By JOHN HEINZL
Friday, February 7, 2003 – Print Edition, Page B9
Ford Focus. Ford Fiesta. Ford Freestyle. Ford Five Hundred.
The folks at Ford have developed a fetish for F-words. But marketing experts say using alliteration as a branding strategy is, frankly, far-fetched.
Aiming to reinforce the Ford name, the auto maker has adopted a policy of giving most new models monikers beginning with the letter F. The latest example: The newly redesigned Windstar minivan, which industry insiders expect will be rechristened as the Ford Freestar next week.
The F-names are coming fast and furious.
The Ford Freestyle -- a cross between a car and a sport-utility vehicle -- will hit the market next year. So will the Five Hundred sedan. In Europe, Ford recently launched the Fusion, a derivative of the Fiesta.
"It's part of a strategy to establish some consistency in brand names. . . that really ties back very well to a lot of the names that Ford used in the past that began with an F as well, such as Fairlane and [Galaxy] 500 and, more recently, Focus and Futura," explains Torrey Galida, vice-president of general marketing at Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. in Oakville.
Ford says F-words tested particularly well with focus groups. Such names do double-duty by bolstering the Ford brand, Mr. Galida says.
That's especially important today, when advertising budgets are tight and dozens of car brands are fighting for market share.
Launching a new model "can be a very difficult and time-consuming process, so putting a framework around it that makes sense and ties closely with your primary brand is something that we think will help us," he says.
Fuddle-duddle, marketing experts say. There's no evidence to suggest alliteration aids branding. It may even hurt, some say.
"There are rules of naming and those rules clearly say that you cannot have nine different names starting with the same letter" because it confuses customers, says corporate naming consultant Naseem Javed, president of ABC Namebank International in Brampton, Ont.
"There is a lot of childishness that goes on in the naming process. It's very dangerous and a very serious thing."
Alan Middleton, a professor of marketing at York University, agrees it's a misguided strategy. He wonders if consumers will even notice or care that most Ford vehicles start with the letter F. Even if they do, the effectiveness of Ford's marketing activities will still depend on the strength of campaigns for individual cars -- whether they start with F or not.
"I can see it now, the Ford Foal. It doesn't have quite the same power as the Ford Mustang. Are they seriously going to ruin powerful brand equity built up around the Mustang name just for the sake of neatness?"
Absolutely not, Mr. Galida says. There will be no Ford Foal and no Ford Funderbird, either. "We will continue with the brand names of vehicles that have a great deal of equity, so we would never dream of changing the name Mustang or Thunderbird," he says.
Ford is using a similar naming strategy with sport-utility vehicles, except with the letter E. The purpose is to remind consumers that the Ford Explorer, Excursion, Escape and Expedition all belong to the same family.
But why mess with the Windstar name, which has become entrenched in the consumer psyche since the vehicle was launched in 1994?
Sales of Ford's flagship minivan are sliding. Windstar sales in Canada and the United States skidded 15 per cent in 2002 from 2001. In the U.S. market last year, Honda's Odyssey surpassed the Windstar for the first time.
By renaming the Windstar, Ford is signalling to consumers that the vehicle is new and improved, Steve Lyons, president of the Ford Division, said at a recent National Automobile Dealers Association meeting in San Francisco.
Nobody at Ford will confirm the Freestar name, but the company says the new vehicle will have an upgraded engine and interior. It is expected to be launched simultaneously next week at auto shows in Toronto and Chicago.
A sister minivan, the equally alliterative Mercury Monterey, will be sold only in the United States. The Mercury brand has been discontinued in Canada.
In the end, whether a vehicle succeeds or fails has little to do with its name, Prof. Middleton says. Quality, reliability and customer service are more important. But by fixating on one letter, Ford may be boxing itself in, he adds.
"They're going to run out of Fs."
jheinzl@globeandmail.ca