Sydney key to Ford revival

Ford Australia boss Marin Burela says Sydney is key to the Blue Oval's continued growth in market share. Speaking at Ford's monthly sales briefing this morning, Burela singled out Sydney as the market in which Ford's sales performance can most improve.

He stated that the car manufacturer had consistently underperformed in the marketplace, one which he characterised as being dominated by Toyota's Corolla.

Burela says the Blue Oval's attack on the wider Sydney market would not necessarily pit small car versus small car. In other words, it's not just Focus that's gunning for Corolla. Instead, he says, Ford will rely on communicating the attributes of both its Fiesta and Focus nameplates in an effort to target both ends of Sydney's mainstream private new-car buyers.

"If we look at Sydney, as a market, Corolla completely dominates the Sydney metro area," said the Ford President. "Focus has not been a strong player there. We are working on moving forward with our Sydney market plan in the second half of this year."

Sales in Sydney are in stark contrast with the situation in Victoria, where Ford's sales volumes have been tracking substantially better, says Burela.

"In Victoria... Where we deployed the full roll-out of our strategy and tactics, it's been a tremendous success."

Burela says specific strategies have been employed in the Melbourne marketplace that have seen the carmaker significantly redress market share losses since the start of 2009.

"What we've done, we've concentrated very aggressively on what are the differences and what are the opportunities that would differentiate us in Victoria," he says, adding that brand management, the buying public's perception of individual models and the the car company's communications strategy are all factors that influence car-buying decisions. It's those factors that Ford has been studying and tweaking for the Victorian market. But Burela remains tight-lipped on what Ford's tactics have been, precisely, in Victoria.

"I'd rather not go into the specifics," he told the press, "and the reason why is that I don't want my competitors to know what it is that we've been doing."

So the Victorian experiment remains a closely-guarded secret, but Burela has taken some satisfaction from the way the company's sales performance has picked up in the southern state -- and it has application in New South Wales.

"I am just so excited and motivated about the things we can do in Sydney," he says.

"We have been really lagging -- and yet Sydney's the single largest market in Australia, Victoria being the second.

Burela makes no secret of his view that the Corolla in Sydney is vulnerable to a stronger marketing push behind Fiesta (more here). Despite the Corolla being a small car in VFACTS parlance -- or 'C segment car' to use Ford's classification -- and the Fiesta being a light car/'B segment car', Burela believes that buyers could be convinced to choose the Ford over the Toyota.

"I would categorise it as product attributes, size, package, value for money, fuel economy -- the whole thing. People do not go and buy Corolla because it's a 'C car', they buy it for what it is. If you look at our portfolio, with what we've now achieved with Fiesta -- and what we need to and will achieve with Focus -- we will have two very... strong vehicles to go out there and compete in the Sydney landscape."

Supporting his view that Fiesta can take sales away from Corolla in Sydney, Burela says that there's just two litres of difference in luggage capacity between the Ford and the Toyota, despite the two cars' different market positions -- and it's also about standard equipment and pricing.

"Show me another car in Australia at $20,000 that gives you Bluetooth, voice control, five-star safety, iPod connectivity..."

So Fiesta is an important element in pumping up Ford's sales in Sydney, but the company has had to revisit some aspects of the car's marketing in the harbour city. The light car, according to Burela, was being advertised during office hours, when the Fiesta's target demographic actually "starts surfacing" at 10:00pm. Ford's clubber-targeted marketing will be part of a stronger product and communication offensive set to commence in Sydney later this year.

"The second half of this year is going to be big for us," says Burela, "because we need to go out there and make our presence felt in Sydney.

"It's going to be a product offensive, it's going to be a communication offensive, it's going to be continuing to build a relationship with our dealer body, in which I have huge faith...

"We have got a great group of dealers over there... Over the years, I think we've let them down -- and hence some of the issues that we currently have. But we're fixing that."

-- with staff

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