What about Ford?

Ford's high-level shakeup in China continues. Following Ford China's announcement that the president of the national sales and service organization has been adjusted, a few days ago, the media said that Zhu Jiang, chief operating officer of Ford China's electric vehicle division and head of the Mustang Mach-E EV program, has left the company or joined Xiaomi Auto.

Previously, Ford China announced the establishment of the Ford brand passenger car division and China's commercial vehicle division, and made a series of personnel appointments. Specifically, Lyle Watters, Ford's current president of South America and International Markets, will become general manager of the Passenger Vehicle Division, and Wang, president of Jiangling Motors, will become general manager of China's Commercial Vehicle Division, both of whom will report to Ford China's president and chief executive officer.

Behind a series of dizzying personnel adjustments is Ford China's "above the cliff" self-redemption. Although a week ago, Ford announced financial data show that in the first quarter of this year, the company's overall revenue reached 36.2 billion U.S. dollars, net profit of 3.3 billion U.S. dollars, since 2011, the best first-quarter performance. But a clear-eyed person can see at a glance, its revenue and profits mainly rely on the North American market support. Ford earned $4.8 billion in EBITDA, only $454 million is the automotive business outside North America. And in North America in Ford's "two core" of the Chinese market, but also close to break-even, and Volkswagen and Toyota in China's performance is very different.

Some may ask, isn't Ford's China sales and growth in the first quarter of this year brilliant? Its joint venture Changan Ford, for example, sold 49,325 new cars, up 46.3 percent from a year earlier. However, that's really just scratching the surface. In the first quarter of last year, China's auto market was severely impacted by the new Crown Pneumonia outbreak. Changan Ford's high year-on-year growth was mainly due to a low sales base. The truly comparable figure is for April, but Changan Ford's sales for that month were only 15,363 units, down 24.93 percent year-on-year. Clearly, that's not an optimistic sales trend.

Ford has released its "Ford China 2.0" strategy, which puts forward the goals of "more Ford, more China" and "Changan Ford returning to a mainstream joint venture in three years. The goal. Some people are outspoken. According to the current situation, even if Changan Ford returns to the mainstream, it will be difficult for Ford to enter China.

Reflecting on Ford's poor performance in China, the main reason is that the product is not strong. On the one hand, Ford products in China is too slow to update. Statistics show that the average update time of Changan Ford's models is 5.4 years, accounting for 68% of the global vehicle age of more than 3 years models. 2013 before basically line the passenger car platform. Take the Changan Ford Fiesta for example. This car was launched in March 2009 in China. It was not until March 2013 that it underwent a mid-term replacement, and in November 2019 it was officially replaced. Obviously, with such a pace, it is difficult to keep up with the market rhythm.

It is important to know that today's Chinese auto market has undergone a radical change. It is no longer the time when joint venture brands have absolute dominance and consumers can be fooled by an old product. With the market shift from incremental to stock game, the rise of independence, the new forces of the leap, the intensification of competition, Chinese consumers are more and more "like new and hate the old". Even as strong as Volkswagen's Passat and Maiden, there is still a small change every year and a big change every two years. If Ford does not make progress, it is not difficult to predict that it will be abandoned by the Chinese market.

In fact, under the dual impetus of technology and the market, the best way to maintain the competitiveness of products and companies is to keep innovating and keep products attractive to the market. Previously, Korean car companies have been able to achieve rapid growth in China, in large part because in other joint venture brand models are still in the middle of the model change, Korean cars have begun to change the generation in advance. Therefore, shortening the product cycle has become the best illustration of "time is life". Especially in the "electrification, intelligent" wave of change, speed up the product iteration is urgent. Ford should not ignore this change.

In addition, Ford also lacks star products in China. Compared to the domestic mainstream car enterprises, whether it is to occupy most of the domestic market of the German system "North and South Volkswagen", or stable Japanese system "two fields and a production", as well as the rise of independent brands, there will be more than one monthly sales of more than 10,000 products. But combing through recent years, Ford models in China, whether it is the Renegade or Explorer, sales are mostly flat. Without a star model to drive and build momentum, it's self-evident that companies have a hard time increasing the number of products.

The problem is that in recent years, Ford products are in a quality crisis. Because of the Ford part of the model transmission into the water rust, this year by the CCTV "3.15" evening party exposure. Although Changan Ford has long discovered this defect, and has a solution, but did not take the initiative to recall. Some netizens complained that Changan Ford to do so, "not only great harm, but also very insulting. What reason is there for sales not to fall for a brand that has lost consumer trust?

Product marketing rollover has also become a sore point for Ford China. During the Spring Festival this year, Ford China released a poster titled "China's Year of the Horse 2021," which sparked skepticism in the community. Although Ford China later explained that it was to promote the Mustang electric car, but the public did not buy it. From a communication point of view, Ford China has shaken its own cleverness, trying to achieve the purpose of out-of-circle marketing, but ignoring that the basis of marketing is cultural identity. Imagine how a company that doesn't understand or respect the traditional culture of Chinese New Year can do a good job of localizing China.

More than 100 years ago, Ford first invented the assembly line mass production of automobiles, so that the automobile became a mass product and entered thousands of households. It not only changed industrial production methods, but also had a huge impact on modern society and culture, thus establishing Ford's unique position in history. However, today Ford lags far behind its competitors Volkswagen and Toyota. I wonder when the Ford of "Above the Cliff" will get lost?

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