You'll have to wait until July 26 to see a complete pic of the 2011 Ford Explorer.
When Ford launches its all-new 2011 Explorer sport-utility vehicle, next week, it will stage a splashy unveiling in New York’s Herald Square and back it up with an aggressive marketing mix using social media and mainstream television.
But unlike the automaker’s traditional vehicle launches, Ford won’t be relying on the auto show circuit to give the totally-redesigned Explorer a boost, says the automaker’s global marketing chief, Jim Farley, and that could be the approach Ford takes with future products if the unusual roll-out of the new SUV proves effective.
“We will use social media to start a dialogue about the company,” and the new Explorer, said Farley, during a background briefing on the 2011 model. Ford is estimating it will reach as many as 50 million American consumers with its marketing message on just the first day of Explorer’s launch, he added, “which would make it a bigger event than (possible at) the auto show.”
The alternative approach for Explorer’s launch is modeled after what Ford sees as the successful introduction of the all-new Fiesta. The maker set the stage for the new subcompact with its viral marketing campaign, dubbed the Fiesta Movement, then followed with a more mainstream advertising program. Even there, Ford relied on an unusually creative approach, with ads that offered jugglers, parachutists and clowns, rather than the conventional image of a new car speeding down a quiet country road.
Ford ultimately did bring Fiesta to the Chicago Auto Show for a somewhat traditional “reveal,” and the 2011 Explorer will likewise wind up on the auto show circuit, starting with the Los Angeles International Auto Show, in November. But by then, Ford hopes, the new ute should be well-established in the consumer’s mind.
Taking a different approach to the 2011 Explorer’s debut should come as no surprise. The vehicle itself marks a distinct shift for Ford. Over nearly two decades, earlier versions of the vehicle were based on a traditional truck-based body-on-frame platform. The next-generation model will shift to a car-based crossover chassis, though Farley stressed that this won’t be the centerpiece of the Ford marketing campaign.
Indeed, the automaker will try to strike a balance, continuing to refer to the 2011 Ford Explorer as an SUV when it comes to its off-road capabilities. But it will also make much of the new vehicle’s improved ride and handling and, in particular, its fuel economy, which it says will be at least 30% better than the outgoing Explorer model.
“My job is to myth-bust,” said Farley, referring to the perception of SUVs as gas-guzzling vehicles that are great off-road but not much fun to drive around town. One key goal is to “re-engage with people who lost the dream of the (SUV) category.”
That approach is also in sharp contrast with the current direction of automotive marketing. Automakers “kind of convinced ourselves there are two different types of utility vehicles,” suggested Ford’s marketing czar. But while some customers note the difference between a CUV and an SUV, most don’t care about technical descriptions but focus on capabilities, with fuel economy rising on the list of factors influencing the purchase decision.
Perhaps, but trends certainly do favor CUVs, these days. Before the U.S. automotive market’s crash, demand had risen to nearly 3.5 million annually, while SUVs were dipping to 2 million, a reversal of the situation at the beginning of the last decade.
Explorer itself has had a serious reversal of fortune in recent years. At its peak, through the late 1990s, it logged sales of more than 400,000 a year. By 2009, volume was off more than 80%.
Farley and other Ford officials are pointedly declining to provide sales forecasts for the next-generation Explorer, though Mark Fields, Ford’s President of the Americas, suggested the maker anticipates a good reception for the 2011 re-make both in the U.S. and abroad. Explorer has been one of the maker’s strongest-selling U.S.-made exports and insiders say there is hope that the new crossover platform will give even more momentum in markets like the Mideast and Latin America.
One of the biggest challenges for Ford will be to ensure the quality of the 2011 Explorer right out of the box. Though the maker has been getting better at minimizing what industry officials euphemistically call “problems” during the first year after launch that remains a challenge. Significantly, said Farley, the 2011 Ford Explorer won’t go on sale until this coming winter, months after the conventional new product autumn debut.
That may mean it will not be available in time to be included in the next release of the J.D. Power Initial Quality Survey. By the time the 2012 IQS would be pulled together, Ford would have nearly a year of production under its belt for Explorer, likely insuring a better performance in the highly-influential study.