I spent a couple of days last week with Ford in Dearborn as part of an event for the social press/media called Forward With Ford. In hindsight, it’s difficult to imagine another company that could pull off what Ford did. For starters, the automotive industry occupies a spot within the American psyche. Ford products are a natural fit for a broad range of consumers – no need to force fit with slick advertising. And the company has a strong social media presence, providing a platform for effective engagement. Most importantly, the event wasn’t experimental in the sense that the topics were unrelated or new to the brand – you can see Ford’s communications consistency for example in this TED talk by Chairman Bill Ford.
Let me tell you about the people who were there. I met individuals representing interests including green living, mommy bloggers, Latino publishing, consumer electronics, and of course automotive enthusiasts. Key Ford representatives were Marisa Bradley, Lifestyle Marketing Manager who masterminded the event; Scott Monty, head of social media; Sheryl Connolly, head of Global Trends and Futuring; and Ford CEO Alan Mulally, who greeted the group at an opening dinner.
Ford hosted our broad cross-section of social media interests to learn about trends impacting the auto industry with overlap into the rest of our lives: emerging technologies, aging population, living green, safety and security, global design convergence, and engaging the senses. Accordingly, Malcolm Gladwell delivered a pre-dinner talk on macro trends drawing heavily from his October 2010 New Yorker article, The Talent Grab. The conference closed with Joel Garreau, bookending an action-packed two days of discussions and hands-on experiences.
On site, we were taken in-depth to see where Ford creates the future.
- In the design center, I saw a massive HD screen where car designs are reviewed, at a size reminiscent of the massive Dallas Cowboys stadium jumbotron.
- Ed Begley Jr. was on site to lead sessions on sustainability. I sat next to him at the opening dinner and we chatted about the Hydrogen Highway, windmills in Tehachapi, and personal solar power.
- On a tour of the labs, we met employees who were eager to share about “noise vision”, horn tuning, seat comfort, the “human occupant package simulator“, and smell jury. Unlike the Zappos tour, we didn’t encounter any employees dancing with synchronized Shake Weights, but we did hear from engineers and scientists who clearly love their jobs.
- At Ford’s test track, we were presented with eight experiences: off-roading in an Explorer to test all wheel drive responsiveness; skidding around with a professional driver on a wet track in a Mustang to demonstrate traction control; riding along in a demonstration of wi-fi enabled cars which can help prevent accidents; an eco-driving challenge to maximize fuel economy in a Fusion hybrid on the test track oval (mine was awful); drag racing F-150 trucks (I won); reviewing in-car technologies like voice, nav, and music; and driving a sensor-equipped Focus around an obstacle course for accuracy (me = perfect score).
I could go deep into how the FordTrends event is a manifestation of Social Business, but let me be brief and say that social business is business. Kudos to Ford for investing in an event to socialize the brand with an audience outside of the traditional gearhead set.
For more on the event, read CC Chapman’s take, view the official photos on Facebook, and browse #FordTrends on Twitter.
Several weeks ago my wife’s Ford Escape Hybrid’s dashboard lit up with warning lights, and her ABS brakes lost power. Very scary. She took it to a dealership, which kept the car over a week because they couldn’t figure out what was wrong. No problem, I bought the very expensive 100k-bumper-to-bumper-I-don’t-pay-a-dime-for-repairs warranty.
Turns out they had to phone the regional service manager for advice, and he was able to point them to the battery, which leaked in such a way that some enormous bundle of wires corroded, including whatever cable controls the breaks. Quote: $2,700 all in. No problem, says I, fix it. After all, I’ve got the 100k-bumper-to-bumper-I-don’t-pay-a-dime-for-repairs warranty.
Well, not so fast. Seems the battery is only under warranty for 36k miles. The car has 38k, and since it’s the battery that did the damage… sorry.
Are you kidding me!?! Really?!? Even though my wife had the car serviced at a dealership not more than a month ago? Don’t they check fluid levels, like maybe the battery’s? Does this happen to all the hybrids? The brakes, for godsakes?!? They’re telling me this does not happen, yet (I remind them) the regional service manager seemed to know what was wrong without even inspecting… sorry, the warranty specifically states that the battery is only under warranty for 36k miles.
So, I call customer service and of course speak with a well-trained operator who’s working off an answer tree who will not engage with my frustration and anger, will only repeat the terms of my warranty and apologize that I’m so upset. Done, right?
Wrong… I stewed for a day or two, then realized that any corporation with half a marketing brain these days at least monitors their social traffic. As it happens, I maintain a Twitter account with several hundred active Tweeters to help promote my wife’s web site (janetlansbury.com). So, I let #Ford have it. Three Tweets mentioning #lemon #brakes #children #recall #RepairNotice, #BBB. My wife re-Tweeted, and she has has over 1,000 followers. Who knows how many of them re-Tweeted. Within an hour I was on line with Michigan. I gave the lady my VIN#, threw out a couple more choice #redflags, and she said she’d look into it. I figured it was more lip service, web-style, but whatever.
I left the house around 11AM for a couple of meetings, returned after 7PM. At some point in the afternoon, a corporate CS person called and left a message, said she’d looked into my case, and although my contract clearly stated the battery is only warrantied for 36k miles, she had applied upstairs for an exception.
Next day I spoke with the lady. She informed me that the exception was approved — I was a good customer, had done everything right in terms of regularly servicing the car at a dealership, buying the extended service contract, and they wanted to do right by me. Ford would cover all costs and even pay for a new battery. Furthermore their engineers were looking into the situation to find out why it happened and make sure it never did again.
Needless to say, I feel like I just found $2,700 in the street. More importantly, though, they did the right thing, took care of me, so now Ford now has an evangelist with a very decent social network. I will do my best to sell a few cars for them.
That’s all.
I have always driven old, cheap, reliable cars. I never saw a valid reason to pay money every month for a newer car. Still gets you from point A to point B, just costs you more to do it.
Recently, my husband convinced me to at least go look at some new cars. Reluctantly, I did. Went and drove the new Honda Fit, and a handful of other cars in that vein. Was still unconvinced—my 1997 Civic still has another 200,000 miles in her future, I’m sure.
Then I drove a 2012 Ford Focus. It blew my mind. Everything about the car screams, “We thought about YOU when we made this.” The SYNC system makes music, navigation & phone calls super-easy & voice-controlled; the car gets great gas mileage and is fun to drive—and quiet enough that voice control & speaker phone calls work even on the highway; even the engine is thoughtful: the fluids are all easy to check & fill, and even *I* could replace the coil packs. 80% of the car is recyclable. It has a capless gas tank. And the whole buying experience was pleasant.
Ford!
Who knew?!