New ad for diesel Focus

The marketing department at Ford is sending out a simpler message to small-car buyers. Put quite simply, the Focus TDCi will travel 25 per cent further on one tank of fuel than an equivalent-spec Corolla, currently the top-selling car in the VFACTS small-car segment.

That's the essence of a new television commercial going to air this Sunday night. Previously, the company relied on brand-boosting ads (such as the Mondeo launch TV commercial and the FG Falcon's 'walking fingers') as an antidote to earlier advertising that reinforced the market perception Ford was "a blokey car company; old-fashioned, no technology...", to use the words of Ford President, Marin Burela.

Ford's product portfolio has come along in leaps and bounds in recent years, but the advertising hasn't kept pace, although Ford has dipped a toe in the water with more aggressive advertising since late last year (more here and here).

David Katic, the company's General Marketing Manager, doesn't like to use the word "aggressive" in relation to the new marketing direction, but going head to head with the tall poppy among the small puppies is, if not aggressive, at least direct and confronting.

"Philosophically, our approach to marketing this year has been to really focus on the strength of our products," says Katic.

"What we're doing now is getting very singleminded focus -- pardon the pun -- on what our key advantages are.

"When you think about it, a 30-second television commercial is only 30 seconds. It's not 10 minutes. And if you want to cram 15 messages into 30 seconds, you're going to pay the price of consumer confusion.

"We're focussing on classic marketing -- a unique selling proposition. So pick on something we've got that our competitors haven't. And when we think about Focus, we've got a diesel -- and Corolla hasn't. Corolla's the market leader..."

Katic is too diplomatic to say Ford's advertising in recent years has sucked, but the new advertising campaign clearly signals a change of direction. We won't give anything away about the ad, but it will attract attention.

"What you're seeing here is us communicating our point of difference," says Marin Burela.

"There's a level of parity that we must have, to be credible in this country -- but we have to communicate our point of difference. And it's not inappropriate of us to go out there and be very direct and tell the facts as they are.

"It's now time we put the facts on the table."

The advertising campaign is bound to draw fire from within the advertising industry for the free kick it provides the Corolla -- and possibly to the detriment of Focus. But that might be countered with the argument that the Corolla is already well ahead of the Focus in sales anyway and holds the largest single share of the small-car market. Ford has nothing to lose.