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 are working to get this information to consumers in several ways. 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. Finally, we use 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 with 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 we can 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. In 2006, we spent $ 5.1 billion on advertising globally, up from $5.0 billion in 2005 and $4.6 billion in 2004. The following chart provides an overview of how we spend our product marketing dollars.
2006 Ford Motor Co. US Advertising Spending
| Spend |
% of Total |
| $31,200,000 |
1.80% |
| $1,192,485,728 |
68.71% |
| $511,743,803 |
29.49% |
| $1,735,429,531 |
100.00% |
| |
|
| $32,898,467 |
1.90% |
Source: Ad-Insights, April 19, 2007
* Tier 1 Spend
** Tier 2 Spend
Brands include Ford, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercury, Volvo
Media includes network TV, national cable TV, local TV (top 100 markets), national magazine, national newspaper, local newspaper (top 100 markets), radio (top 27 markets), outdoor, Internet (excluding sites that require zip codes)
Corporate and Hybrid spend does not include radio, outdoor or Internet
At the product level, we are working hard to increase consumer awareness of our great quality, safety innovations and environmentally friendly vehicle offerings. For example, we are continuing to increase consumer awareness of our hybrid vehicle offerings, including the Ford Escape Hybrid and Mercury Mariner Hybrid compact SUVs, and their sister product, the Mazda Tribute Hybrid, which will launch in 2007. The Escape and Mariner Hybrids are the most fuel-efficient SUVs on the planet. These hybrids provide a no-compromise vehicle option that allows people to maintain their environmental values and get great fuel economy without giving up functionality, roominess or performance.
The Ford Escape Hybrid is an important product for the Company. It is our first hybrid vehicle, and therefore represents a key element in our strategy for developing cleaner and more fuel-efficient vehicles. This vehicle has also played an important role in bringing new customers to Ford Motor Company products. Approximately 60 percent of all Escape and Mariner hybrid buyers are "conquest" buyers, people who previously owned other brands. We are constantly working to increase awareness about this superior product. Toward this end, we launched an advertising campaign featuring Kermit the Frog explaining that, with the Escape Hybrid, it actually is pretty easy to be green. We chose Kermit as a spokesperson for the Escape Hybrid because, like Ford, he is an American icon, he is family friendly and, most important, he is as green as our vehicle. Future advertising campaigns for the Escape Hybrid will feature some of the vehicle's other green attributes, including seat fabric made from 100 percent post-industrial material and the program we are using at Escape Hybrid plants to offset all carbon emissions created during the manufacturing process.
