Ford wants more respect

The Ford brand and therefore its products and its employees can only obtain the respect they deserve from Australian car buyers if a multi-faceted “perception gap” is overcome, argues the company’s new president Graeme Whickman.

He says an immediate concern is the false perception that Ford is not only ceasing its activities as a local manufacturer no later than October 2016, but pulling out of the country altogether.

That, he argues, adds to a longer-term issue of enough people simply being unaware of the quality of Ford’s vehicles and the company itself.

“There is a perception gap, I believe,” Whickman told motoring.com.au. “I can steadfastly hand on heart talk about my products with a lot of confidence and I can do that with my people as well.

“So that perception gap needs to be examined and then we have got to close the gap. So that is why we have some big bets around certain things.”

Whickman, 46, took over as president of Ford Australia from Bob Graziano on April 1. He served as the company’s vice-president of marketing, sales and service for 18 months before that.

Ford announced it was ceasing local manufacturing and killing off the locally-developed Falcon back in May 2014. The company’s sales, which were already sliding, are now down to levels not seen since the early 1960s.

Ford has embarked on a drive to increase private buyer sales, switching from the fleet focus of Falcon’s heyday.

It is rolling out a series of significant ‘customer experience’ initiatives with its dealers and also announced it will launch 20 new models between December 2014 and 2020.

“At the end of the day I’d like to be in a position where the Ford brand is that dynamic and respected brand,” Whickman told motoring.com.au.

“I want our group, all the employees, to be part of a turnaround that drives us to a level of respect that perhaps we don’t have as much right now, I want the brand to be a lot more dynamic and I want the brand to live up to the products and the people.

“Our people and our products aren’t actually reflected as well as they should be in what people think about the Ford brand right now and I want to take it to that next level.”

Whickman conceded the misunderstanding over Ford’s change from manufacturer to national sales company had to be borne by its own communications efforts.

“If the perception exists then you are always going to question if you have done a good enough job,” he said. “That is just human logic.”

“If you go and ask consumers at the moment, many of them are believing Ford is shutting down in totality (in Australia),” Whickman said. “We are obviously not shutting down, we are working all the way through to October 2016 – that’s our plan; our sales might be modest compared to what they look like historically but they are actually bang on our plan.

“And there seems to be constant speculation about that and it is getting to the stage where it is water off  a duck's back because as long I hit my internal targets I am all good and I am well ahead of those.

“Longevity is not an issue for us – we are here to stay … We have to continually remind people that we are here to say.”

Ford will launch a significant overhaul of its popular Ranger ute mid-year, along with the all-new Everest SUV that spins off it. In the third quarter comes the overhauled LZ Focus range – previewed by the Focus ST launched this week – and the iconic Mustang sports car at year's end.

Whickman said there would be a continued roll-out of new models and customer experience features as Ford campaigned to widen the number of people interested in the brand.

“We need to make sure the public and our current and future customers understand our product cycle plan is going to be the youngest in the business and probably will stay that way.”

He said that message would run in tandem with the ‘here to stay’ message.

“I see two efforts – and at the moment you might say they have equal emphasis in terms of dollars and human effort.

“One is ‘we are here to stay whatever you might think’.

“Down below that is ‘now forgetting that for a minute, we might be a brand that is of interest to you. The products are pretty cool, the people are pretty cool, come and give us a chance’.

“Perhaps over many years they have a point of view about what the Ford brand is and I would like to extend that band width a little with the consumers and let them decide – or at least get them to consider us.”