Exclusive | Newly launched Ford Figo to focus on digital & mobile marketing strategies

The first Ford Figo was launched in India in March 2010. The company has incorporated about 100 changes in the new Figo.

 

All new cars of Ford Figo are available in 4 variants each for diesel and petrol – Titanium, EXI, LXI and ZXI. New Ford Figo car is compact and small and is predicted to draw good sales in the coming festive season. Improved features and competitive pricing are considered as the main factors for the new car to take major attention.

The company plans to employ both traditional as well as new marketing tools for new Figo. This was disclosed by Anurag Mehrotra, vice president, Marketing, Ford India while speaking to Adgully. He said, “besides traditional marketing, our big push will be on digital and mobile, we have placed our bets on mobile.” In mobile the company plans to do something which it calls Geo Fencing. “It means within a radius of specific kms of a dealership, an ad will be served to the customer. It is like fencing a particular geographical area,” adds Mehrotra.

 

The second thing that the company  plans to do is adopting a layer application of all prints ads, one will be able to see ads in 3 dimensional formats. The third according to Mehrotra is a virtual test drive whereby a mobile or a tablet user can test drive on his gadget anywhere in the world for example in Paris.

 

Says Mehrotra, “we are planning a major push on digital marketing and mobile in particular and our budget is 10-15 per cent this time as against 4-6 per cent.”

As for the creative and media jobs, Ford India has assigned the task to Global Team Ford, which “is an amalgamation of JWT and Mindshare.” Clients normally use different agencies from different locations. We have got all the agency partners in one location. All from different agencies, a team of about 100 will sit in one location and deliver an integrated campaign,” says Mehrotra. The company will use the global tam to deliver for all platforms – radio, TV, print, social media and digital marketing.

 

Dwelling further on specific markets that the company will focus on Mehrotra added,” the Tier I markets contribute 60 per cent of sales and media in those places are expensive but we will be focusing on the top 10 markets and there will be an indexation of budget for these markets.”

 

To support the growing number of Figos on Indian roads, Ford India has expanded its dealer network by 40 per cent -- mostly in tier-two and tier three cities over the last two years – expanding to 230 sales and service outlets in 123 cities across India. The company plans to raise the number to over 500 outlets by mid-decade. With an emphasis on lower cost of ownership, the company has introduced many service initiatives including mobile service vans and Roadside Assistance (RSA) across more locations.

 

“With the New Figo we have celebrated change by carefully listening to our customers and enhancing it with smart new features and improved looks. The New Figo will definitely add to Ford’s amazing growth story in India,” concluded Mehrotra.