IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: Ford

  • See the USA in Your Chevrolet, or See China in Your Buick

    Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet. That line from this 1970s ad for Chevrolet exhibits the brand’s position as an American icon.

    Fast-forward several decades, and General Motors’ Chevy is still an iconic American brand. Meanwhile, in China, the Chevrolet brand is still young. Chevy is China’s seventh-best selling brand, although two models, the Cruze (sold in North America) and the Sail are strong sellers.

    While Chevy is still catching on in China, another longtime GM brand from the United States holds popular: Buick.

    lugzaoaf2otau1jrolprYou may be asking yourself: Buick? Isn’t that the car for old people? Not so the case in China! In 2013, four times as many Buicks were sold in China than in the U.S.  Nearly 810,000 Buicks were sold in China, compared to over 205,000 stateside.

    What explains Buick’s popularity in China? The answer is rooted in the early 20th century when important Chinese government figures such as president Dr. Sun Yat-sen, premier Zhou Enlai, and emperor Pu Yi either owned, drove, or were driven around in Buicks. This historical background adds to Buick’s image of upper class and prestige. Their advertising uses images of success to propel Buick to a high-end brand, such as in this Buick Excelle ad from the 2000s.

    Establishing global brand coherence has its difficulties. To contrast, in the United States, Buick is having trouble shaking off the “55-to-dead” demographic, and they tackle that problem in this new ad that features the demographic commonly associated with the brand in the U.S. with the desired target demographic in the driver’s seat of the brand-new 2014 Buicks:

    GM isn’t the only American automaker popular with the Chinese. Ford’s sales in China rose 49 percent in 2013, and the Ford Focus was China’s best-selling car that year. NPR interviewed 32-year-old Li Ning, who said he bought a Focus because he likes its muscular American style. In China, Ford is establishing its image as young and trendy.

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    Auto China 2014, the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition, kicked off on April 20th and runs until April 29th. At Auto China, Ford is introducing a luxury brand familiar to Americans—Lincoln.

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    Lincoln’s model of selling cars in China is called “The Lincoln Way” and features luxurious showrooms that feel like a five-star hotel. Lincoln plans to focus on building customer relationships by understanding and fulfilling their needs. Lincoln may bring this style of personal selling to the U.S. based on how it works in China.

    Only time will tell if Ford’s effort to introduce the Lincoln brand to China will be a success. Will it become a competitor to Buick, which is already established as a strong luxury brand in China? Are there other ways in which this is an example of globalization?

    –Nathan Evers

  • It Takes Two to Tango

    Crisis communication is one aspect of the corporate and professional world that is regarded with hesitation and stress. Just as in everyday life, most people prefer to avoid conflict at all cost. However, when faced with conflict or crisis it is those who handle the situations in the most effective and fair manner that exemplify great corporate communication and leadership skills.

    An example of crisis and conflict in the corporate world was the tire recall and conflict between Ford Motor Company and Firestone tires. After expressing concerns that Firestone had manufactured defective tires, which had been used on Fords Explorer model vehicles, John Lampe CEO of Firestone tires caused business relationships to quickly end between the two companies. The next day Ford announced that it would have to recall over 13 million tires that had not been previously included in the 6.5 million tire recall. Discrepancies on the safety of the Explorer tires generated heated debates between Firestone and Ford. Though Firestone admitted the tires were unsafe in its first 6.5 million recalls, it denied any knowledge that the alleged 13 million defective tires Ford was recalling, were not safe. Ford’s boss, Jacques Nasser, stated “We simply do not have enough confidence in the future performance of these tires keeping our customers safe.” The companies began the blame game, accusing each other for the defective tires and as injuries and fatalities increased, the conflict and arguments intensified.

    As the conflict continued between Ford and Firestone, the incident was being called the most deadly auto crisis in America. By October 16, 2000, over 119 deaths had occurred from the defective tires. In the end, over 250 deaths were reported and attributed to this crisis and over 3,000 serious injuries. While the companies were blaming each other, their consumers were being hurt, and in this case, not figuratively but literally.

    The importance of handling crisis communication in an effective and timely manner is essential to corporate business. If the Ford/Firestone conflict had been resolved quickly, with both parties recognizing that it takes “two to tango” and that both parties were responsible for the defective tires, then they could have protected their profit losses, their own employees, reputations, and ultimately ensured the safety of their consumers and thus branding their companies as trustworthy and reliable. Instead, both parties chose to blame the other instead of focusing on a solution and the best possible resolution and thus exemplified very, very poor crisis communication skills which the consumer ultimately paid for, both out of pocket and even their lives.

    Breanna Alexander
    Lauren Dehart
    Lauren Smith
    Kelly Wiley