Rediscovering our Adventurous Spirit

Peter Zillig, Ford director of Marketing, Europe

What comes to mind if I ask you to think about Ford?

We asked consumers the same question earlier this year, and among the leading responses were:

Quality. Innovative. Elegant. Reliable.

Music to our ears, right?

Well, not exactly. These are all great values, and ones we’re proud of, but to us they highlighted a disconnect between the passion we feel for our brand at Ford, and the more pragmatic lens through which consumers currently see us.

So, who are we, and what do we want our customers to think and feel when they see our logo, our products, our name?

The introduction of our first ground-up all electric vehicle, Mustang Mach-E, was a catalyst for this introspection.

It was the start of our electrification journey in Europe, a first “in the metal” illustration of how we would make electric iconic. It was a new focus, a new centre of gravity for our brand, and it made us realise that for too long we have tried to be too many different things to lots of different customers.

At our core, we have always felt we are another of the key words to come out of our consumer research: “American”.

That’s the mindset that underscores the values Ford embodies. American means we’re rebellious. It means we’re restless. It means we’re uncompromising.

It means we’re defined by an “Adventurous Spirit” … our new north star.

Adventurous Spirit is the ethos that will help drive our transformation in Europe, by helping us connect emotionally with consumers who say they know we’re American, but don’t feel we’re American.

You won’t see these words on any of our advertising, our brochures or any other materials. “Bring on Tomorrow” will continue as our optimistic, future-facing rallying cry to consumers.

Instead, Adventurous Spirit is the philosophy that will inform and add meaning to everything we do; reinforcing our identity as we reinvent the Ford product portfolio and customer experience in Europe.

Adventurous Spirit is meaningful because it is authentic. We’re not inventing something new. Instead, we’re channelling a strength that has helped define Ford for fast-approaching 120 years. We are tapping into something intangible, but real.

So real, in fact, that the concept had already begun organically informing our transformation even before we had focused in on it.

The Mustang Mach-E launch emitted a different energy, embracing the all-American spirit of our iconic Ford Mustang for the electric age, and for customers worldwide. It brought swagger to electrification. At the time we spoke about how Mustang stands for “freedom, progress, fast performance and a touch of rebellion”.

That is Adventurous Spirit in a nutshell, and it was the perfect sentiment to kick-start our journey towards achieving zero emissions for all vehicle sales in Europe by 2035. But the philosophy stretches beyond electrification.

Earlier this year we announced the restructuring of our business into three distinct business units: Ford Model e – focused on electric and connected vehicles; Ford Blue – developing our company’s iconic portfolio of ICE vehicles; and Ford Pro – focused on our commercial vehicle business.

Within those units we identified four authentic families of passenger vehicles, each delivering their own take on Adventurous Spirit for a unique group of customers.

“Wild Performance” embodies vehicles including our exhilarating Mustang family.

“Urban Escape” characterises statement-making models like our Puma crossover.

“Active Adventure” defines the spirit of our horizon-broadening SUVs such as Kuga, and our forthcoming new all-electric medium crossover.

“Ultimate outdoor” symbolises the toughness to tackle the harshest terrain in true path-forgers like Bronco and Ranger Raptor.

These families are made possible by our unique position in Europe; a truly global American brand and the best-established in the region. We’re able to tap into rich spirit, momentum and celebrated vehicles from around the world as we help our customers rediscover us, and find out something new about themselves along the way.

It's a journey that’s already underway in our test market, Germany. There, Adventurous Spirit is defining our product range; helping our customers transition more easily to electrification with value-adding experiences and richer social interactions; helping us become the partner for everyday mobility experiences that are electric and connected.

Our aim? When we ask consumers in future what they feel about Ford, we want them to respond with the notion of Adventurous Spirit, even if they don’t realise it. We want them to feel what we feel.

Adventurous Spirit is a philosophy 12 decades in the making. A manifestation of a new Ford; one that’s more Ford than ever before.

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