Marketing Automotive

Ford Motors headquarters in Dearborn (MLichigan, USA) will look to international markets and tap in to consumers’ fuel economy concerns in a new global ad campaign for its Focus model, in an attempt to boost sales even as oil prices rise.

Ford’s WPP agency  developped a single campaign that will be rolled out worldwide.

“The last time we launched a car, we had eight campaigns,” James D Farley, Ford group vice president for global marketing, sales and service, said at a news conference.

Ads in traditional media, including TV spots and newspaper and magazine ads, will share a similar “look”, reflecting the Focus’ repositioning as a “world car”. Ford hopes that the range’s smaller sizes – and the fact that some of the models will be hybrid and electric cars – will be a selling point in a world of rising fuel prices.

The Focus’ fuel economy will be highlighted in some of the ads – as will the possibility for customers to add on fuel-saving technology that automatically cuts out the engine when the car stops.

BMW will launch a sub-brand for a new line of electric cars in 2013.

The German automaker unveiled a tagline (”Born Electric”) and the slanted “i” logo that will be the official mark of it electric vehicle arm, with designs for two of its planned models highlighted today.

The i3 is a four-seat, battery powered city car, while the i8 is a plug-in hybrid sports car that the company promises “will be able to reach 60 miles an hour, or nearly 100 kilometers an hour, in five seconds, while burning no more fuel than a subcompact.” The products and services have been conceived around a revolutionary approach: purpose designed and purpose built for sustainable, premium mobility. In terms of design, the i-branded plug-in cars will retain BMW’s distinctive kidney-shaped grill design on the front end, even though the “grill” is not needed by a battery-powered vehicle and would be purely decorative. Their wheels “will be narrower and taller than conventional cars, with body elements that wrap around the front and back of each tire for better aerodynamics. In addition to being design-conscious, BMW’s electric cars will aim to be electronically advanced and hyper-connected. To spur their smartcar abilities, the carmaker also announced that it had formed a New York-based venture capital fund to develop mobile apps.

BMW is striving for minimum weight and maximum aerodynamic efficiency to help compensate for the limited driving range inherent to battery-powered cars.”