Double dare for Mondeo sales

Sales of the Ford Mondeo since it was launched in 2007 have actually achieved the company's forecast for the car, says Ford Communications Manager, Sinead McAlary.

"We have actually met our targets," McAlary told the Carsales Network during the media drive program for the upgraded range.

"When we originally launched it, we had a much higher interest in the diesel than we had thought, and so it took a number of months to get enough stock of the diesel... but that's not a problem any more."

Yet for all that, the Mondeo has never looked like a threat to the dominance of the locally-manufactured Toyota Camry in the medium VFACTS segment. Nor has it worried Japanese competitors in the same segment.

So, meeting sales projections or not, it's no surprise that Ford believes it can lift sales of the 'mid-size' car -- but double its market share? That's the plan, confidently announced by Ford Australia president, Marin Burela, at the monthly sales briefing held earlier this month.

At the forefront of Ford's marketing strategy for the upgraded Mondeo model range is a new television commercial.

"We've got a new ad that's going to be launching at the end of this month..." said McAlary.

"That will go to air later this month... I think it's the last Sunday of this month."

While McAlary would not reveal much about the advertisement, it does appear to be more in line with the company's current style of advertising campaigns, as seen in the latest ads for Focus, Falcon and -- since last weekend -- Territory.

"We're being very single-minded in terms of what its competitive advantages are [in the ad]," she said. 

"Mondeo... in the ad, doesn't compare directly to a competitive vehicle -- like the Focus ad does -- it's more along the lines of the Falcon ad..."

Despite Ford's declaration that many of the additional sales it's anticipating for the Mondeo range will come from the wagon variants, McAlary tells us that the TV ad won't be "wagon-specific".

Ford's first TV advertising campaign for the Mondeo, back in 2007, did not appear to be well received or understood by the public. That's possibly why the campaign didn't run very long. McAlary believes that the new commercial has to run over a longer period to improve the Mondeo's public recognition.

"Australian consumers are very driven by what's in front of them. And that's fair enough, you're not going to go hunting for something if it's not there," said McAlary.

"They tend to go for what they can see and what's in front of them. We haven't been as aggressive in the market -- or even really present in marketing Mondeo -- so we're getting back out there, using the new model as the logical [means] to do that."

While a TV commercial that actually promotes the Mondeo's strengths is arguably imperative for Ford's marketing strategy, the company also plans other methods of promoting the car to the buying public.

"We've got a whole range of things we're going to be doing over the next number of months -- like what we call 'experiental' marketing... flower and garden shows, food and wine shows, and all that sort of [activities]," explained McAlary.

"It's very much about bringing the vehicles to the people, not expecting the people to go to the dealer."

Such static displays don't allow the prospective buyer to drive the car, but it's simple enough to put those genuinely interested in the car in touch with dealers for a test drive.

The importance of the wagon in the range is not to be underestimated, says McAlary. Ford doesn't see such cars as the Subaru's Liberty and the Mazda6 as the Mondeo wagon's principal competitors. Curiously, Ford believes the Mondeo wagon should conquest sales from Holden's Sportwagon -- a large car.

But the Mondeo parked alongside a Falcon is quite apparently no more a 'mid-sized' car than the Toyota Camry is, so the Holden rear-driver may be cross-shopped against the Mondeo -- or vice versa.

"We think the wagon gives us a significant advantage," says McAlary.

"If you look at what our competitors have done with their wagon -- and how many of their Commodore sales are actually the new Sportwagon, it's quite significant -- so we think there is a market out there for private customers, for a sport wagon, so we are going to be targeting that."

So where's the XR5 Turbo wagon then, we wonder? Where, indeed, is the XR5 auto?

Ford won't be content with just private buyers for the Mondeo.

"When we launched it, over two years ago, it was launched very much primarily targeted at retail customers only. We deliberately chose not to go after any fleets..." says McAlary.

"Now we want to broaden that brief, so we're going to be targeting different customers -- and we think the wagon gives us a good way to do that.

"We think the wagon will fill a direct customer need, so that's why we've very deliberately targeted that, to bring that in; [and] that will be supplemented again, by having the diesel in the wagon."

For the year to date, Mondeo has sold 2264 units. Assuming no major blips in the market between now and the end of the year, Mondeo will need to sell in the vicinity of 6000 units in total by the end of 2009 for Marin Burela's forecast to eventuate.

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