Ford Reveals Why Its Rallying Cry for the Future Is Only ...

By Eileen Falkenberg-Hull

Senior Editor, Autos

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For two years, Ford Motor Company’s global chief marketing officer, Lisa Materazzo, has been working on fresh brand strategy. She called the close examination of the company’s strategy “a mandate” and a necessity divulging, “Our brand strategy hadn't really been refreshed top to bottom in over a decade.”

That strategy goes beyond advertising and marketing to include larger product decisions from development timelines to packaging. In Ford’s case it also includes motorsports and appealing to an audience well beyond U.S. borders.

A “deep re-examination,” as Materazzo calls it, was needed especially because the Ford+ electrification strategy plan was rolled out to the public in 2022. She said, “It essentially defined the Ford strategy for growth and value creation. I like to think of the Ford+ plan [as defining] how we would compete, focused on the goals, the resource allocation, operations and so on. But it naturally begs the question: How will we as a brand show up in the marketplace to deliver on that aspiration?”

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Today, the Ready Set Ford campaign is in full swing. It’s the company’s first global campaign in 15 years and designed to be more than just a tagline, instead serving as, “a public commitment to you that our capability, our passion, and our innovation will match your own,” the company said.

“We had to make sure that we got the strategy right,” Materazzo said. “We need it to impact all parts of our business.”

Getting the timing right for the launch of the campaign was just as important as the campaign itself. With the world in the midst of an electric vehicle desirability and regulation shake up, Ford had to be sure to set the right tone, one that would carry the brand over the waves.

“We really leaned on the 120 plus years equity that Ford has as a brand. We looked at the market conditions, and we looked at the consumer, and we brought all that together,” the CMO said.

To get there, the company examined the global auto market and discovered a poly-crisis. “One big trend that we looked at is the idea that consumers feel overwhelmed on multiple fronts. There's a lot of anxiety right now and it may, unfortunately, be our new norm. When you think about politics, when you think about technology, when you think about people being very nervous about AI, financial security, health and well-being, it was interesting to us,” Materazzo said.

She continued: “People just feel like there's this big, constant state of crisis and angst. But the insight is that people are surprisingly resilient and optimistic when given the tools and the capability to feel empowered. That was really interesting to us because optimism and resilience are baked into the Ford DNA. It's something that's very authentic to us, and it's something that we do better than anyone for product services and experience.”

Ready Set Ford is a campaign designed to be, “a spark to make people feel confident and empowered by giving them the resources they need, the tools that they need to get the job done,” Materazzo said.

The company is at a major product and personnel crossroads. Products in Europe including the Volkswagen platform-based Capri and Explorer EV aren’t going over as well with audience as hoped, analysts say, but its homegrown Puma Gen-E electric SUV is in demand.

"Ford is increasingly operating like a commercial-driven brand — dominant in U.S. trucks and vans and heavily reliant on vans in Europe — but that strength isn’t translating to its consumer-facing lineup. Add persistent quality issues, rising structural costs, and an EV transition that’s proving more expensive and uneven than expected, and Ford is unmistakably at a crossroads," Paul Waatti, director of industry analysis at AutoPacific, told Newsweek.

Materazzo believes that no matter the market, Ready Set Ford translates. “The universal truth of Ready Set Ford is that commitment to our customers travels across the globe perfectly. So the expression of that is really where we have the opportunity to customize so it fits in Europe, it might look different than in South America, it might look different than in the United States, but it's going to all be held together by this idea that Ford provides the enablement to unleash that capability,” she said.

Waatti sees potential in that plan, but relayed that Ford's struggles won't ease up anytime soon. He said: "Moving forward, Ford needs clarity in product, brand, and global strategy. That means reigniting consumer demand with vehicles priced and positioned correctly, fixing quality with urgency, and bringing more discipline to portfolio planning. Ford’s underlying strengths— including a resilient commercial business —are real, but the next few product cycles will determine whether the company can rebuild confidence across its entire portfolio or continue losing ground to more focused competitors."

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