Ford Letting Go of Control To Court Millennials
Brett May 4th, 2009
I found an interesting article the other day in the Wall Street Journal titled “Ford Takes Online Gamble with New Fiesta” regarding Ford’s new efforts to court Millennial consumers. The company has chosen one hundred Gen Yers to drive their new Ford Fiesta and post their reviews of the car online through video sites like YouTube. While Ford will have no control over the postings of these viewers, the company realizes that in order to break into the sub-compact market that their rivals dominate, the company could not do business as usual. Their answer to let the product speak for itself instead of trying to manipulate the message is an interesting one. While Ford has pre-screened the sample, I think the fact that such a brand oriented company is relinquishing any control of the marketing message marks a sharp shift in Ford’s approach to win over Millennials.
As the book Crowdsourcing discusses, peer review sites like Yelp, Amazon, and Hotels.com have become the basis for consumer purchases, meaning companies can no longer completely control the marketing message and must rely on their customers to spread the word instead. Allen Adamson, the managing director at Landor Associates says that “It’s a growing reality, [and] companies can either embrace it or pretend it doesn’t exist, but you might as well embrace it and encourage it because it’s not going away.” (“Ford Takes Online Gamble with New Fiesta”, Wall Street Journal) Of course Ford is not the only company to have tried this ground level approach. Almost two years ago Toytoa launched its Scion line using very little traditional marketing and found success. Fast Company Article It will be interesting to see if Ford can generate similar results.
I believe an interesting parallel can be drawn between companies ceding control to consumers in their marketing messages, and employers doing the same with their employees. For the last forty years we have built all of these rules, structures, and schedules regarding work only to find that very few of them actually help. In their efforts to create and control the perfect, neutral office, companies have in fact developed the opposite. Employees routinely lie, cheat, and steal to get their way to the top and we make fun of office bureaucracy in movies, books, and blogs. What if companies started to relinquish control and empower their workers just as Ford and Toyota are leveraging their customers to increase their brand’s message. There is a chance that it will not work, but can we afford to stick with such a broken and dysfunctional system?
Other Post on the Ford experiment:
Hi Brett,
I really enjoyed this post! The parallel you drew between Ford and employers ceding some control to employees, is very interesting. Henry Ford once said “Why is that every time I ask for a pair of hands they come with a brain attached.” All about control! Their Fiesta plan is quite the change form their Henry Ford days.
I think empowering employees is a smart move. As an employee, if I feel my ideas are being considered I am much more likely to care about the success of the business. Looking forward to your next post!
Cheers,
Nat