Ford Falcon enthusiasts upset at marketing snub

[Sprintey]

Originally Posted by Harrison

I think a globally released, reasonably priced, mid-size, rear wheel drive V6 sedan, coupe, wagon (and possibly ute) platform, with an optional turbo or supercharged sports pack, is the only way to satisfy the majority of automotive enthusiasts and potentially make a profit in this day and age.

Vast, multinational companies like Ford and GM could do it easily and well, if they considered it a worthwhile investment.

That would be the Jag XE or a 3 Series when the dust settles.

Originally Posted by Hawkeye84

Lets look at it this way.
If it was YOUR millions of dollars, would you advertise the falcon? Would you put your house, mortgage, car etc, on the line to advertise the falcon, against all research that says the segment is dying (even the medium car market is slowing down).....

There's a product called Territory, it's sprung off the Falcon platform, it's still selling well - 2nd best to Ranger in the whole Ford range here at present. Why not develop this, after all, big seller in booming market?

Originally Posted by Hawkeye84

Thats the thing, ford isnt being complacent....they are spending heaps on segments other than the large car segment...they are investing in booming segments within the industry.

Apart from Ranger, they are going backwards despite the spending heaps on these other booming segments, while others surge ahead.

Originally Posted by prydey

have a look through any thread on this forum discussing Ford or its products, and the overwhelming vibe is negative toward Ford. you would think a Ford Forum would be full of 'fans' of the brand, but not this one.

i think the majority are 'falcon' fans, rather than 'ford' fans, and since the company started shifting its focus elsewhere about a decade ago, most couldn't care less about ford anymore, and just use every opportunity to have their little say...again and again.

It's more than that - it's about the very possession of a domestic car industry, and what this means to a nation. It's the ability to value-add in a nation. It's about providing genuine employment paths in meaningful, complex work for the next generation - I'm talking domestic based engineering in the majors and also the downstream industry, not just assembly jobs. We have all seen what happens when Western nations offshore their productive capacity and the McJobs and service industry that remain go nowhere near to replacing this complexity and capability. We have seen the bandaid attempts to engineer housing booms to replace this economic activity. It's about the tax take from value adding multiplying in local economies; and about the presence of employers like FOA providing overlap into other higher tech industries, and opportunities domestically. It's more than the Falcon, but the Falcon, Ute and Territory are a big part of it.

[NX74205]

Originally Posted by Grunter

http://www.news.com.au/finance/busin...-1227361918788

I think some people ought to head over to the 'Ford Falcon' Facebook page and see the way Ford has actually been celebrating the Falcon's heritage over the past few months, no doubt culminating in the FGX, and quit bitching on the 'Ford Australia' page. There's a lot more to Ford than Falcon, Ford is rightly using its main page to focus on its promotion on other lesser-known models.

Originally Posted by MAD

“The thing with the Falcon, is, everyone knows what the Falcon is, so we don’t have a lack of awareness of what the Falcon is,” he said.

I disagree with this.
I've spoken with heaps of people that thought Ford were finishing with the FG.

Yes, but would those people who thought that Ford were finishing with the FG have bought the FGX? It's all well and good to do TV advertising (some apparently missed the adverts on the internet, and almost always refer to television advertising when they talk about 'advertising'), but where is that advertising money going? Will there be a return in investment through a surge in sale numbers? The answer to that is 'probably not'. Falcon is no longer the everyday family car it used to be, it is now a niche product aimed at enthusiasts and, like it or not, enthusiasts are but a very small market.

In any event, if Ford are losing money over Australian manufacturing, then it stands to reason that the more they build, the more they lose regardless of how may they sell. What they're doing makes perfect business sense.

Originally Posted by OzJavelin

Spend 30 sec reminding the Facebook generation that the original XK Falcon was basically an import from the USA, but tuned to Australian conditions - show Redex trials, show the Mustang bred XR V8, show the 1-2 Bathurst win, show the huge marketshare the Falcon had, show it's final iteration the FGX .. And don't be scared to show the performance versions. Show that as the Falcon is retiring a new generation of imports will take its place and it will (hopefully) start all over again. Show the handing of the baton from the Falcon to "new Ford". Don't hide the Falcon away in shame .. Exploit it .. And they might even by accident sell a few more?

The Ford Falcon page on Facebook has been posting about past Falcons every week for the past few months starting from the XK, and now we're up to the EB, and the captions included:

In 1968, Ford Australia made motoring history when its team of three near standard XT Falcon GTs were all placed in the top 10 helping Ford win the coveted Teams Prize in the London - Sydney Marathon, the world's longest ever road event - a 17,000 km, 11 day motoring experience.

Released in March 1979, the XD Falcon went on to help Dick Johnson win both the Australian Touring Car Championship and the Bathurst 1000 in 1981. Where were you for these emphatic wins?

If that's not celebrating the Falcon's rich heritage, then what is?

Oh, and there's this post:

We understand we're a tad late in posting this, but wanted to offer a big congrats to the Pepsi Max crew for the outstanding results this weekend. A very big congrats to Chaz and Frosty from all of us at Ford.

Then there's a Falcon Fanatic day and the 'Guess Who' ads from Ford late last year showing the transition taking place at Ford.

As you rightly pointed out, this is the 'Facebook generation', and Ford have done their advertising where it makes the most sense - on Facebook. Who watches TV ads anymore? Seriously?

Originally Posted by Ford Falcon XR6

They deliberately killed off our local product I don't care how good the new mustang is ford can shove it i'd rather drive a holden then buy a non aussie ford. Shame on you ford.

... and when Holden leaves?

Originally Posted by Sprintey

It's more than that - it's about the very possession of a domestic car industry, and what this means to a nation. It's the ability to value-add in a nation. It's about providing genuine employment paths in meaningful, complex work for the next generation - I'm talking domestic based engineering in the majors and also the downstream industry, not just assembly jobs. We have all seen what happens when Western nations offshore their productive capacity and the McJobs and service industry that remain go nowhere near to replacing this complexity and capability. We have seen the bandaid attempts to engineer housing booms to replace this economic activity. It's about the tax take from value adding multiplying in local economies; and about the presence of employers like FOA providing overlap into other higher tech industries, and opportunities domestically. It's more than the Falcon, but the Falcon, Ute and Territory are a big part of it.

Ford are not leaving Australia, neither are they ceasing to conduct business in Australia nor ceasing to be an Australian employer. Ford are keeping 1100 people employed at their R&D facility, which is Ford's Asia-Pacific region design headquarters. It seems to me that some people who harp on about Ford ceasing manufacturing here conveniently forget this fact. Once local manufacturing ceases, Ford will still be the biggest automotive industry employer in Australia.

Ford Australia designed the Ranger and the Everest, and also played a significant role in the development of the Chinese market Taurus and Escort. They remain an important part of Ford's global empire, and given our engineering expertise and experience, demonstrated competently by having a locally developed Falcon and Territory, I can't see that changing anytime soon.

[EB#]

It seems obvious to me that Ford have not advertised the Falcon as doing so would not have any real impact on sales. The decline started long ago and these current Falcon sales figures were pretty well unavoidable. As far as Ford are concerned, every FGX rolling down the line is losing money, so why advertise it and lose even more money? It may seem a bit of a shame for the swan song model of an Australian icon, but profit (or limiting loss) beats sentimentality in this day and age.

In regards to the XR8, the so called Falcon Fanatics campaign is not responsible for the sales figures in my opinion. The XR8 sales portray what is left of the enthusiast, blue blood Falcon marketplace and this sector would snap up a final V8 Falcon, advertising or not.

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by EB#

It seems obvious to me that Ford have not advertised the Falcon .

The thing is, they have been advertising the Falcon, just not on TV.

How many people actually watch TV adds today? I personally PVR programmes and fast forward through the adds.

To be honest, the FG-X probably shouldn't have been put into production. But they DID! and have provided a final send off for the Falcon faithful. They threw a launch event for it, inviting Falcon fans to participate in the filming of a online add. They have since aired that across the internet via many hosts, including their own website and on CarAdvice. There has also been radio adds. So apart from not spending millions and million on a TV campaign that was not going to deliver much in the way of sales, WHAT ELSE ARE FORD EXPECTED TO DO? Falcon enthusiasts should be great full FG-X even went ahead and GO OUT AND BUY ONE!