Building Customer Awareness

One important goal of our marketing and communications activities is to increase consumers' knowledge of our products and our corporate performance. We are particularly focused on improving consumers' awareness of the Company's excellent quality, safety, environmental and social performance. We use a range of communication methods to share information about Ford with potential customers and to get feedback from drivers. This sustainability report is one key element of our strategy. We also engage in two-way communications with consumers and other stakeholders through a variety of stakeholder engagement forums.

These communication efforts – coupled with delivering products with world-class quality, fuel economy, technology and other features – are paying off. We saw increases in favorable opinions and purchase consideration of our products across the United States, Brazil, United Kingdom and China.

We track consumers' familiarity with, opinions and consideration of, and shopping and purchase intentions for our vehicles as part of our brand value and awareness tracking. Tracking these elements helps us to understand how consumers view our vehicles and where we need to focus our product development and communications efforts to improve consumers' perceptions of and interest in our vehicles.

Social Media

In 2008, we launched an aggressive social media communications effort that uses web-based social networking channels – such as Facebook, YouTube and blogs – and fosters word-of-mouth marketing. These channels provide an increasingly important means for communicating with consumers, especially the so-called "millennial generation" – those born from the late 1970s through the late 1990s. Opportunities for discussions and information monitoring on the Internet are countless. So, in addition to the institutionalized efforts in our Communications and Marketing divisions, we are empowering some of our employees to communicate about Ford on the web by making our Online Communications Guidelines more widely available and giving employees the information they need to communicate successfully in these arenas. We think that allowing employees to have open and real communications within their digital communities sends a clear message that Ford is committed to forging relationships online and being accessible to its audiences.

We are also actively using Twitter to engage with consumers on all matters. And, we are making it easier for visitors to our Ford Web sites to find third-party content about Ford online, particularly with the ever-evolving "Ford Story" site. We hope that integrating third-party information into our sites will provide a valuable service to consumers and will show our confidence in the vehicles we're producing.

Through these and other methods, we are seeking to stimulate user discussions about our products. In 2009, for example, we started a program called the "Fiesta Movement" to support the launch of the Ford Fiesta in the United States in 2010. Through this program, Ford selected over 100 online "influencers" to drive a Fiesta for six months and then relate their experiences through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. By delivering Fiestas to specially selected consumers, we gave them a unique experience that they could share with their communities, and we gave our engineering and design teams an opportunity to learn more about consumer wants and needs in the rapidly growing small car segment. We received a wealth of real-time feedback early on in the new vehicle program, and we were praised by industry and marketing experts for our unique approach to raising awareness about the Fiesta – via unfiltered information from real drivers.

Other Non-Traditional Marketing

We use a range of other non-traditional marketing and communications efforts to increase awareness of our products and engage consumers and stakeholders. Through our "Drive One" campaign, for example, we offer a range of opportunities for people to experience our vehicles first-hand. The goal of Drive One is to encourage people who might not otherwise be considering a Ford product to see for themselves what we offer. Drive One is based on our belief that, when people drive our vehicles, they will have more positive opinions of our products and will be more likely to buy them. The campaign highlights Ford's four key areas of focus: safety, quality, green technologies and smart technologies.

One of our Drive One efforts is the "Drive One 4 UR School" campaign. Through this program, people can test-drive a Ford Flex, Focus or other new Ford vehicle and help raise money for their local school. For each test-drive taken at the one-day events, Ford donates $20 (up to a total of $6,000 per event) to fund activities or special projects at the designated school. We launched this program with high schools in 2007, and as of March 2010 more than 1,200 Drive One 4 UR School events had taken place in the United States, raising more than $2,500,000 to support local schools. These events enabled more than 160,000 participants to test-drive Ford products. The events have proven especially helpful for getting non-Ford owners into Ford vehicles, as approximately 70 percent of participants do not currently own a Ford product. Feedback from participants shows that both purchase consideration and opinion of the Ford brand improved after individuals had a chance to get behind the wheel and experience the vehicles first-hand.

We are also working to improve the effectiveness of our auto show appearances. Approximately 24 million people attend auto shows in the United States alone, so these are important opportunities to share information with potential customers. At all of the major auto shows we used a wide range of interactive exhibits that have helped us better engage visitors. The exhibits, which highlighted our Drive One strategy, focus on fuel economy, quality, safety and smart technologies. For example, the displays included a hands-on experience with the Fusion Hybrid's SmartGauge™ with EcoGuide technology, as well as interactive touch tables illustrating the environmental benefits of both soy-based seat cushions and EcoBoost™, our new fuel-efficient engine technology.

Traditional Advertising

Finally, we use traditional advertising to inform consumers about our products and our corporate performance. We use three primary advertising strategies: corporate-level communications about Ford Motor Company, advertising about our brands and specific products, and dealer-level product advertising. The goal of these advertising strategies is to sell vehicles. But just as important, we are aiming to increase general awareness about the excellence of our products and our corporate performance among people who are not yet in the market for a vehicle. To develop new products, we respond to market demands through our market research and product development efforts. Through our advertising, we hope to increase interest in and preference for our vehicles and our Company based on the excellence of our products and the positive actions of our Company.

As part of our ONE Ford transformation, we are working to improve the effectiveness of our advertising communications by involving dealers more closely in the development of our advertising strategies. Dealers communicate with our customers every day, and they have special knowledge about consumers' needs and wants. We included our dealers from the start in our Drive One campaign. In fact, prior to developing Drive One, we sought input from our entire Ford dealer body, and that feedback informed the campaign's development. Together we arrived at a campaign that works at the corporate, brand, product and dealer levels.

We are also improving alignment between our public relations efforts and our marketing efforts, to improve the effectiveness of all our communications. In 2010, a key focus of our communications will be improving customer awareness of our quality and fuel-economy achievements. For example, we launched a new ad series for the Ford Fiesta in which Fiesta Movement agents – or people who have been given a Fiesta to drive in advance of the product's launch in the United States so they can share their experiences through social media – describe how the Fiesta delivers best-in-class fuel economy and "smart" technology, including the voice-activated SYNC® multimedia communications system. We are also highlighting that we make the first consumer car that delivers over 300 hp and yet gets 31 mpg – the new Ford Mustang. And, we are emphasizing the introduction of the EcoBoost™ engine lineup, including the new I-4 and V6 engines, which can deliver 10 to 20 percent better fuel economy and up to 15 percent fewer CO₂ emissions than larger-displacement engines.

Increasing Consumer Awareness of Environmental Issues

Ford is also working to increase consumer awareness of key vehicle-related environmental issues, including how drivers can help to improve the environmental performance of their own vehicles.

For example, Ford's new, advanced in-vehicle system – MyFord Touch™ – offers an array of real-time information on fuel-economy performance that can coach drivers to get more miles to the gallon and save on fuel costs. In addition, the MyFord Touch map-based navigation system offers an Eco-Route option that quickly calculates the most fuel-efficient route a driver can take to get from point A to point B.

MyFord Touch also enables drivers to monitor and track their vehicle's real-time fuel economy performance and mile-per-gallon averages for the past five, 10 and 30 minutes in the form of a bar chart next to the fuel gauge on the display. Drivers can customize the amount of information provided to meet their needs and hone their eco-driving skills over time.

MyFord Touch is built on the fuel-efficiency "coaching" concept Ford pioneered on its SmartGauge™ with EcoGuide instrument cluster tool for the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid and Mercury Milan Hybrid. This tool will also be available on the all-new 2011 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid. The system provides real-time fuel economy data and promotes fuel-efficient driving by showing a graphic of growing leaves and flowers.

We are launching a similar system in Europe called EcoMode. Similar to EcoGuide, EcoMode helps educate the driver to achieve improved real-world fuel economy. It was first introduced on the new Ford Focus ECOnetic. The system will be implemented as an option in more European Ford models in the future.

We have also developed eco-driving tips that help drivers improve their fuel economy by almost 25 percent. We provide these tips on our Web site and through a Driving Skills for Life online training program. We started providing eco-driving training in 2000 in Europe and have since expanded it to the United States and Asia. For more information on our eco-driving training programs please see the Climate Change section.