15-11-2012, 03:25 PM
Ford
AIMS Institutes Of Management Studies.docx (Size: 83.1 KB / Downloads: 26)
History Of Ford
The Ford Motor Company was launched in a converted factory in 1903 with $28,000 in cash from twelve investors, most notably John and Horace Dodge (who would later found their own car company). Henry's first attempt under his name was the Henry Ford Company on November 3, 1901, which became the Cadillac Motor Company on August 22, 1902. During its early years, the company produced just a few cars a day at its factory on Mack Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. Groups of two or three men worked on each car from components made to order by other companies. Henry Ford was 40 years old when he founded the Ford Motor Company, which would go on to become one of the world's largest and most profitable companies, as well as being one to survive the Great Depression. As one of the largest family-controlled companies in the world, the Ford Motor Company has been in continuous family control for over 100 years.
The Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK. Ford's former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover were sold to Tata Motors of India in March 2008. In 2010 Ford sold Volvo to Geely Automobile
Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines. Henry Ford's methods came to be known around the world as Fordism by 1914.
Ford is currently the second largest automaker in the U.S. and the fourth-largest in the world based on number of vehicles sold annually, directly behind Volkswagen Group. In 2007, Ford fell from second to third in US annual vehicle sales for the first time in 56 years, behind only General Motors and Toyota. However, Ford occasionally outsells Toyota in shorter periods (most recently, during the summer months of 2009). By the end of 2009, Ford was the third largest automaker in Europe (behind Volkswagen and PSA Peugeot Citroën). Ford is the seventh-ranked overall American-based company in the 2008 Fortune 500 list, based on global revenues in 2008 of $146.3 billion. In 2008, Ford produced 5.532 million automobiles and employed about 213,000 employees at around 90 plants and facilities worldwide. During the automotive crisis, Ford's worldwide unit volume dropped to 4.817 million in 2009. Despite the adverse conditions, Ford ended 2009 with a net profit of $2.7 billion. Starting in 2007, Ford received more initial quality survey awards from J. D. Power and Associates than any other automaker. Five of Ford's vehicles ranked at the top of their categories[11] and fourteen vehicles ranked in the top three.
Brief note of Rival brands :-
“Toyota Motor Corporation” commonly known simply as Toyota and abbreviated as TMC, is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan. In 2009, Toyota Motor Corporation employed 71,116 people worldwide. TMC is the world's largest automobile maker by sales and production.
The company was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937 as a spinoff from his father's company Toyota Industries to create automobiles. Three years earlier, in 1934, while still a department of Toyota Industries, it created its first product, the Type A engine, and, in 1936, its first passenger car, the Toyota AA. Toyota Motor Corporation group companies are Toyota (including the Scion brand), Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino Motors, along with several "non-automotive" companies. TMC is part of the Toyota Group, one of the largest conglomerates in the world.
Brand equity and Brand Parity
Brand equity and Brand Parity refers to the marketing effects or outcomes that accrue to a product with its brand name compared with those that would accrue if the same product did not have the brand name. And, at the root of these marketing effects is consumers' knowledge. In other words, consumers' knowledge about a brand makes manufacturers/advertisers respond differently or adopt appropriately adept measures for the marketing of the brand. The study of brand equity is increasingly popular as some marketing researchers have concluded that brands are one of the most valuable assets that a company has. Brand equity is one of the factors which can increase the financial value of a brand to the brand owner, although not the only one. Elements that can be included in the valuation of brand equity include (but not limited to): changing market share, profit margins, consumer recognition of logos and other visual elements, brand language associations made by consumers, consumers' perceptions of quality and other relevant brand values.
Ford's Fruitful Brand Strategy:-
Ford chief executive Alan Mulally is famous for one of the first decisions he made after joining the automotive company in 2006. Barely three months into his tenure, Mulally borrowed big, using his company as collateral. At the time, the decision raised eyebrows, but it is now widely regarded as a masterstroke. The $26bn he raised, when financing was still cheap and available, has enabled Ford to avoid bankruptcy or the need to seek government handouts. It has also led to a growing recognition that, compared with ailing rivals Chrysler and General Motors, Ford is in much better financial shape for the long haul.
Mulally certainly deserves credit for his savvy financial decision-making, but it is his brand strategy that is at the heart of Ford's positive outlook. Ford is a salutary example of one of the hardest lessons of brand management - one that I continue to struggle to get through to MBAs and executives. It is not about creating brands any more, it's about culling them. While this is not a difficult lesson to explain, to accept that you should kill off some, perhaps most, of your brands to help your company grow is a counterintuitive step many marketers simply cannot contemplate.
SWOT ANALYSIS:-
Ford Motor Company (Ford) is one of the largest automotive manufacturers in the
world. The company's automotive vehicle brands include Aston Martin, Ford, Jaguar,
Land Rover, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercury and Volvo. The company manufactures and
distributes automobiles in 200 markets across six continents. The Ford Asia, Africa
and Ford Mazda operations recorded strong performance in fiscal 2005. Strong Ford
Asia, Africa and Ford Mazda could prove to be a significant revenue and profit driver
in the coming years. Intense competition from Japanese companies, however, could
lead to further deterioration in the North American operations of Ford.