INTRODUCTION:

Ford Motor Company was founded over 100 years ago by Henry Ford.
And now, this company has became one of the big three of automobile
industries in the US (BBC News, 2009). However, during global recession
most automobile industries in the world are faced with serious problems
that lead their worldwide volumes and market share to a remarkable
decrease and Ford Company did not avoid the crisis’ effect on their
operations. In 2008, this company reported that this lost $ 14, 6 billion –
the worst yearly report in their history (The New York Time, 2009).
Therefore, they are finding solution that could help the development of
an integrated marketing process for them to boost their sales in term of
crisis. The Vietnamese market and the new Mondeo are chosen to be
studied for several reasons below. Firstly, “Vietnamese new car market is
one of the fastest growing in ASEAN and total ASIA” (PRLog, 2008).
Secondly, Ford’s passenger car segmentation in Vietnam decreased in
recent years (VAMA report in 2008). Therefore, new Mondeo seems to be
used for recovering this segmentation.
TASK 1: PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE STAGE:
Firstly, the general information of Ford Motor Company is analysed to
understand why Ford’s current state is in decline state. According to
Kotler, decline state is “the period when sales show a downward drift and
profits erode” (Kotler, 2000, p.304). To determine the current stage of
Ford on the PLC, the first examination is split into three parts called
Characteristic, Marketing Objective, and Strategies.
Characteristics:
Table 1: Ford’s financial statement from 2002 to 2008
 Graph 1: Ford’s sales

Graph 2: Ford’s profit

Graph 3: Ford’s volume

According to Table 1 and graphs above, Ford had a difficult situation
when there was a dramatic decrease in their sales, volume and profit in
2008. Moreover, they also reported a record $14, 6 billion losses in 2008
(The New York times, 2009).
Marketing objectives:
According to the annual report, Ford’s financial health war not good, so
they have to reduce several unuseful cots and concentrate their potential
for their new products that “will be smaller, more fuel – efficient cars”.
Moreover, their advertising costs also decreased in 2008. Therefore, their
marketing objective is focused on their product that can bring the real
satisfaction for their customers (The New York times, 2009).
Strategies:
Table 2: Ford’s strategies

(Source: Annual report of Ford Company from 2003 to 2008)

In summary, according to characteristics, marketing objectives and
strategies, the sales and the profits of Ford declined, so Ford is in decline
position on the PLC (Table 2).
Boston Matrix:
According to annual report the market share for selected markets of Ford
decreased in 2008 in comparison with market share in last year, such as
9.7% (2008) compared with 10.7% (2007) in North America or 2% (2008)
compared with 2.3% (2007) in Asia and Africa. Moreover, their sales and
profits decreased in 2008 (Ford’s annual report 2008). Analysing the
Boston Matrix’s theory, Ford’ situation has main points that are the same
as these in Dogs type: “Dogs are business that have weak market shares
in low growth markets. They typically generate low profits and losses.”
(Kotler, 2000, p. 70).
TASK 2: TARGET MARKET:
Ford Company was founded over 10 years in Vietnam and Ford’s product
has sold in three segments: passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and
SUV/MPV. In the passenger car segment in Vietnam, Ford has had three
products: Focus, Mondeo 2.0 and Mondeo 2.5. In which Ford Mondeo is
mid – size sedan car. However, the volume sales of this product
decreased sharply from 2005 to 2008 (Table 3). Hence, in 08/2008, new
Ford Mondeo was chosen to introduce in Vietnam, as it is likely to inform
competitors and customers about Ford’s return in this mid – size sedan
car segmentation. Therefore, Ford have to target market for the new
Mondeo. To be fully understood what new Mondeo’s target market; the
market segmentation and target marketing are first defined.
According to Kotler (2000, p. 256), “Market segmentation is an effort to
increase a company’s precision marketing” and “target marketing is
leading to marketing programs being tailored to the needs and wants of
customers group” (Kotler, 2000, p.258). Besides that, the market can be
split up into two bases: firstly, this is bases for segmenting consumer
markets having four major segmentations: geographic, demographic,
psychographic, and behavioural (Kotler, 2000, p.279). Secondly, that is
bases for segmenting business markets having four types of markets:
producer, reseller, government, and institutional (Ferrell & Hartline,
2005, p.148). Moreover, according to the worldwide strategies from
Ford’s headquarter, the new Mondeo is good quality because the key
success factors of this product are “best – in – class driving dynamics,
high level of occupants protection, strong visual on – road with Kinetic
design and German Engineering” (Ford Motor Company Press Releasese).
Furthermore, following several research about customers in the middle to
upper – middle class in Vietnam, they desire a car that is good quality
and reasonable price (A.C.Neilsen Vietnam, 2008).
Applying both theory and practise to Ford’s case study, the target market
of new Mondeo can be identified as Table 5 in segmenting consumer
markets. According to Table 5, Ford’s main market will be focused on five
big cities in Vietnam. Secondly, Ford’s customers in each city are
businessmen who are middle to upper middle class and from 35 to 50
years old. Basing on the consumers insight, new Mondeo is going to
satisfy their good quality and reasonable price. Comparison with
competitors in this segmentation, new Ford Mondeo is better because
Ford Company produced not only new Mondeo on the same product line
as orther products, but also the same spare parts and design for all
markets. Moreover, Ford Company has over 100 experience years in car
manufacturing (Ford Motor Company Press Releasese). Therefore, they
could keep close control of their expensess and quality.
Besides segmenting consumer markets, new Mondeo could be sold to
commercial, reseller, and government markets as Table 4.
In summary, with the ability of satisfying the customers’ demand and
supplying better than competitors, Ford Company feels confident of the
winning of new Mondeo in the mid – size car sedan in Vietnam.
TASK 3: PRODUCT REPOSITIONING:
After identifying the target market, the next step is to define where the
current location of new Mondeo is in the mid – size sedan segmentation
after the period of time it was introduced in Vietnam. This step is very
important because it is necessary to review and make plans for the
future. According to Myers, “Positioning is another key strategic concept
in modern marketing theory and practise. It refers to the problem of
differentiating one’s own product/service from other competing entries in
the market place.”(Myers, 1996, p.168). To do this, new Mondeo is
compared with its competitors through prices and qualities as Table 6.
At the moment, in Vietnam, this has not been any associate which could
evaluate the car’s quality, so the evaluation system of Europe and US are
used for appraising. In the Vietnamese market, the main competitors of
Ford Mondeo are Toyota Camry 2.4G and Honda Accord. According to
Table 6, there are four products beeing high quality and the rest is good
quality. New Mondeo is located on perceptual mapping at Mondeo A (see
Table 6) for the reason that it is the same quality as Camry 2.4G, Honda
Accord and Camry 3.5Q (US NCAP) but its price is higher than Camry
2.4G and lower than Honda Accord and Camry 3.5Q because new
Mondeo is completely imported in Vietnam, so its price is included
several taxes’ type of the Vietnamese government and this is difficult to
rival competitors in the mid – size sedan segmentation. Besides that,
according to the Vietnamese customers insight, the Japanese product is
always better than others (A.C.Nielsen Vietnam, 2008).
Therefore, to improve the situation of new Mondeo in this segmentation,
Ford should reposition this brand on the perceptual mapping. The
suggestion is Mondeo B (see Table 7): at this position, Mondeo’s price is
lowest to compare with its main competiors but the quality and design
are not as different as Mondeo A. To do that, it should be produced in
Ford’s Vietnamese manufactory because this makes it could not be taxed
from import duties. Furthermore, with the cheap labour and using the
domestic spare parts, new Mondeo’s price is going to rival its
competitors.
TASK 4: PRICING STRATEGIES:
Ford Vietnam should determine the pricing strategies for new Mondeo in
the Vietnamese market after targeting market and repositioning. Basing
on these information above, there are three pricing strategies: the value
pricing in base pricing, the promotional pricing in the adjusting price in
consumer markets, and the discounts and allowances in the adjusting
price in business markets. These are launched to maintain their market
share and make the competitive factor for Ford.
With the value pricing, price set in accordance with customer perceptions
about the value of the product/service (Kotler, 2000, p.468), Ford could
make Vietnamese consumers perceive the value of new Mondeo – good
quality and more reasonable price. Because the customers are going to
satisfy when they could buy products that are lower price but their
quality are still guaranteed by EURO NCAP.
The next is the promotional pricing strategies that “are often a zero –
sum game. If they work, competitors copy this and they lose their
effectiveness. If they do not work, they waste company money that could
have been put into longer impact marketing tools, such as building up
product quality and service or strengthening product image through
advertising.” (Kotler, 2000, p.473). In this strategy, there are serveral
pricing techniques are used to arouse early purchase:
• Special – event pricing: Ford could offer the special price of new
Mondeo in the special occasion, such as Tet – traditional holiday in
Vietnam, the Independent Day and so on.
• Cash rebates: Ford could offer cash rebates to promote buying
product, for example new Mondeo’s price might be included the
registration fees or luxury tax and so on.
• Longer payment terms: Ford could associate with the famous bank
in Vietnam to create the buying by instalment programme to
support their customers.
The final is the discounts and allowances, “business buyer can take
advantage of sales just like consumers. However, business also receive
other price breaks, including discounts for cash, quantity or bulk
discounts, seasonal discounts, or trade allowances for participation in
advertising or sales support programs.” (Ferrell & Hartline, 2005, p.205).
This means Ford Company should make the price list into each project,
such as in 2006, on the APEC conference in Vietnam, the Vietnamese
government bought over 100 cars of Mercedes Benz and 142 Ford
Mondeo as the means of transport of all Ministers (Tuoitreonline, 2007).
TASK 5: INTERNATIONAL MARKET FACTORS
Ford has operated in an international market, so it has used international
marketing. Therefore, there are several factors that should be taken into
consideration by Ford:
• Economic factors: Ford should ananlyse the economy of new

markets where it wants to invest. There are much information that

must be considered: economic policy, the structure of economy,
and so on.
 • Cultural factors: Solomon et al (2006, p.500) indicated that “the

relationship between consumer behaviour and culture is a two way

street”. This means that Ford have to focus on understanding and
anaylising the new market where Ford is going to operate to have
a flexible plan and adapt quicky to the new environment.
Besides several factors above, Ford also should think about SRC. This is
also a barrier to Ford joining in new markets. The SRC is based on the
experiences, knowledge and cultural value which influence the
customers decisions.
TASK 6: ETHICS
“Marketing ethics comprises the principles and standards that guide the
behaviour of individual and group in making marketing decision.” (Ferrell
& Hartline, 2005, p. 295). So in the marketing process, Ford should
consider about product ethic and promotion ethic. Firstly, in the product
ethic, they must make sure that their product quality must be always
guaranteed by observing the quality standards in the world. Moreover, all
the safe facilities in car must be full in order to effectively protect
passengers. Sencondly, in the promotion ethic, Ford should be always
honest about their promotional programs and always think more careful
about the customers’ right. Besides that, Ford should be social
responsibility. To be more specific, environmental issue should be
considered by Ford because transportations are one of the most causes
of global warming, these make much more Co2 in the atmosphere and Ford
must pay partly fixed environmental tax to improve this.
TASK 7: POSTER DESIGN FOR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN
CONCLUSION:
in summary, this report indicatied that where the current state of Ford
company. Besides that, Ford new Mondeo is identified what the target
market is and where the repositioning is to its competitors in the
Vietnamese market. Moreover, the value pricing, the promotional pricing
and the discounts and allowances should be used for making competitive
factors with its competitors. However, Ford Company also consider about
the ethic issues in their marketing process in Vietnam.

BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Autonet, (2008). Car prices. Available from:
<http://www.autonet.com.vn/vn/giaoto/1/index.aspx> [Accessed 13 – 06 – 09].
A.C.Nelsen Vietnam, (2008). Customers survey 2008. [Accessed 10 – 06 – 09].
BBC News. (06/2009). Ford market share grows in the US. Available from:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8080062.stm> [Accessed 13 – 06 – 09].
EURO NACP. Available from:
<http://www.euroncap.com/viewcomparison.aspx> [Accessed 13 – 06 –
09].
Ford Company. (2008). An annual report from 2004-2008. Available at: <www.ford.com>
[Accessed date: 29/05/2009].
Ferrell, O. & Hartline, D. (2005). Marketing Strategy. 3rd Edition. USA:
Thomson South – Western.
Ford Mondeo. Available from <http://www.ford.com/about-ford/news-
announcements/press-releases/press-releases-detail/pr-ford-mondeo-
28044>. [Accessed 13 – 06 – 09].
Ford Vietnam Company. (2009). An official website. Available from: <www.ford.com.vn>
[Accessed 13 – 06 – 09].
Kotler, P. (2000). Marketing Management: Millennium edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Myers. J. H. (1996). Segmentation and Positioning for Strategic
Marketing Decision. Chicago: American Marketing Association.
<http://www.haiphongdofa.gov.vn/vn/index.asp?
menuid=469&parent_menuid=469&fuseaction=3&articleid=2687>
[Accessed 13 – 06 – 09].
<http://www.mofahcm.gov.vn/vi/tintuc_sk/tulieu/nr060206163738/nr061
107160930/ns080114143359> [Accessed 13 – 06 – 09].
PRLog, (2008). Automotive Market Report: Opportunities in
Vietnamese Car Market and Aftermarket. Available from:
<http://www.prlog.org/10121452-automotive-market-report-
opportunities-in-vietnamese-car-market-and-aftermarket.html>
[Accessed 13 – 06 – 09].
Solomon, M., Bamossy, G., Askegaard, S. Hogg, M., (2006). Consumer behaviour: A
European Perspective. 3rd ed. Harlow: Prentice Hall

Tuoitreonline. (01/2007). Available from:

<http://www.tuoitre.com.vn/Tianyon/Index.aspx?
ArticleID=180846&ChannelID=11> [Accessed 13 – 06 – 09].
VAMA. (2008). VAMA Sales Volume. Available from
<http://www.vama.org.vn/report.php>. [Accessed 10 – 06 – 09].
US NACP. Available from:
<http://www.safecarguide.com/mak/honda/idx.htm> [Accessed 13 – 06
– 09].
APPENDICES:
Table 1: The current stage of Ford Company on the PLC:

Table 2: The current stage of Ford on Boston Matrix:

Table 3: Ford’ volume sales on passenger car segementation in Vietnam

200 200
2003 2004 5 2006 2007 8
Focus 145 240 690 560
 Mondeo 2.0 158 153 74 27 48 41
Mondeo 2.5 693 649 120 186 35 25
(Source: VAMA report in 2008)
Table 4: Target market of Ford Mondeo for segmenting business
markets in Vietnam
Commerci Joint – venture company, private company, limited liability
al company.
Reseller Wholesaler, retailers, brokers.
Governm Central government, local government.
ent

Table 5: Target market of Ford Mondeo for segmenting consumer

markets in Vietnam
CITY
Hai Da Ho Chi
Ha Noi Can Tho
General information Phong Nang Minh
Area (km2) 3.324,92 1476,45 1.256 2.095,01 1.389,60
6.233.78 1.884.68 867.54 1.112.34
Population 6 5 5 8.265.980 2
GDP per capita (USD) 1500 1600 1420 2500 1444
Geographic
Region North North Central South South
Density Urban Urban Urban Urban Urban
Climate Northern Northern Central Southern Southern
County size A B B A C
Demographic
Age 30 to 49
Gender Male
Nationality Vietnamese
Occupation Businessmen
Income Middle to Upper income
Psychographic
Social class Middle to Upper middle class
Lifestyle Achievers, strivers

Table 6: Price and Quality compared between New Mondeo and

Competitors
Price Quality
US EURO NCAP
 Adul Childr Pedestri
NCAP
($) t en an
Camry 2.4G 49,800 Good N/A N/A N/A
5
Mondeo 54,400 Good stars 4 stars 2 stars
Honda 5
Accord 57,000 Good stars 4 stars 3 stars
Mercedes Excelle 5
C200K 59,990 nt stars 3 stars 2 stars
Excelle 5
BMW 320i 62,900 nt stars 4 stars 1 star
Camry 3.5Q 64,500 Good N/A N/A N/A
Mercedes Excelle 5
C280K 69,000 nt stars 3 stars 2 stars
Excelle 5
BMW 325i 74,300 nt stars 4 stars 1 star
(Source: Quality: US NAP and Euro NCAP, Price: Autonet Vietnam)

Table 7: Positioning and repositioning of New Mondeo

High

Merced BM Merced BM
es W es W
320i 325i

Qualit
y Camr
Mond Cam Mond Accor
eo ry eo d y
B 2.4G 3.5Q

Lancer
Gala
2.0
Mazd
a6 2.3
High
Price

Low