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Ford Catches One Of Toyota's Big Fish

Ford Motor Co. today said that James D. Farley, group vice president of Toyota Motor Co.'s Lexus Division, will be Ford's first chief marketing and communications officer.

"We are thrilled to welcome one of the most successful and talented leaders in the industry to the Ford Motor Company team," CEO Alan Mulally said in a statement, confirming a story first reported in this column today. "Jim Farley is well known for innovative marketing strategies that connect great products to today's and tomorrow's customers. Ford's quality and vehicles are now on par with the best of the competition. We look forward to Jim's leadership to combine world- class marketing with our world-class products worldwide."

The move is a signature appointment by Mulally, who has openly criticized Ford's marketing efforts and signaled his desire to install top marketing talent at the Glass House. Farley's arrival also will be yet another high-profile defection from vaunted Toyota to a Detroit automaker, suggesting that highly regarded industry pros see opportunity in their beleaguered rivals.

"Farley is their superstar," a source familiar with the situation told me today, adding that Ford has been talking with Farley off and on for a year. "It's a done deal. This is a good move for us. This is the guy we wanted. He has an engineering background."

The appointment of Farley, 45, was approved today by Ford's directors. As the first head of global marketing and communications for Ford, he would assume what is arguably the industry's most monumental marketing challenge. Ford has foundered amid weak campaigns, discarded and then revived brand names like Taurus, poor product definition and plunging market share.

Under Mulally, an aerospace engineer and 37-year veteran of Boeing Co. before arriving at Ford last fall, key marketing decisions -- such as reviving the Taurus model name -- have been pushed by him, a engineer- cum-CEO who understands his limitations in the marketing world.

It's hard to overstate the symbolism of Farley's appointment by Ford. That a rising Toyota star, the head of Lexus and a founder of its Scion youth brand would bolt the Japanese juggernaut for the struggling Blue Oval is a testament to Mulally's leadership, the strength of Ford's current lineup, the promise of its future products and the upside in it all.

And unlike Chrysler LLC, which could use the opaque world of private equity to woo Farley's old boss, Jim Press, from Toyota North America to Auburn Hills, Ford is doing so in the more transparent world of public companies.

These moves are not accidental, but instead telegraph a determination to land top talent at Detroit companies that have historically shunned outsiders. Not anymore. Both Ford and Chrysler now are headed by industry outsiders whose paths to the CEO offices here were paved by their success elsewhere and their willingness to look outside their new companies for the best marketing talent they can find.

Mulally, for one, has long been an admirer of Toyota. While head of Boeing's commercial aviation unit, he studied its production methods and adapted them to aircraft assembly. Nor is he shy about conceding that the model he envisions for Ford -- "one Ford," built around the promise of a solid Blue Oval, not ancillary, money-losing luxury brands -- is the Toyota model.

Before heading Lexus, the nation's top-selling luxury brand, Farley was group vice president of Toyota Division marketing. He was responsible for all Toyota Division market planning, advertising, merchandising, sales promotion, incentives and Internet activities. He also served as vice president of Scion, Toyota's youth-oriented brand.

Farley, who earned a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from UCLA, joined Toyota in 1990 in the strategic-planning department.

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Very interesting. First Chrysler lures Toyota's Jim Press away, and now Ford grabs Farley. Either Toyota has an over abundance of talent, is cleaning house after a string of recent recalls or maybe after climbing the mountain to the #1 spot (it's easier to get there than stay there) it's starting to come apart at the seams. We shall see...

Patrick

Reply to
NoOption5L
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Reply to
Michael Johnson

I sure hope so. I think most of their commercials suck big time. In some of them they flash the pictures of the car so fast that you don't get a long enough view to even tell what they look like. Maybe it's just my choice of TV shows but I never see any ads for the 500 and that should be one of their main profit centers. Come to think of it, I don't see a whole lot of ads for their pickups either.

Reply to
Ashton Crusher

Reply to
Michael Johnson

Heh as that very Milan ad goes off on the H channel. I have those same TV habits. I always hated the Chevy truck ads where they always compare themselves to Ford by name. IMO that's a sign of someone who knows they are behind and disparate to catch up, knowing their product is inferior. Toyota is even worse making absolute false claims in their ads at times, I called a sales goob at a Toyota lot on it once.

Reply to
WindsorFox

Hey Patrick, I know you suggested long ago how great it would be if Toyota or Nissan would throw a V8 into a rear drive coupe and enter the ponycar wars. I think you were posting about this before Chevy came up with the Camaro concept or Dodge with the Challenger. Well the latest Road & Track mentions that an Asian automaker is going to do this for 2009 or 2010, can't remember which. But it's a Korean, not a Japanese make. The next Hyundai Tiburon will be rear drive and have an available V8. Being Hyundai, I would expect them to undercut the Mustang GT by a few thousand, and the Dodge and the Chevy by even more (since it's unlikely the V8 versions of either of these two will price out within $5000 of a Mustang).

180 Out
Reply to
one80out

I read some talk about that not long ago, it may have been here. I wouldn't mind seeing a stretched out 350Z/G35 with the 5.6 or the 4.5 V8 from Nissan. One thing is sure, it would eat up any Hemi in the 1/4 mile in both speed and fuel consumption :oP

Reply to
WindsorFox

Reply to
Tony Alonso

Reply to
Michael Johnson

You never saw a commercial for it when it was the Ford 500 either... Ford needs to pull their head out of their ass...

Reply to
My Name Is Nobody

Hopefully they will let this guy from Toyota do that for them. If they don't then their future looks very bleak.

Reply to
Michael Johnson

Ah, see, you just have to sign up for Ford's newsletters. They're pushing the Taurus bigtime through their email campaign.

dwight

Reply to
dwight

Bah. We'll see how many ads Ford has in the next Superbowl. That'll tell the real story.

"dwight" wrote in news:6cudnZlLTeuwCYvanZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

Reply to
Joe

Reply to
Michael Johnson

Reply to
Michael Johnson

I could not agree more! To cite the competition in your ads by name is, IMO, affirming/reminding that THEY are the standard. Dumb, dumb, dumb...

Patrick

Reply to
NoOption5L

Hello, 180. Good to see you around again!

Yes I was.

It's Hyundai.

That's the one. It's being referred to as the "Korean Mustang". I posted the news in here a while back. You can search the NG if you want the details/link.

The Detroit Three, while trying to keep a competitive price, will have to sell/infuse their legacy in much the same way Harley Davidson has. While it's inevitable they'll lose some sales with the added competition, if market their heritage well they'll beat the Koreans in the pony car market.

Patrick

Reply to
NoOption5L

Mike,

I think it's too late for this approach. It would have worked if when the Ford 500 debuted it was called the Taurus. But now, everyone knows the "new Taurus", dispite it's latest improvements, is still just a rebadged Ford 500. Maybe when this marketing goof-up fades after a few years and an all-new Taurus is designed then they can play on the heritage.

Patrick

Reply to
NoOption5L

Saw a Taurus commercial last night. Got a $750 coupon on a new Ford truck in my email today.

I'm still laughing about the entire Taurus debacle. They killed off a great moneymaker (although still building them for fleets and rental companies). Why would you make them for businesses but NOT offer them to the buying public, who probably believed that the car was gone entirely?

So now they're stuck with a Ford Five Hundred that nobody wants, and some poor underpaid schlub at Ford says, why not rebadge 'em all as Taurae? Intuitive thinking, that. So they rebadge the 500's, and, lo and behold, they start selling.

But, ever an entire selling season behind the curve, Ford is probably now trying to market the Taurus with the same marketing budget they had approved for the 500. Next year, I'm sure, based on the previous year's sales, the Taurus' marketing budget will increase slightly.

It's kinda like... when your football team stunk the previous year, you don't get invited to play on Monday Night Football this year.

dwight

Reply to
dwight

No doubt it would be a marketing ploy but letting the car sit on the lots is not going to help. I haven't seen one Taurus ad on television. I think you're giving the consumer too much intelligence regarding the matter. There are millions of Taurus' (Tauri?) on the road with drivers that just might check out a "new" one if they knew it existed. Right now I would wager hardly anyone knows the Taurus is back.

Reply to
Michael Johnson

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