03-23-06: Finding the marketing sweet spot for your brand is sometimes like playing the lottery. When you win, the payoffs are infinite. Marketing is different when you lose. The price can be much higher than what you paid for your tickets.

A recent news release from Ford stated, “Whether it’s supporting Toby Keith on his "Big Throwdown Tour II," helping make families’ dreams come true on ABC’s "Extreme Home Makeover: Home Edition," or sponsoring the Built Ford Tough Series Professional Bull Riders, Ford truck branding has it right on the money. Ford’s partnership with country music star Toby Keith is a perfect example of the right "fit" for the Ford truck brand; Keith is bold, outspoken, and proudly American. Now entering its third year, Ford has sponsored Keith’s concert tours, used him as a spokesperson for the brand, and featured him in TV commercials. "I’m honored for Ford to be my partner on the tour," said Keith. "Ford backs me 100 percent and it’s great to be back on the road with them."

Ford's car division also gets a positive nod for their “Adrenalin Disorder” campaign for the Ford Fusion. The series of television commercials and print ads inject clever humor into the car’s branding, attaching it with the NASCAR image. The ads that play during racing events on TV and appear in car magazines associate the need to drive fast and win with a newly discovered medical condition called "Adrenalin Disorder". The cure Ford says, is to buy a Ford Fusion. The commercials are entertaining and do well to paint the Fusion as the car for American families who want more than a dull Camry or Accord.

Lincoln/Mercury on the other hand has recently launched a positively dreadful online scheme that places their cars in the middle of independent film “webisodes” on two new websites; www.theneverything.com and www.lovelybysurprise.com. The online film series features a bizarre and decidedly tasteless story of two brothers who live on a houseboat boat in the middle of a deserted field. Cut-off from the world, their life revolves around eating cereal and drinking milk in their underwear. The premise is based on a female author who is creating and writing their story. The films have nothing to do with the cars, except that they appear for fleeting moments in them. The shows are not only woefully low rent but do nothing to impress you with the Lincoln/Mercury brand. They should have a look at what BMW did with short films, the car was the star.

Other campaigns are targeted to minority groups such as the one directed at African Americans for the Fusion;www.grownandsexy.com. This website plays on the pop-culture stereotypes of this race group, telling them to “get their jones on” and “take their soul for a ride” by blinging up a Fusion with wheels and accessories or playing an online nightclub video game. All the while you get to listen to your own custom mixed R & B music. My first impression of the campaign was that it was a bit much, perhaps even demeaning to African Americans. But, Ford marketing officials told us that the campaign itself was crafted by an African American advertising firm. They also have a specific Fusion campaign targeting Latino buyers. Maybe it works, I don’t know.

While some Ford divisions are hitting it out of the park, others appear to be lost in the woods. In the end it seems like there is no single branding direction or message. Every brand and car model within Ford appears to have it’s own marketing arm, seemingly in their own world.

Take their taglines or company mottos, there are several of them right now. You have "Life in Drive", "Driving Innovation", "Built for the road ahead", "Built Ford Tough" , "It's easy being green", "The Legend Lives", and on and on. It is like there is no coach, but several quarterbacks running their own strings in the same game. There seems to be no single defensive or offensive line.

For comparison, look at BMW who has had a single and solitary message for decades, one tag line, one image. You know what it is, I don’t have to tell you. Though their styling has taken an acid trip in the past few years, their consistent and cohesive marketing drum-beat soildiers on.

On the contrary, maybe I am all wet. After all, a good targeted marketing campaign only strikes a chord with the group of people it seeks out. I am a mid-thirties white male car enthusiast who really digs the NASCAR, truck, and Mustang advertising. I get it. On the other hand I don’t get the marketing that is aimed to other racial groups or female intellectuals who spend their days writing about Buzz and Zeke in their underwear.