately committed to providing outstanding products and services." The mission Statement of Ford reflects the success and the fame that the company has acquired after surviving strongly in the automotive industry all these years. True they are a globally diverse family, as they have their manufacturing units all over the world. The sales figure of the company holds strong even during the times of economic downfall, all mainly because of the high standards of strategic planning by the marketing team. Ford Motor Company was founded in 1902 and the legend is popular for its exceptional achievements. The most popular of the Car coming out of Ford Motors is the Mustang, an invention in the category of phony cars, to the large scale manufacturing of using moving assembly lines show us how Ford Motors has been setting standards in the fields of innovation and quality. (Contact Magazine, 02, 2009) Ford has also been an inspiration to the not only its home competitors but also to its competitors in the international market. In William A. Levinson's book "Henry Ford's Lean Vision: Enduring Principles from the First Ford Motor Plant", we can see how Japan adopted the techniques or better to say the concepts of kaizen (Continuous improvement), poka-yoke (error proofing) and just-in-time famous. These concepts were adopted by Japan in the early twentieth century and Japan knew that it would exactly get what he called it as: proven methods of mass-producing any product or delivering any service cheaply but well. Ford CEO Mr. Allan Mullaly in a statement given to the contact magazine said that one of his for priorities in the ONE Ford plan is "accelerate development of new products our customers want and value." This does not seem to be a surprise as now in the market lies in the customer's hands where he would want the best of the line of products and for the cheapest price. And in this era where the growth in globalization is sky rocketing it is the sole aim of car manufacturers to grab customers towards their business or they might end up closing their company. The proof of Ford receiving the more awards from J. D. Power and Associates for the surveys in initial quality for five cars, which no other automobile manufacturer has achieved till now, shows us how well planned the marketing strategy of Ford Motors is. ORGANIZATION ORIENTATION

Corporate organization

A profit of around $1.06 billion was achieved by the Ford Europe in 2008, which was the fifth year in a row of profits. Also it was the profit in the run of year-over-year as this being the fourth with the first year of having a profit of more than $1billion since 1989. From the mid of 2008 to the beginning of 2009 there was a change in the profit which was a result of economic downfall that effected the European market. The Estimated Loss was calculated to about $550 million in the first quarter of 2009.

The mid of 2009 showed improvement as there was a profit of $138 million which increased the profit of Ford of Europe by $688 million approximately, this was a major improvement considering the difficult economic conditions.

The Ford Fiesta with its new product portfolio was a major innovation as it increased the volume of sales in the month of August 2009 which was the third consecutive month against the industry trend.

Though being given a second position to Volkswagen in Europe as a bestselling brand, Ford has shown a constant increase in the market share. Even though there is a positive effect of all the different forms of national vehicle scrap-page Schemes, there is still a negative industry trend and a weak underlying market. To preserve the highly fragile market improvement in the recent months, ford has decided not to remove the incentive schemes and keep them as long as it is possible to keep them in a practical situation; Ford is planning to phase out the schemes in a manner which would be orderly as to not disturb the demand in the market. Till the Economic crisis ends, National Government and the EU should give full support to the automotive industry to preserve the value chain with all the innovative tools available. During this time Ford will be in continuous decision making situations to have a viable business future which would also include the reduction of structural cost in order to safeguard the product plans of the future and tune the production in accordance with the demand.' Fords confidence that it would emerge as a stronger and a more competitive business as the economic situation improves and would also sustain a good business for the future is based on the successful strategy which helped to take the decisive measures used to handle the economic crisis since it has appeared.

Product Orientation

2006 to 2008 has seen the re-innovation of every model in Ford Europe car portfolio. In 2009 these new vehicles were introduced in the market to establish the Ford market again. So in 2009 Ford entered with the strongest vehicle line-up ever and the year 2008 was seen as the year of introduction of around 20 new products and derivatives. The new Ford Fiesta, introduced in autumn, and KA, introduced in the end of 2008, in the line of Ford ECOnetic, was the range of fuel efficient car and were smaller in size and were also perfect for the weak economic climate. The Ford Fiesta, Focus and Mondeo are one of the Ford ECOnetic class of vehicles which have low fuel consumption and CO2 emissions and also available at affordable prices. The new versions of the Ford Transit ECOnetic4, Ranger, Connect and Transit and the Focus RS which were released in the beginning of 2009 received an outstandingly positive media review. The design direction in the MAV Execution for the future C-segment Fords were introduced at the iosis4MAX concept at the Geneva Motor Show. In 2010 Ford will launch the first car in the range of new-generation EcoBoost direct-injection petrol engines. The 1.64litre engine will be manufactured in Bridgend and the 2.04litre engine

will be manufactured in Valencia. The Craiova plant and the Cologne Engine plant in Romania will be introducing a more advanced lower-displacement EcoBoost engine. COMEPETITIVE ADVANTAGE Though Ford faces tough competition from the top company Volkswagen, still for has managed to have good sales and hold on its position in the market. The sustainability of Ford is explained below. The customer centric attitude of Ford can be understood through the high-volume affordable solutions catering to the needs of millions of customers. Through this Ford believes that it would succeed in reducing the carbon footprint of Ford and its customers. Low-CO2 technology in vehicles is the new mantra that Ford is offering as an environmentally advanced portfolio: With the innovation and the variation increasing the ECOnetic has become a very important part of Ford. The Ford Fiesta, Focus and Mondeo are the successful variants of the ECOnetic passenger cars. The year 2009 also saw the introduction of Ford Transit ECOnetic, which was the first commercial vehicle in the ECOnetic range. Ford proudly says that the ECOnetic vehicles are the best-in-class amongst-the-best-in-class low fuel consumption/CO2 emissions. Biofuels, their supply and production are supported by Ford. So Ford has a vehicle range of Flexifuel Vehicles (FFVs). These Vehicles run on E85(85% bio-ethanol; 15% petrol), any mix of both in one fuel tank or only petrol, which makes it the choice of the consumer to have a choice of fuel and operation. The FFVs that ford has come up with include the variants of Focus, C4max, S4MAX, Mondeo and Galaxy.

Ford also offers factory fitted CNG and LPG variant for Fiesta, Focus, C4MAX, Transit and Mondeo, but this depends on the market conditions. (CNG - Compressed Natural Gas, LPG Liquefied Petroleum Gas)

Ford plans to electrify the vehicles which would also include the diesel stop/start, hybrid, plugin hybrid technology and battery electric vehicles. Even the other technologies that would have the potential to deliver a positive support to the customers in future. Though Ford knows

that there is no single solution but still it will keep on fighting till the end to improve its technology. MARKETING MIX Marketing mix is set of Price, Product, Promotion and Place of an organization. Some have suggested other P's and that is called Extended Marketing Mix. The other P's are People, Physical Evidence and Process."Marketing Mix is set of correlated tools that work together to achieve companies objectives, they are: product, price, promotion, and place" With these set of controllable tactical marketing tools, product, price, place and promotion - the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market (Kotler and Armstrong, 2004). PRODUCT, SERVICES AND BRANDING STRATEGY PRODUCT Product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or Consumption, which might satisfy a want or need. Products include more than just tangible goods. Broadly defined, products include physical objects, services, events, persons, places, organizations, ideas or mixes of

these entities. Services are a form of product that consists of activities, benefits or satisfactions offered for sale that are essentially intangible and do not result in the ownership of anything. Today, companies are creating and managing customer experiences with their products (Kotler and Armstrong, 2004). Levels of Products: Product Planners need to think on three levels: 1. Core Product: This addresses the question "What the buyer is really buying?". At this level, marketers must define the core: problem-solving benefits or services that Consumer seeks (Kotler and Armstrong, 2004). 2. Actual Product: At this level, the core benefits must be turned into actual product. Product planners need to develop product and service features, design, quality level, styling, brand name and packaging (Kotler and Armstrong, 2004). 3. Augmented Product: Finally at this level, the product planners must bundle the products with services. They must build an augmented product by offering additional Consumer services and benefits .Augmented benefits may become expected benefits (Kotler and Armstrong, 2004).

Product Mix
Aproduct mix(or product assortment) consists of all the product lines and items that a particular seller offers for sale. A company'sproduct mixhas four important dimensions: width, length, depth, and consistency.Product mixwidth refers to the number of different product lines the company carries.Product mixlength refers to the total number of items the company carries within its product lines. Ford carries many brands within each line. Product line depth refers to the number of versions offered of each product in the line. Thus, Ford's Fusion comes in three different models and specifications. Finally, the consistency of theproduct mixrefers to how closely relate the various product lines are in end use, production requirements, distribution channels, or some other way (Kotler and Armstrong, 2004). Ford Products

Passenger cars and trucks Buses and vans Sport utility vehicles Vehicle accessories After sales vehicle parts and products Extended repair service products Consistency Ford products lines are consistent as they all are related to each other and they all go through the same distribution channels. STAGES IN DEVELOPING PRODUCT AND SERVICE ATTRIBUTES Product Development Stage: ThePLCbegins withproduct development, during which time the firm devises and creates a new product. Whilst the end aim of this development process is to have a profitable, well-performing product on the market, this initial stage is characterized by

zero sales, the firm bearing the costs of such development, typically resulting in negative

profitability (Kotler and Armstrong, 2004). Introduction Stage: Sales grow slowly at the introduction stage when a product is new on the market and there is only a limited awareness of its existence. (The Times 2010). Growth Stage: Rapid changes in the product, entering to new markets, adding new features, improving quality and substantial profit improvement (The Times 2010). Maturity Stage: In this stage the competitors enter the market and promote their own products. This will reduce the rate of growth of sales (The Times 2010). Decline Stage: The market becomes saturated as there are too many firms competing for

customers. Organization will compete in a variety of ways and some will drop out of the market. The sales come down and profits erode (The Times 2010). Ford Fusion, Focus and Fiesta are in between the growth and the Maturity stage. Product Strategies Product Positioning Product Repositioning Product Overlap

Product Scope Product Design Product Elimination New Products Product Diversification (Luiz et al 2009). Product Quality Product Design

Product Attributes

Product Features (Luiz et al 2009). Services: Maintenance and vehicle repair services

Financial services Retail financing Wholesale financing Third-party claim management services (Luiz et al 2009). BRANDING A Brand is: name, term, sign, symbol, design, or combination of these intended to identify the good or service, and differentiate them from those of competitors (Kotler 1994). Ford Brands Ford Motor Company uses many Brand names manufacturing the automobiles like Mercury, Lincoln, Volvo, and Mercury. This has major manufacturing operations Worldwide in countries like United Kingdom, Canada, etc. Branding depends on Public relations, scholarships, clubs, factory visits, trade shows, event marketing, press release, social cause, founder or a celebrity personality, mobile phone marketing, etc, (Ahmed et al 2009).

Brand Strategy
The Ford classified the brand names of midsize cars and SUVs by qualitative techniques and then by quantitative techniques. The name that emerged as most popular, and which was also the most liked name internally at Ford was Fiesta and Focus. Ford uses Umbrella branding which determines price and value (Ahmed et al 2009). The following are considered in deciding the Brand Strategy:

Functional Brand Image Brand Experimental Brands Branded Variants Multibrands Co Branding

MARKET SEGMENTATION, TARGETING AND POSITIONING The Organisation's first phase is choosing the value, the strategist "proceeds to segment the market, select the appropriate market target, and develop the offer's value positioning. The formula segmentation, targeting, positioning (STP) - is the essence of strategic marketing." (Kotler 1994: 93).

Strategic market segmentation

Market Segmentation is "dividing up a market into distinct groups that (1) have common needs and (2) will respond similarly to a marketing action" (Eric et al 2005). The Segmentation process involves: Dividing the consumers depending upon their needs.

Grouping the marketing actions like the products offered by the organization. Developing a matrix relating the market to the organizations products or actions. Selecting the target segments where the company directs its marketing actions.

Opting the actions to reach the target segments. The various types of segmentations are Geographic segmentation

Demographic segmentation Psychographic segmentation Behavioural segmentation Ford has mainly segmented the UK automobile market on various basis which are the parts of above mentioned factors.

Segmentation based on Areas/Cities:

Ford is mainly concentrating on the major cities like London, Birmingham, etc.

Segmentation based on Age:

Ford segmented the market based on the youth as it did in designing the cars for the youth and middle aged people.

Segmentation based on income:

Ford segmented based on the customer's income .Fiesta and Focus is segmented for the upper middle class.

Segmentation based on benefits provided:

Distinctive benefits which will differentiate it from the competitors (Charles 2010).

Market Targeting
Selecting the segments by evaluating the market segment attractiveness.

Target Marketing
The segment with similar tastes and needs and company aims at providing the services on a profit base. Ford is not just limited to one segment; it covers all segments through different models of cars. For example, Ford Fusion is mainly for Youth and society class people (Denise 2004).

Market Positioning
Place where a product occupies in the market relative to the competitive product.

Product Position
How the customers define the product attributes relative to the competitors products. Ford positioned the different cars in different places to attract the customers from all parts. Ford could not position the Mondeo in a proper way that's the reason the sales are less for that product. PACKAGING Since product is a car, packaging might not be of much importance. Cars usually don't get packed in a box, only if someone wants to gift it. LABELLING The label may be a simple tag /logo attached to the product. It might carry a brand name or a great deal of information. No labeling, however for curious users, there will be a small brochure about the Car parts specifications, so that they can see how exactly the car works, and what and from where the parts are. WARRANTIES Warranties are the formal statements of expected product performance by the manufacturer .products under warranty can be returned to the manufacturer or repair centers for replacements or refunds. The warranty offered by Ford lasts for 1-10 years or 60,000-1, 00,000kms depending on the model (Kotler 2004,Ford 2010). PHYSICAL EVIDENCE Physical Evidenceis the material part of a service. Strictly speaking there are no physical attributes to a service, so a consumer tends to rely on material cues. There are many physical evidences such as packaging, brochures, uniforms, business card, etc. Ford provides the brochure for each and every product. PEOPLE Peopleare the most important element of any service or experience. Services tend to be produced and consumed at the same moment, and aspects of the customer experience are altered to meet the 'individual needs' of the person consuming it.The people who are more involved in maintaining good reputation of the company are sales person and customer service people. PROCESS Processis another element of the extended marketing mix, or 7P's.There are a number of perceptions of the concept of process within the business and marketing literature. Some see

processes as a means to achieve an outcome, for example - to achieve a 30% market share a company implements a marketing planning process. ASSEMBLING THE MARKETING MIX This means combining the 4P's in a best way to gain the profit and reach the targeted sales involving the choice of appropriate marketing activities and allocation of marketing effort/resources to each of them. The marketing mix is the sole vehicle for creating and delivering customer value. IMPACT OF MARKETING MIX ON THE ORGANISATION Competitor's Sales Customer Retention is the activity that a selling organization undertakes in order to reduce customer defections. Successful customer retention starts with the first contact an organization has with a customer and continues throughout the entire lifetime of a relationship. A company's ability to attract and retain new customers, is not only related to its product or services, but strongly related to the way it services its existing customers and the reputation it creates within and across the marketplace. Customer retention is more than giving the customer what they expect; it's about exceeding their expectations so that they become loyal advocates for your brand. Creating customer loyalty puts customer value rather than maximizing profits and shareholder value at the centre of business strategy. The key differentiator in a competitive environment is more often than not the delivery of a consistently high standard of customer service (Douglas 2010). Customer acquisition is the ability to expand your customer base profitably is the first factor in the success of your business. You must make the right offer, to the right target, at the right time, using the right sales proposition (Reichheld 1996). Ford's product mix strategy involves in introducing new or modified products in the market .This is resulting in a positive way to some extent by providing profit to the company. Ford got competitive advantage and has gained the market share. Ford's prices the products based the segments and also take products specifications into consideration. This is illustrated in the Price category Fig 3.2.2. But compared with competitor's products, ford has priced high to some segment products. Ford is promoting well and by sponsoring to the events, it is gaining more and more attention. It associates its brands with these kinds of activities to promote their products. Ford has very strong placement strategy. This has its presence globally; it manufactures and distributes automobiles across six continents with 90 plants worldwide. It is place well to get a positive impact. BCG Growth Share Matrix Question Marks - low-share business units in high-growth markets Need lots of cash to hold share of Market Managerial decisions need to be Made on whether to drop or build up Ford genuine parts and its brand come under this quadrant. Dogs - low-growth, low-share businesses and products May be self sustaining cash sources Not good bet on large cash sources Stars - high growth, high-share businesses or products

Heavily financed (loans; stocks; bonds) (Drummond 2004).

Ford motor crediting and finance come under this quadrant. Cash Cows - low-growth, high-share businesses or products

Established and successful SBUs

Less investment to hold market share...thereby producing lots of cash ANSOFF MATRIX The Ansoff Matrix is a tool that helps businesses decides their product and market growth strategy. Ansoff's product/market growth matrix suggests that a business' attempts to grow depend on whether it markets new or existing products in new or existing markets(Lynch, 2003). Market Penetration Here the company would focus on growing its share of existing markets -"Doing what you do now but better". There are a variety of possible strategies for penetration - prices quality strategies, customer service, Branding Product Development Companies can grow profits by developing their product range -"Offering new products to existing customers" Here a company would extend its range with alternative and/or complementary products. The product range has been credited to Albert Sloan of General Motors - he masterminded the company's strategy to compete against Ford in the early part of the 20th century. Market Development This approach suggests that a company can identify new markets or new segments to offer their product to. The obvious market development strategy is to export. Diversification Diversification is the strategy with the highest risk - here a company seeks a new product to offer to a new market. At its extreme the business will not be able to build on any of its experiences of existing products or markets. Often when experiencing difficulties diversification is the first strategy mentioned - however greater success might be achieved by exploring other alternatives. NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Idea generation For new ideas and innovation, many companies use the Brain storming technique. And other ways of idea generation taken place through internal resources or external resources. Internal resources are like Scientists, Engineers, Marketers, Sales people and Designers. External resources are like Competitive products, Distributors, Customers, suppliers. Screening This stage includes evaluating developed ideas in order to estimate the commercial value, how it helps to achieve organization goals and successive competitiveness. Few companies use predefined checklist for screening to make sure nothing can be missed from overlooking. Concept Testing Accepted new product ideas are tested with potential customers so that at the initial stage organization can detect the customer perspective issues.

Business analysis: This is the stage where we can estimate the sales, costs and profit. This will sense the target market and its size, acceptance of new product over the years. Companies uses break even analysis for financial feasibility verification. Product development: Here actual product will be developed and Product attributes discussed earlier like quality, features, style, and design are taken in to consideration. Product testing will be performed once it is ready. This is purely developer perspective like verifying whether the product is working as per the implementation. Market Testing: - Testing for customer acceptance. Released to test market and ask for test drives and ensure that customers experience and as per the feedback, rectifying the minor issues if any and get the final product ready. Commercialization: - In This stage, product will be launched and taken marketing mix price, promotion and place decisions. Companies predict their sales and profit. PRICE Pricing is basically setting a specific price for a product or service offered. In a simplistic way, Kotler and Armstrong (2004) refer to the concept of price as the amount of money that customers have to pay to obtain the product. Setting a price is not something simple. Normally it has been taken as a general law that a low price will attract more customers. It is not a valid argument as customers do not respond to price alone; they respond to value so a lower price does not necessarily mean expanded sales if the product is not fulfilling the expectation of the customers (Lazer, 1971). Both internal and external factors are to be considered when setting the prices. Internal Factors:

Marketing Objectives

Market positioning Survival Current profit maximization Market share leadership Product quality leadership Target Costing Non price position Costs Organizational considerations

Marketing Mix Strategy

External factors

The Market and Demand

o o o o o

Different types of market Consumer perceptions of price and value The price demand relationship Competitor's costs, price and offers Other factors (Economic, Government, etc.)

PRICING STRATEGY Penetration pricing: Where the organization sets a low price to increase sales and market share. Skimming pricing: The organisation sets an initial high price and then slowly lowers the price to make the product available to a wider market. The objective is to skim profits of the market layer by layer. Competition pricing: Setting a price in comparison with competitors. Product Line Pricing: Pricing different products within the same product range at different price points. An example would be a video manufacturer offering different video recorders with different features at different prices. The greater the features and the benefit obtained the greater the consumer will pay. This form of price discrimination assists the company in maximising turnover and profits. Bundle Pricing: The organisation bundles a group of products at a reduced price. Psychological pricing: The seller here will consider the psychology of price and the positioning of price within the market place. The seller will therefore charge 99p instead 1 or $199 instead of $200 Premium pricing: The price set is high to reflect the exclusiveness of the product. An example of products using this strategy would be Harrods, first class airline services, Porsche etc.

Optional pricing: The organisation sells optional extras along with the product to maximise its turnover. This strategy is used commonly within the car industry.
Ford follows different pricing strategy for its different product types, normally a new product launched is priced in a higher segment and gradually its price reduced depending upon the market position of the product. Mondeo failed in some parts because of the higher price. Ford adopted a competitive pricing strategy. Prices were fixed on the basis of the norms prevailing in the international market. Also the prices offered by their competitors like Toyota, Honda, Nissan, were kept in mind while deciding the prices. Ford uses Value Pricing in which price is set in accordance with customer perceptions about the value of the product/service. PROMOTION MIX This is a key component of marketing mix, is a concept of communicating with customers for business. Communication involves various approaches like Advertising, Direct marketing, sales promotion, internet marketing, personal selling, Public Relations. Combination of all these key approaches called as promotion mix. Ruskin-Brown (2006:136) defined this as "A number of promotional methods used in combination to promote a particular product through communicating with individuals, groups and organizations". The main objectives of promotion are: To bring the Product or service awareness to customers and persuade them to buy To build/improve credibility To successful launch a new product in existing market/promoting a existing product in a new market To increase the sales Over the years, Ford continues to maintain their marketing edge over the competitors through different promotional strategies. Ford 2007, Ford is one of the top 20's of highest media spend

companies list. Due to recession and cost cutting factors, ford reduced their promotional budget and canceled all UK advertising until the conclusion of '08. In 2009, recovery has been shown. To sustain a leading position, ford initiated many campaigns and tied up with long lasting sponsorships and periodically conducted sport events. Along with all these, advertisements and logos with attractive strap lines, its fabulous designs and ads are giving an edge over competitor's promotional activities. Ford promotional strategy covers all of Europe and used both classifications of promotion - above the line promotion and below the line promotion. Above the line promotion are like mass and direct paid for like television, news papers, radio etc. below-the-line promotions are forms of non media advertising like sponsorships, exhibitions, discounts to dealers, sales promotion activities etc. UEFA sponsorship is a mix of both above and below promotions and throughout the game - Ads reinforced the Ford Brand. (The Times News paper, 2010) ADVERTISING The main concept of the advertising is to promote, to remind, to provide support for the sales force, to compete, to persuade of a product to the public. It plays a vital role in order to promote the brand or service and to improve the corporate image and sales. As Evans points out, apart from direct response ads, "advertising cannot in and of itself cause sales. It can only help or contribute towards sales success" (Evans 1988:6). In 2005, Ford started advertising with strap line 'Feel the difference' in order to create a brand for Ford of Europe. Later years conducted model-specific campaigns and different eye-catching ads with latest technologies and graphics. Ford Ad wins 'Nielsen's Auto Ad Of The Year Award 2009' (Jimme, 2009). Ford also succeeded in The UEFA Champions Leaguefinal break ads. This league was the most-watched annual sporting event in 2009. Ford advertises through attractive television ads, unique pictures in news papers, Design elevating model specific strap lines and logos, eyecatching posters in dealer show rooms and hoardings. The Ford Britain Trust handles charitable requests received by the Company. This bags the customers soft corner and credibility. (Marketing magazine 2009) Ford latest ad for Ford Focus: "The TV, print and outdoor campaign, by Ogilvy Advertising, continues Ford's ongoing theme of 'kinetic design' and the suggestion that Ford vehicles look as though they are in motion even when stationar' (Marketing magazine 2009)

Direct Marketing
This is aimed to establish the direct relationship with the organization target market customers. This can be a form of post, mail order, email, telephone calls and etc. Through this marketing strategy, Organization can obtain a long lasting customer relationship. In sep'2009, Director said that Ford recovered from the economic downturn mainly through direct marketing events. This includes of 'mix of mails' - Car information in mails and 'world of urls' - URLs for various cars to see and online ordering. Ford uses the selective customers repository for direct marketing, where company send the direct mails to customers with the new vehicle or additional services information (Deliver magazine 2009). Ford devised off with a book - 'Generations' in which they captured more than 43,000 existing

customers fondest Ford memories (Williams 2010). The below picture was a direct marketing mail of ford in 2009 which shows about where they stand on in 2010 and along with the mail, order instructions supplied on so that directly customer can buy. SALES PROMOTION This is specific to short term period and improves the sales of a product by providing special offers to attract customers, dealers (Terence, 1993). Special offers related to customers are discounts, price deals, premium offers etc. As part of Sales promotion, dealers or merchandisers will get different promotional offers such as point-of-sale displays, leaflets and product literature. These offers ensure that merchandisers display the products in proper way which means in attractive and easily accessible manner (Pickton, 2005). INTERNET MARKETING Internet marketing is the best and cheapest way to attract the customers. Internet is the only place where the global exposure can be achieved easily. This can defined as: "Achieving marketing objectives through applying digital technologies" (Chaffey et. Al, 2006). Ford provides interactive access over the web and it offers customers to choose their vehicles with variety of flexible options. Ford utilize contests, blogs, social networking websites like face book, twitter and orkut etc for internet ads. Ford official website is well designed for vehicle customization and obtaining features, latest news, offers and also includes inspiring pictures and movies. Customers will receive an email with advertisements, new offers as soon as they get registered in Ford website. The below picture is about new ford G-series. PERSONAL SELLING This is an approach to maintain a good rapport with customers for purpose of making sales. Personal selling will be dealt by the sales team on behalf of an Organization. Personal selling is very useful for the products which are complicated to self analyse and understand. Ford products are doesn't have any difficulties to reach the customers and bring them to live about product. In Ford, There are sales and marketing teams who take care of product and offers promoting activities. PUBLIC RELATIONS / PUBLICITY "Public relations is the art and social science of analysing trends, predicting their consequences, counselling organisation leaders and implementing planned programmes of action which will serve both the organisation's and the public interest." (Wilcoxet al.2003:6) Ford boost up their sales through publicity with sponsorship Activities, Events and contests.

SPONSERSHIP Ford company sponsors carefully with selected brand for long lasting relationship. "Edinburgh Tattoo", "Talk Sport", "Sky Sports", "Disneyland Paris" are the current sponsorships of Ford.

Three years journey with official supplier to the Edinburgh Tattoo. They sponsor tickets in affordable prices in order to sustain the shows towering standards and also to upholding the show for upcoming generations.

As Ford is an official dealer to Disneyland Resort Paris, it plies support vehicles to the theme park, in revisit ford provides a lots of extraordinary packages, which they often offer missing in price draws & competitions. Sponsorship with UEFA champions association, Ford is also a title sponsors to Talksport's for the football shows holding on Tuesday and Wednesday. Ford is sustaining 15 years rapport with Sky Sports, as they r much interested in the football

show. Indeed, Ford launched both new models Mondeo and Kuga in the final show of the UEFA champions League, through the advertisement break. (Ford 2010) Press Releases: Press releases help to improve credibility and bring the awareness to public about the current activities and future prospects of an organization. Ford recent press release about novel low carbon vehicle project bagged the financial support from government and successfully grabbed the public attention. Also government chains Ford's main travel to low carbon vehicles. "Government to support with 360 million in loan guarantees six projects worth more than 1.5 billion across four Ford sites Investment to safeguard around 2,800 skilled workers"(Energy Saving Trust 2010) Predominantly Ford Company gets benefits from advertising and sales promotions. The current promotional strategy enables Ford to stand on their leading position in UK market. Brand name and buzz marketing word of mouth are giving little push into recent Ford sales. PLACE This is one of the traditional elements of marketing mix. Place is all about how the product reach the customers at right location at right time (Brassington and Pettitt, 2006:519). Place or Distribution is very essential in order to meet the sales objectives. The barrier between production and consumption is called as Distribution channel. There are different Layers in distribution channel which perform a different activity to bring the product to final customer. Each layer is called as channel level. The intermediaries (channel levels) are AGENTS AND BROKERS: People who own the authority in legal from the producer. WHOLESALERS: People who interacts with retailers. DISTRIBUTORS AND DEALERS: People who interact with customers and may provide additional benefits. RETAILERS: People who communicates to customer directly. In Business, the main distribution channels are Business to consumer (B2C) distribution for consumer goods, Business to Business (B2B) distribution for business goods and business to consumer or business for service goods.

B2C Distribution channel - Consumer Goods

Channel 1 represents direct marketing channel. Remaining channels represent indirect marketing channels. In channel 1, there is no intermediary level exist. Producer directly sells goods to customer. Channel 2 is the one which is currently ford is following. Vehicles that are manufactured at manufacturing units of Ford are distributed to dealers through road or train transportation. Consumers can buy the cars directly from the dealer's show room. Channel 3 and 4 are about the distribution through wholesaler and/or retailer. This approach followed in Retail industry. Apart from this, Ford is following different distribution channels for Ford Fleet - Automotive Remarketing Services (ARS) - which are internet auctions and on the ground auctions. At each auction, there are full time employees from the Ford motor company and they helped in auction and providing utmost support to ARS customers. These customers will be benefited with less market price which is due to company doesn't have any documentation and administration costs. Since this is an auction process and takes immediate handover of vehicle, Ford provides all verification systems are readily available at auction place.

B2B distribution channel - Business Goods

Business to business communication channel doesn't consists of retailer intermediary level and final products reaches for business clients.

Distribution channel for Service Goods

This distribution channel represents service providers to consumer in order to deliver their services or goods. Ford fleet offers services for remarketing vehicles which is using the below distribution channel 2. Where agents have the rights to issue their affordable services to clients and ensuring they are holding the flow of customers. Channel membership - Market coverage: There are three categories of distribution options - Intensive, selective and exclusive distribution. Intensive distribution : Through this, as many as possible outlets can be placed for a product. Since Ford aimed for medium segment market, it follows intensive distribution.( ford, 2010) Selective Distribution: In a particular geographical area, distribution through a selective set of outlets rather than everywhere. Exclusive Distribution: Distribution through a single outlet for a particular geographical area. In the UK, FORD is the market leader over the last 25 years. It is operating with around seven locations and over 500 dealerships. And also it is having several large plants where it manufactures vehicles, engines and transmissions and also parts and components. Ford in Britain, in total 35000 people employed in its dealers like product development, manufacturing, service roles, sales and marketing. As part of supply chain management, Ford follows efficient approaches like Just in Time (JIT) - "which is aimed to obtain low-cost high quality products and on-time production as well as eliminating waste and stagnant stock" (Svensson, 2001). Through JIT, Ford is achieving the highest efficiency in car manufacturing industry. Ford mainly using

roads and trains transportation for distribution of manufactured vehicles to its dealers. Since dealers have the locality specific strengths to obtain customers, ford is using dealers as an intermediary for the distribution.
ASSEMBLING THE MARKETING MIX This means combining the 4P's in a best way to gain the profit and reach the targeted sales involving the choice of appropriate marketing activities and allocation of marketing effort/resources to each of them. The marketing mix is the sole vehicle for creating and delivering customer value. IMPACT OF MARKETING MIX ON THE ORGANISATION Customer Retention is the activity that a selling organization undertakes in order to reduce customer defections. Successful customer retention starts with the first contact an organization has with a customer and continues throughout the entire lifetime of a relationship. A company's ability to attract and retain new customers, is not only related to its product or services, but strongly related to the way it services its existing customers and the reputation it creates within and across the marketplace. Customer retention is more than giving the customer what they expect; it's about exceeding their expectations so that they become loyal advocates for your brand. Creating customer loyalty puts customer value rather than maximizing profits and shareholder value at the centre of business strategy. The key differentiator in a competitive environment is more often than not the delivery of a consistently high standard of customer service (Douglas 2010). Customer acquisition is the ability to expand your customer base profitably is the first factor in the success of your business. You must make the right offer, to the right target, at the right time, using the right sales proposition (Reichheld 1996). Ford's product mix strategy involves in introducing new or modified products in the market this is resulting in a positive way to some extent by providing profit to the company. Ford got competitive advantage and has gained the market share. Ford's prices the products based the segments and also take products specifications into consideration. This is illustrated in the Price category Fig 3.2.2. But compared with competitor's products, ford has priced high to some segment products. Ford is promoting well and by sponsoring to the events, it is gaining more and more attention. It associates its brands with these kinds of activities to promote their products. Ford has very strong placement strategy. This has its presence globally; it manufactures and distributes automobiles across six continents with 90 plants worldwide. It is place well to get a positive impact.

SWOT Analysis
Strengths Ford admits greater amount of customer loyalty, and all its individual brands have been enjoying the benefits of the good reputation that they have through the quality makes and services. They have brands and models of cars to appeal to every kind of demographic group, and simply cater for the needs and wants of consumers. Ford uses a unique concept of virtual assembly lines in their models through which they were able to re-use the same spare in their diversified model of cars. This enables ford to lessen cost on production of new spares and compete market price.

European market share of ford remained constant over the last five years averaging over 10 per cent, ford UK's share recently increased by 1.2 percent, compared with March 2008 of 15.5 per cent. Ford's growing popularity among private buyers drove total car share to 16.7.

Ford outsold 142,285 sales in February compared with GM's 141,951 this was the first month

that Ford achieved such a rival since 1998 Weaknesses

Ford does not have an effective cost management system and have not taken considerable efforts to overcome since they believed paying premiums in single supplier model. Ford does not concentrate and invest much for design phase and eventually lacking in innovative design structures on their new paddle of cars. Quality assurance of ford seems to be not in control which resulted in recalling thousands of cars and expensive repair operations, stating to that in 2002, Ford and Bridgestone experienced a faulty tyre scandal which caused a two billion dollar loss (BBC, January 2002) Ford has kept increasing the productivity, while on the other decreasing the cost and simultaneously counting the No of employees' exit, which lessons the employee loyalty towards the company.

Opportunities Ford producing vehicles that runs on different forms of energy other than petrol and diesel

can help the company to become pioneers in the industry. Nowadays replacing the old cars for the new ones in the market is increasing in number, knowing the customers up to date data and consistent follow up of owners' minutiae would enable the company to maintain customer cycle. Women's Demand for cars is mounting year by year and so as the overall demand for cars is mounting which turns to be a positive sign not only for Ford, the automobile company but for the entire automotive industry. Ford to expand electric and hybrid range of cars to Europe from 2011.Ford has big plans for electrification of its fleet over the next decade, and while most of the emphasis has been on

North America so far, Europe will be joining on in near 2011 Threats carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of oil and gas causes severe effects on climate change and threatens virtually every segment of the biosphere and human society, further increase in gasoline prices keeps the automotive industry uncertain of future innovations and its success. Ford has implemented its manufacturing plant in the Asian market that has considerable growth and expectation for the future which is a great threat for export market of "ford in UK". Increase in demand for the Japanese cars also on the rise unless ford hard try to overcome these weaknesses, ford may lose its market share to the growing automotive firms. Although global warming turning out to be a greatest threat and individual use of automotive vehicles increases the risk further, the cars and other private vehicles are a part of basic necessity on a common man's view. Therefore it is believed that no real threat of substitutes

exists today, but it is believed that choosing other forms of transport such as bicycles, public transport's and sharing mobility would soon be imported in to minds of people. SWOT ANAYSIS OF (FORD) Weakness -> Strengths

Ford is lacking in new design and innovative structures which can be resolved by investing more funds in to design phase, recruiting and training design engineers and thus ford can overcome their weakness to achieve greatest of strengths. Quality assurance of ford needs to be more intact and must be consistently monitored with pre-meant standards to make certain no future faults and thereby attaining customer

satisfaction. Threats -> Opportunities The price of gas and oil is increasing day by day and remains to be in the state of uncertainty and therefore electric drive vehicles will be in high demand. Ford can build cars that run on electricity and other forms of energy to promote and adopt to the future opportunities that will arise. PESTEL Analysis Political Factors Automotive funds and concessions have been reduced to recent heavy recession hit the

world economy from which the European economy is still hard trying to recover The economic recession and financial crisis in Europe 2008 adversely affected and recorded the least automotive sales year UK;Ford posted a $129 million loss in the third quarter and said since the last 25 years. Further ford eliminated another 2,260 jobs and burnt through

$7.7 billion in cash Economic Factors

Ford's improved fuel economy vehicles will be approximately increased by 20 percent through the end of 2010 compared to 2005, and the same will be increased by 35 percent by 2015(17526890-2010-ford-model-year-overview.pdf) Rising petrol prices make it more expensive for consumers to drive petrol fuelled cars which consequently means that consumers are inclined to change their cars which operate using diesel. (The Guardian 2005) Ford being one of the biggest automation manufacturers in Europe reduced the production of cars due to financial crisis engulfed the continent. In spite of the global economic recession ford does not anticipate a liquidity crisis in 2009 Ford's SUV's (Sport Utility Vehicle) and heavy trucks sales declined substantially due to steep increase fuel prices, in order to that the share price of Ford has also realized a downfall (Reuters, 2005) Steady rise in demand for the cars manufactured in Asian market led the ford to fight against their selling price by reducing cost involved in production and sustain their brand name by offering the ideal quality and customer satisfaction. Ford deploys 850 job cuts in UK in an attempt to save the cash flow due to intensifying economic crisis by holding up the launch of its new transit (Feb 6th 2009, By: Matt Brogan)

Social Factors

Cars are viewed as a status symbol by people around the world. A person's influence and political status is reviewed by vehicle brands they hold. Ford produces a range of business class cars to captivate the Hi-End business society UK market. Ford intended to produce luxury cars due to growing demand on its brand and due to the increasing celebrities and other delicates with in UK.

Ford has competitive edge over attracting the women for the cars designed specifically for women by women designers in stereotypical view points (Ford, 2006-2007) Technological Factors Industry-leading levels of new technologies and convenience safety features are at its best in Ford's 2010 paddle of cars Technological advancements are inevitable for automotive industry in order to compete the competitors and to become pioneers in the industry by enriching new technologies According to studies on environmental factors fuel in the world is expected to evaporate due to excessive burning of fuel and oil through vehicles and on usage of industrial machines, automotive firms like ford needs to concentrate on technologies that use other forms of energy (BBC June 2004). Ford's new and improved 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder EcoBoost engine to be launched to drive the upcoming year. Ford to introduce 30 new powertrain actions globally in 2010. Ford strives improving quality with virtual technology in their vehicles that provides real benefits includes reducing injuries, improving quality and thus helping the

Environmental Factors Ford based in UK dealing with a powertrains project in which Ford will provide ten Ford Transits into which UK-based Smith Electric Vehicles (SEV) will install their pure batteryelectric powertrains. SEV to market these vehicles as the Smith Edison for UK and European operators since 2007

Ford and SEV together will be building seven transit panel vans and two transit buses for shuttle services, Ford will remain to be the primary maintenance, service vendor and will transits will be mostly used in rural areas through the project period. Ford concentrates on The Focus BEV prototypes which are to be used for the UK program is based on the current European Ford Focus and will use a new all-electric powertrain, provided by strategic supplier Magna (http://www.ford.com/about-ford/newsannouncements/press-releases/press-releases-detail/pr-ford-of-europe-puts-its-second32091). The all electric powertrain technology is based on development for Ford's next-generation global C-car architecture and the same will be launched as the Focus Electric in North America in 2011