Customers

Our customers' wants and needs continue to evolve. We monitor consumer trends and develop and promote products to fit particular market segments. In recent years, we have paid particular attention to the growing demand for more fuel-efficient and cleaner vehicles. In this section we discuss consumer trends and the development of strong brands; further discussion of our products can be found in the Economy section.

Tracking Consumer Trends

Ford monitors market trends in two key ways. First, we have an internal global trends and futuring network made up of people across the Company who have their finger on the pulse of consumer interests and social and political trends. This group manages a database of future trends they believe will affect the Company and our consumers.

In addition to this internal network, we engage in extensive scenario-planning exercises with internal and external thought leaders to understand where the world is heading and what it will mean for consumers' choices about vehicles and mobility. We include thought leaders from outside the auto industry as well as industry experts, to make sure we get a broad and comprehensive vision of possible future trends. We have used these exercises to develop several scenarios for how the world may look in the future and how this will impact our consumers and our industry. We are using these scenarios and trends throughout our marketing, product development, research and design organizations to guide future product and technology developments.

Trends we are watching include the following:

• An increasing demand for mobility in the developing world: As developing countries gain economic momentum, their citizens are seeking levels of personal mobility long enjoyed by people in the developed world. This increase in personal mobility poses both opportunities and challenges. Studies show that most of the future growth in the automotive sector will be in developing countries. Therefore, these markets represent a significant business opportunity for Ford. At the same time, however, there are significant economic and cultural differences between our North American and European customer base and our customers in developing markets. We are developing new products, services and business models to effectively and profitably meet the mobility needs of developing market consumers. Also, if developing countries adopt the same approaches to personal mobility as developed countries have, it will further strain environmental and social systems. We are working to deepen our understanding of all of these challenges and opportunities and to develop sustainable mobility solutions for all of our global customers. (See the Mobility section for more.)
• An increasing interest in environmental and social issues, and an increasing desire to purchase products that have positive environmental and social impacts. We call this trend "ethical consumerism," and our preliminary research shows that it is on the rise globally. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, people are becoming more aware of how their actions affect one another. While people are generally not willing to compromise on performance or affordability, they want products that come from ethical companies and have positive environmental and social impacts. One example of this trend is the rise in popularity of fair-trade-certified, organic-certified and other products that can claim to have positive social, environmental and health impacts. The evidence of this trend provides strong motivation and justification for us to continue developing and implementing more sustainable products and services.
• An increasing demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles and cleaner technologies and fuels: Fuel prices have risen sharply and become more volatile. The public is increasingly concerned about the linked issues of global climate change, energy security and fuel economy. As a result, consumers are demanding more fuel-efficient vehicles, cleaner vehicle technologies and cleaner-burning, domestically available fuels. In addition, consumers are including ethical considerations in their purchase decisions. Ford is responding to these trends by developing and introducing products that are more fuel efficient and environmentally and socially beneficial, without sacrificing performance, style or affordability. We are also developing and implementing new vehicle technologies and fuel options, including hybrid vehicles and ethanol-ready Flexifuel vehicles. And we are developing new ways to communicate with consumers about their environmental and social concerns and our responses to those concerns.
• Increasing competition and speed of innovation: The automotive market is becoming increasingly competitive, with new and existing competitors introducing new products and innovations faster than ever. Ford is responding by realigning all of our capabilities to deliver customer-focused innovations in design, safety and sustainability. We are also continuously improving our product development and quality systems to deliver ever-better products, faster.

Developing Target Customers and Brand Meanings

Our marketing experts use an intensive research and analysis process to understand who our potential customers are, what they value and what they want in a vehicle. Using the information they have gathered, they have defined a "brand DNA" and "target customer" for each of our main brands. These overall brand DNAs and target customers are used to develop all of our new products. Ultimately, each individual product is also assigned its own specific DNA and target customer. The brand DNA and target customer profiles go beyond simple demographic information such as age, gender and income; we build complete profiles of each target customer, including what they like to do, what music they listen to and where they shop. This approach gives us a focus on exactly what we're trying to accomplish with each vehicle. We know who the customer is, we know what emotional and functional elements we want in the vehicle, and the entire vehicle team works together to develop a vehicle that our target customers will want.