Built Ford Tough: How the F-150 Brand Continues to Stand the Test of Time

Ford Motor Company, one of the most iconic American brands and a long standing leader of the automotive industry, knows it’s more than just luck that’s kept them as a major player influencing motorized vehicles for over a century. Not only is this true for legendary cars, such as the Ford Mustang, but also for the Ford Truck, especially the F-150 Series.

The Ford F-150 Pickup Truck, known for its bold design, fuel economy, power, towing capability and safety has been the best-selling truck in America for 36 consecutive years. As certified by Polk, the F-150 brand has the most trucks on the road with more than 250,000 miles, a true testament to its quality and longevity.

MN AMA Blog Manager, Sarah Warzecha, recently sat down with Eric Peterson, Ford's F-150 Marketing Manager, to discuss the success of the F-150 and how its brand strategy has evolved over time to stay true to the needs of its loyal customer base. Below is an excerpt of the recent interview: 

Q:  Let’s start by talking about the F-150 customers. Can you tell me what role the consumer has in shaping your brand and marketing strategy?

A: Everything. The F-150 truck, brand and marketing strategy starts with our customer in mind and 100% reflects what our customer stand for. Our main goal is to be cognizant of our consumer in developing our marketing plan. Whether it be the types of media they consume, where they will see it or ensure the messaging is appropriate to the particular product or time frame.

Q: You obviously have spent quite a bit of time and resources ensuring you understand your customer and what they value. How do you obtain this information?

A: We talk to our customers as much as possible via websites, social media and blogs. In addition, tradeshow, auto shows and other sponsorship events give us a chance to interact with them one-on-one. We engage in an ongoing conversation with them that allows us to gather valuable information such as the important attributes and what doesn’t work for them. Being able to utilize constant feedback from a variety of sources and understanding the most important attributes allows us to develop our goals and messaging specific to our audience.

Q: How have you maintained the brand for the F-150 throughout the years?

A: We stay focused on the customer, leadership of the brand, our target market and what they want. We know that everyone is trying to get the most out of their time, work and day. We want to help them by providing fuel economy and payload capacity, while keeping it comfortable and quiet.  To keep the brand in a position of leadership, we take the customer feedback and utilize it to continuously loop the product to the customer and the customer to the product. Our engineering and design teams digest all this information, put it to work and develop the best product on the market.

Q: Can you talk a little bit more about how the engineering team works with marketing?

A. Engineering relies on marketing to provide the insight of the customer to make the best product. They are the ones that make it smarter, faster and more efficient but they can’t do it without the data from marketing. Not only is it customer insight, but, it’s also market analytics and industry trends. It all plays a role in how we continuously improve our products.

Q: What changes have you made to your brand strategy over the years?

A: The basic strategy has always stayed intact. The tactics of the strategy have evolved as you always want to make sure you are relevant at the right time. The core strategy has always stayed consumer centric but dialed the tactics to best reach where our audience is – the farm, construction site, hauling a boat to the lake – and what they are watching and/or listening to in the media.  As with everyone else, we have increased our digital presence.   Customer events have evolved with our customer wants. Our approach has changed from a tone and style but we are still celebrating the truck.

Q: How has social media and digital marketing impacted your marketing strategy?

A: Truck customers are online just like everyone else. They might not be in the same places at the general market, but, they are definitely online and engaging with others that share the same passions and interests. They are extremely knowledgeable about trucks and take the time to gather information and research their options. They know what features are most important to them and will make trade-offs to make sure their needs are met. 

What we have found by engaging with our customers via social media is that, if someone is buying a truck, it’s because they need a truck. Right now, fuel economy is what is most talked about in the auto industry. Everyone is worried about the miles-per-gallon that they’ll get with their vehicle. However, when someone is in the market to buy a truck, they tend to start with the other factors that are most important to them. If they were strictly worried about fuel economy, they would get a different type of vehicle. Regardless if they need it to haul equipment or the boat to the lake, they need it to be reliable, durable and capable of hauling. Once you determine what those must-have features are, then you look at fuel economy. So, if we can deliver fuel economy without sacrificing the other qualities of the truck, then we have a win-win for our customers.

Q: Have you learned anything valuable from social media that has altered how you approach marketing the F-150 Truck?

A:  We listen and monitor social media constantly. Social media has made it necessary to respond quicker to topics and trends. We have always been a very customer-centric product and social media has allowed us to go even deeper. We can listen to them and respond to their requests. We are able to get a pulse instantly rather than having to wait on postal mail, paper surveys, etc. By processing these conversations quickly, we are able to relay the message on to the engineering teams to make sure we have the right product on the market.

Q: What lies ahead for the F-150 and its marketing?

A: We just launched a new crew cab priced in the low 30 thousand dollar price range in response to our customers and their need of a truck in that specific price range. We continually bring new things to the market because our customers never sit still. We can’t sit still. If we did we would be risking our market leadership by not staying relevant to our customer.