It was vintage Jim Farley. Atmospheric and emotional, yet
straight to the core. And reassuring, too, in that while we each individually
have taken possession of Mustang, here was someone at the highest reaches of
Ford showing the people in charge get it too. They’ve been listening – rather
carefully, it turns out – to the customer.
We have an
intuitive feel of where we’re taking Mustang for the loyal customer as well as
that broader appeal that’s available to us
Raj Nair, Group Vice President of Global Product
Development, and an even more mad-keen redline artist than Jim, expanded the
briefing by addressing the Mustang’s newly assigned global outlook. Raj is the
man tasked with hammering out the hardware that makes material Jim’s lofty
aspirations, and he also echoed the emphasis on listening carefully to what the
Mustang customer wanted.
“We are moving it on,” Raj said. “As we did the research of
how to move it on, one aspect that really hit was this universal appeal. Not
just in the U.S. but in the rest of the world…”
“Obviously, one of the bigger news (items) is that as we did
the work on the universal appeal of the Mustang, we saw this opportunity to
take this vehicle forward,” he added. “In many respects, the Mustang customer
was ready for this before we were. And now that we really are at a One Ford
execution of product development, a One Ford execution of marketing and sales
through Jim’s [Farley] leadership, we’re ready to take that step and broaden
the appeal of the Mustang.”
“But a key aspect of that is, and I get this question
internally and I imagine I’ll get it externally is, ‘Now that you’re taking it
global, did you have to change anything?’ Raj said. “And the resounding answer
is no. We know what Mustang is supposed to be. We have an intuitive feel of
where we’re taking Mustang for the loyal customer as well as that broader
appeal that’s available to us.”
And there it was, the no we had been praying for. The
negative that was a positive, a no to corporate hubris and a yes to populist
sensibilities. We started to relax.
We did the work on
the universal appeal of the Mustang
But first Steve Ling, Ford’s Car Marketing Manager, had his
say. He’s the voice of the customer inside in the Blue Oval, the person charged
with carrying out the market research Jim and Raj had cited. Steve gave the
most sophisticated interpretation of we Mustang owners, and more importantly,
Mustang intenders, yet.
“What is it that customers love about Mustang, and what is
it that they want to see in a next-generation car?” Steve asked. “...When we
looked at what our current Mustang covers – and sometimes we talk about those
customers as Mustang lovers – and what other people that we thought could be
enticed with this (car), those needs and wants were largely the same. And we’re
not just talking about a place like here in the U.S. - I’m talking about around
the world.”
“...People from all walks of life and all stages of life are
into Mustang. But what we found was the thread, the thread that really pulled
everyone together, was the emotions, the values. What is it they really value?
And what is the feeling that they want to have when they look at a car like
this and drive a car like this?” Steve continued. “So, let me jump to the
chase... first and foremost the word freedom kept coming up. And freedom
is one of those big, ambiguous words in some ways, and people have a little
different meaning, but it was basically to say, ‘Let me do what I want to do,’
and that was something that came true with everyone.”
People from all
walks of life and all stages of life are into Mustang
“Now, secondly, we found there were a lot of independent
people who like to think of themselves as independent, competent people, but
interestingly, they like to hang out with other people just like that. We found
a lot of people that were confident, they like to put their personal snap on
things, things that they own, things that they like to do,” he said.
“…Often-times they would tell us they define success by the experiences that
they have in life and not necessarily by what they own – outside of their
Mustang, by the way, but also what they get to do with it, who are the people
they get to meet, what are the things they get to do. And... that was the case
when we were talking to people in North America, people in Asia, Europe, down
in South America. It was unbelievable how common that was...”
“...How does it make them feel when they are driving the
car? Well, again, probably no big surprise where freedom came up, independence
[did too]. The fact that they felt independent when they get a chance to drive
it, right?” Steve added. “I must get 50 emails a day from various customers
coming back, but one of the reoccurring, common themes is something like, ‘I
had a really crummy day [then] I went down to the parking lot. I started my
Mustang, and it’s like it all went away. It was like an instant vacation.’ That
doesn’t happen with every car. That happens with Mustang.”
“Again, (it’s) similar around the world, putting on that
personal stamp, the fact that they could customize it is something the really
loved,” he said.
“Another thing that was really great was recognition by a
lot of people of what the team has been doing the last few years – always
pushing it, always moving on to greater capabilities. They really encouraged us
to stay on that trajectory,” and here Steve says the customers cited the ’08
Bullitt, the Boss 302, and the Shelbys.
So the people who
were knowledgeable about Mustang love what’s been going on (and) saw all these
dramatic changes
