Ford's Fortunes In China Depend On 'Mei'

福特汽车(Ford Motor Co.)的营销管理人员将她称作“美”，而她对这家美国汽车公司在华战略的成功至关重要。“美”中文是“美丽”的意思。对福特而言，“美”就是20多岁，大学毕业的城市单身女性。她们是福特嘉年华(Fiesta)车型在中国目标市场的主要用户群。这款小型两厢轿车是福特计划向全球市场推出的一系列轿车中的第一款，在不同市场会略有改动。Fiesta（正面）Fiesta（侧面）吸引月收入5,000至1万元首次购车的美女购买嘉年华轿车已成为福特日益重要的任务。这家公司一直希望依靠海外的增长抵消北美地区销量的下滑。按销量计算，中国排在美国之后，是全球第二大汽车市场，不过福特近期在中国的表现不尽人意。J.D. Power & Associates称，尽管中国乘用车的总销量去年增长了近7%，但福特品牌轿车的销量却下降了10%。福特发言人说，该公司销售下滑有所放缓。福特说，它计划下个月为嘉年华推出一个广告活动，目标将对准“美”和她的同龄人。这次活动将基本回避电视和报纸，而在她们花费更多时间的网络和时尚杂志上吸引她们的眼球。福特中国区负责营销与销售的副总裁何骏杰(Nigel Harris)说，主要的交流工具将是互联网。他说，一大重点将是深受年轻人欢迎的社交网站。这项活动还将利用手机短信。何骏杰说，广告的内容将“年轻，大胆和性感”，目的是前卫同时又不让人反感。这样的创意是为了吸引新一代自信独立和乐观的女性。广告将有漂亮的男人和女人，亮丽的色彩和流行音乐。何骏杰说，还有一组独立的广告重点强调的是嘉年华的安全性能，主要是针对美女的父母，因为他们可能影响到她的购车决定。福特正在与伦敦广告控股公司WPP旗下广告公司智威汤逊(JWT)进行合作，就广告活动进行最后的接触。福特拒绝透露广告内容的更多细节。但福特管理人员说，他们所做的研究鼓舞他们在广告上比原来预想的更加大胆。尤其是在公司高管同代表“美女”群体的一组女性进行了一个下午的“融入式活动”后更坚定了这种信念。另一个重要的结论是，全球性车型的想法是可行的。这对福特的全球战略至关重要。这种战略的出发点是在全球销售同一车型，以达到节约研发成本和取得制造规模效应的效果。对汽车制造商而言，中国市场仍然有很多谜团有待破解。许多中国人都是第一次购买轿车，缺乏根据性能和技术指标做出选择的必要知识。大部分人尚未形成对任何一个品牌的忠诚度。福特的“融入式活动”旨在让福特和智威汤逊的高级管理人员与他们的目标客户直接接触。他们在北京同15名20多岁的女性一起度过了一个下午，观察她们购物，寻找有关她们生活态度和理想的蛛丝马迹。这些女性注重时尚，坦率直言。Tina Fan在驻京一家日本企业工作，身穿黑色短天鹅绒外套黑丝袜和高跟丝绸鞋。她说，她认为自己有“无限的潜力”，希望能在五年内开设自己的公司。她说，我想我能够自己处理生活中的所有问题。这些女性受到了不同时尚的影响，其中有些很老成，有些则更为青春。会计师Grace Ding带着能够说明她的时尚感的照片──Burberry手袋香奈儿鞋和Bathing Ape饰品。这些女性每天都有大量时间呆在网上。Tina Fan估计她每天上网大概有12小时。她说，网站是她“信息和灵感的主要来源”。她说，她很可能与办公室同事通过即时通讯而非面对面进行沟通。来自云南省的导游Bessie Wu说，她喜欢炫耀，让一头长发倾泻下来，随风飘舞。她说自己的思想自由，希望有一天能到国外生活。她还说，我不会在意穿着暴露的衣服。如果有人说我很性感，我认为这是一种恭维。参加这一活动的管理人员大多是岁数较大的男性，其中一些人拿着自认为能够吸引这些女性的杂志中的图片。蒂芙尼(Tiffany)的钻石广告和古驰(Gucci)手表的照片赢得了首肯。一套飘逸的紫绿色外衣的照片则引来了一致的反应：“太老气了”。在购物过程中，她们对超短裤和阿迪达斯(Adidas)一款金色金属片装饰的夹克衫表现出了特殊的兴趣。但她们对French Connection UK商店中的一幅大照片并不欣赏，这张照片中一男一女臀部贴在一起，正准备接吻。其中一人说，这并不好看。福特得出的一些研究结果相当具体：中国消费者比欧洲消费者需要更多的选配项。福特亚洲区的营销，销售和服务副总裁托马斯·布鲁尔(Thomas Brewer)说，这是实现车辆个性化的一种方式。在中国，福特对嘉年华将提供四种颜色的组合，而在欧洲只有两种。布鲁尔说，与这些年轻女性的活动也为参加活动的福特高管建立了个人标准。他说，这有助于让他们在营销活动取得进展的情况下将重心放在决策上。他说，这有助于我们找出重点，并做出一些本未考虑的艰难的决定，尽力向更大胆性感的方向发展。他说，让管理人员感到不舒服的一些东西在这些女性看来却非常自然。这些东西没有像在其它市场那样令消费者畏惧。Gordon Fairclough相关阅读吉利汽车称未与福特商谈收购沃尔沃 2009-02-05美国1月份汽车销量再度大幅下滑 2009-02-04中国汽车公司或竞购沃尔沃 2009-01-29 本文涉及股票或公司document.write (truthmeter('2009年02月10日15:37', 'F'));福特汽车公司英文名称：Ford Motor Co.总部地点：美国上市地点：纽约证交所股票代码：F


MARKETING executives at Ford Motor Co. call her 'Mei,' and she is critical to the success of the U.S. auto maker's strategy in China.To Ford, Mei, which means 'beautiful' in Chinese, represents the twenty-something, college-educated single urban females who form the bull's eye in Ford's target market here for its Fiesta model. The compact hatchback is Ford's first in a planned series of cars that the company has designed to sell, with minor variations, in markets around the world.Connecting with Mei, who earns $880 to $1,500 a month and wants her first car, and persuading her to buy a Fiesta, have become increasingly important missions for Ford, as the company tries to offset sagging sales in North America with growth overseas. By unit sales, China is the world's second-largest vehicle market after the U.S., and Ford has struggled here recently.While overall passenger-vehicle sales in China rose nearly 7% last year, sales of Ford brand cars fell 10%, according to J.D. Power & Associates. A Ford spokeswoman said the company's sales decline was somewhat less.Ford says it plans to roll out an ad campaign for the Fiesta next month that will be aimed at Mei and her peers. It will largely bypass television and newspapers to catch them where they spend much of their time: online and reading lifestyle magazines.'The major communications tool will be the Internet,' says Nigel Harris, vice president of marketing and sales for Ford in China. A big focus, he says, will be social-networking sites popular with young Chinese adults. The campaign will also use cellphone text messages.The content of the ads, Mr. Harris says, will be 'young, bold and sexy,' aiming to be edgy 'without offending.' The idea is to attract a generation of confident, independent and optimistic women. Ads will feature attractive men and women, bright colors and hip music. A separate set of ads, focused on the Fiesta's safety features, will be aimed at Mei's parents, who would likely be involved in her car purchase, Mr. Harris says.Ford, which is working with ad agency JWT, a unit of London ad-holding company WPP, to put the final touches on the campaign, declined to be more specific about the content.But Ford executives say the research they did --  especially an 'immersion event,' in which senior executives spent an afternoon with a group of women representing Mei -- encouraged them to be more daring in the ads than they might have been otherwise.Another important conclusion: that the idea of a global car model will work. That was important for Ford's global strategy, which is built on the idea of selling car models world-wide in an effort to save on development costs and reap economies of scale in manufacturing.The Chinese market still holds many mysteries for auto makers. Many Chinese buyers are purchasing their first car, and lack the knowledge necessary to choose based on performance and technical specifications. Most have yet to develop loyalty to any one brand.Ford's immersion event was designed to put senior Ford and JWT executives in direct contact with their desired customers. They spent an afternoon with 15 twenty-something women in Beijing, watching them shop and looking for clues about their lives, attitudes and aspirations.The women in the group were style-conscious and outspoken. Tina Fan, who works for a Japanese conglomerate in Beijing, wore a cropped black velvet jacket, black stockings and high-heeled silk shoes. She said she believes she has 'unlimited potential,' and hopes to be running her own business in five years. 'I think I can handle all the issues in my life by myself,' she says.The women pointed to a mix of fashion influences, some very adult, others more adolescent. Grace Ding, an accountant, brought along pictures that she said illustrated her fashion sense -- images of a Bur-berry handbag, Chanel shoes and Bathing Ape accessories.All the women spoke of spending copious time on the Internet. Ms. Fan estimated that she's online 12 hours a day and says that Web sites are her 'main source of information and inspiration.' She says she is more likely to communicate with office mates through instant messenger than face-to-face.Bessie Wu, a travel agent from Yunnan in southwestern China, says, 'I like to show off, to really let my hair down and dance.' Ms. Wu, who says she is a free spirit who would one day like to live abroad, added: 'I don't have a problem wearing revealing outfits. If someone says I'm sexy, I think it's a compliment.'Some of the executives who participated in the event, mostly older men, held up images from magazines that they thought would appeal to the women. A Tiffany ad for diamonds and a photo of Gucci watches won approval. A picture of a slinky purple-and-turquoise dress elicited a unanimous response: 'Too old looking.'During the shopping trip, the women showed special interest in short shorts and an Adidas jacket with gold lame trim. But they took a dim view of a large photograph in a French Connection UK store that showed a man and a woman, hips pressed together and almost kissing. 'That doesn't look good,' one said.Some conclusions from Ford's research were quite specific: Chinese consumers want more options than their European counterparts. 'It's a way to personalize the vehicle,' says Thomas Brewer, Ford's Asia regional vice president for marketing, sales and service. In China, Ford will offer four color combinations on the Fiesta, compared with two in Europe.Mr. Brewer says the session with the young women established a personal touchstone for the Ford executives who participated, which he says helped keep them focused in their decision-making as work on the marketing campaign has progressed. 'It's helped us zero in and make some tough decisions we might not have made otherwise' to push the envelope toward a more brash and sexy approach, he says. Some material the executives felt uncomfortable with 'was very natural' for the women, he says. 'It doesn't scare them as it might some people in other markets.'Gordon Fairclough