fiesta roll

When Ford Motor Company prepared the 2010 North American roll-out of the Fiesta, its initial marketing push was solely through social media. Ford supplied 100 people with a Fiesta to drive for six months. They were the right 100 people. They were digital influencers (bloggers, podcasters, YouTube celebrities, and automotive journalists) who produced tweets, videos, podcasts, posts, and articles relating to the Fiesta.

Fiesta interior

A single Web page was made aggregating all this data where folks could watch the test drive unfold in real time. Ford did not edit, script or delete any of the information. The YouTube videos got 7 million views. There were 40 million tweets that contained the campaign's name ("Fiesta Movement"). 130,000 people registered online to receive more information when the Fiesta went to dealers. 83 percent of those people had not owned a Ford. U.S. brand awareness went from practically zero to 58 percent! Talk about "buzz" creation.

All that "buzz" wasn't mere chatter. Ford converted 10 times more pre-launch purchase reservations into actual orders than it did for previous model rollouts. People got to witness people enjoying the benefits of the Fiesta.

I know this event is not new. I decided to create a post on it since "consumer-driven" brand information is so popular these days. In this case, the 100 people were practically responsible for creating the Fiesta brand. Certainly an excellent example to talk about when thinking of brand engagement.

Information for this post came from the January/February 2011 edition of CFO magazine.
CFO.com

google+: about circles and more

Scott Buehler wrote a great piece on Google+. There is much to Google+ and getting around on it does take some time and effort. Scott's guide is highly useful particularly when it comes to communities and circles.
This video is very helpful.

7 tips for presentation

Here is a good post from careerealism.com that gives pointers on the presentation.
7 tips to success:

1. Positive first impression
2. Legitimate info
3. Connect with life experience
4. Interact
5. Visualize
6. Have a back-up plan
7. Reward your audience

Here's 7 Tips For A Successful Presentation http://t.co/1HVzv90kHY #branding

— Mike Bertelsen (@mikebertelsen) May 24, 2014

performance brand sales

Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has stated that the Dodge needs to have SRT because Dodge is a performance brand. SRT has been folded into Dodge, but the new Viper will have the SRT badge.

Viper is technically and legally a Dodge due to ID numbers. SRT became a brand in 2011. Did you notice?

Just because Chrysler put the SRT brand onto the Viper, sales should have took off. But they didn't. In 2013 Viper sales were not stellar. Only 591 were sold that year! Granted, the Viper isn't for the general car buying public, but when put it into the performance car mix, Viper didn't rise to the top. Putting the SRT badge onto the Viper didn't drive sales. Sales through April 2014 was 255. Dealers were charges $25,000 to sell the Viper.

Performance brand, performance fee. What about performance sales?

Let's go back to my question. Did you notice that SRT became a brand in 2011? Frankly, I didn't. Perhaps a brand extension, but its own brand, no. Why? Well, no advertising foundation, except through the dealerships. An internal brand then. Is this satisfactory? I think not.

The Viper aside, Dodge has put the SRT badge onto the Charger and the Challenger. I see these two car models as brands themselves! That's just me. If the SRT badge is a brand, could Chrysler recreate it as an umbrella with the Charger and Challenger underneath it?

Should dealerships exhibit new signage? Should a new ad campaign for SRT be launched? These are questions only Chrysler can answer. I say yes, if they want to create new brand awareness.

Does your business have a performance brand or do you wish to create one? If you wish to create one, allow for promotion of that brand. When you do promote, have products in mind that will have the badge. These products need to speak for themselves. That's where visual content marketing comes in. 

An Automotive News post was a source for this story.

jeep's u.s. sales increased

Chrysler announced today that Jeep sales set a monthly record at 59,754 units. For six months in-a-row sales have now advanced by 30 percent or more. Impressive. Automotive News post via theneeds.com

Chrysler projects the April SAAR to come in at 16.3 million, including medium and heavy-duty trucks.

The increase in sales had to be helped by the Jeep Super Bowl commercial featuring Oprah Winfry. The Jeep Cherokee was redesigned.