Dearborn, Mich. – Think of it as Ford Motor Co.’s version of
Harry S. Truman’s whistle-stop campaign.
The struggling automaker is going grassroots in its fight to win
the hearts and minds of American consumers, sending executives to
towns and cities large and small to meet with chambers of commerce,
Lions Clubs and other community groups.
Their mission is to deliver a simple message: Ford is here to
stay.
Ford emissaries are crisscrossing the country, visiting more
than 50 cities since November in an effort dubbed the Acceleration
Tour. They’ve spoken to Rotarians in Missouri and business leaders
in Mississippi. They’ve been interviewed by reporters from
small-town papers and TV stations. And they aren’t done. The
automaker plans to send executives to at least 100 communities in
the next few months.
“We think it’s really important to speak directly to people,”
Ford spokeswoman Sara Tatchio said Friday. “We want to get our
message to media and community leaders around the country.”
Jeff Wood, director of product development and efficiency for
the Americas, has served as the Blue Oval envoy in Mississippi and
North Carolina. Since early November, he has been in such places as
Jackson, Miss., and Greensboro, N.C., chatting up chamber leaders
and local journalists.
He’s spoken to several Rotary Clubs, though he didn’t get quite
the welcome his colleagues did in St. Louis, where Rotarians
serenaded Ford executives with a special song about the Blue Oval
written for the occasion.
Ford’s problems are common knowledge in Detroit, but Wood has
been surprised by how much residents in even far-flung burgs know
about the company’s challenges and its plan to overcome them.
While many have heard about the layoffs, the buyouts and the
plant closings, however, few know about the new vehicles coming out
of Ford’s product pipeline.
So, Wood tells them how the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan sedans
bested the vaunted Toyota Camry and Honda Accord in Consumer
Reports’ latest quality survey. He shows them the new Ford Edge
crossover or its Lincoln sibling, the MKX. And he tells them even
more exciting vehicles are on the way.
After each presentation, there is time for questions and an
opportunity for the locals to check out the vehicles.
“I show them we really do have a plan for success,” Wood said.
“We really just spread the good word about Ford.”
According to Wood and others who have participated in the
program, Americans everywhere are eager to ask about Ford’s
alternative fuel strategy. And many want to know how Ford’s
problems multiplied so quickly.
Ford is not the only Detroit automaker taking its message to the
masses.
Earlier this year, rival General Motors Corp. launched the
“Arlington Project” in a bid to overcome negative publicity as
the company executes a major restructuring. Some 50 GM
representatives were assigned to 16 cities from Sacramento, Calif.,
to Buffalo, N.Y.
They are waging a direct marketing campaign and meeting with
local dealers and media to talk about the good things going on in
Detroit.
Such efforts can help repair some of the weaknesses in the
corporate armor at GM and Ford, said George Peterson, president of
California market research firm AutoPacific Inc. But the automakers
must listen as well as talk.
“This should be a dialogue,” he said. “This shouldn’t just be
them up there making speeches. Too often, they rule from the ivory
towers in Detroit. They need to get out and see who their
constituency is.”
(The Detroit News is a member of the ap News
Service.)
