Ford vs. GM. A Brand Comparison Austin Sanders

Transcription

1 Ford vs. GM A Brand Comparison Austin Sanders

2 Table of Contents Executive Summary....3 SocialMention.4 Brand Website...5 Brand Website Winner....6 Facebook...7 Facebook Winner....8 Instagram...9 Instagram Winner...10 Twitter.. 11 Twitter Winner...12 YouTube..13 YouTube Winner...14 Pinterest.15 Pinterest Winner...16 Corporate vs. Local Corporate vs. Local Intro 17 Corporate vs. Local Comparison...18 Corporate vs. Local Winner..19 Overall Champion....20

3 Executive Summary Ford Facebook- 7,960,963 likes, 7,841,994 followers, 35,384 people visited Instagram- 1,354 posts, 2.2 million followers Twitter- 22.3K tweets, 31.8K following, 979K followers, 11.1K likes YouTube- 529 videos, 692,757 subscribers Pinterest- 0 pins, 0 boards, 6,947 followers General Motors Facebook- 740,185 likes, 704,121 followers, 793 people visited Instagram- 628 posts, 355K followers Twitter- 12.7K tweets, 6,267 following, 570K followers, 562 likes YouTube- 44 videos, 16,563 subscribers Pinterest- 10 pins, 3 boards, 54 followers, following 6

4 Ford 100% strength 2:1 sentiment 33% passion 70% reach 23 seconds avg. per mention 139 unique authors SocialMention General Motors 72% strength 8:1 sentiment 40% passion 45% reach 19 seconds avg. per mention 89 unique authors

5 Brand Website Ford Because almost purchase decisions related to automobiles occur within the individual dealerships, the websites of companies like Ford act as virtual showrooms. Much of the content shown on the site includes the current inventory and special offers of the company s products. Additionally, you can construct your custom car and compare the recommended price with the dealership price. Even though the site does include articles related to the company, the content within the articles talks about technological or product innovations. In a sense, it is just another point where the company is selling their products instead of curating content users would find interesting. With regards to their social media promotion, Ford does the least they could do on their brand website. There is no call to action to connect with them. Instead, the icons for the different sites appear at the bottom of the page, almost as an afterthought. General Motors Looking at General Motor s brand website after looking at Ford s, you would think they were designed by the same person or firm. Similar to Ford, much of the focus of the website is directing visitors to digital vehicle showrooms. There is almost no attention drawn to the other content channels and nothing that attempts to truly connect with a consumer.

6 Brand Website Winner In the case of the brand websites of the two companies, I cannot give an edge to either Ford or General Motors. The similarities between the layouts and user interfaces of the websites make them virtually indistinguishable from one another and the lack of incentives for customers to connect with their social media outlets is disappointing. Both companies need to modify their focus to be more digitally oriented. By properly promoting their social media outlets and offering content useful to consumers (blogs, articles, etc.), they can not only increase brand awareness, but drastically increase purchase intention.

7 Ford From a statistical point of view, Ford has a much larger following than General Motors. On Facebook, Ford has several different pages run by its corporate office, including the general Ford Motor Company, Ford Trucks, Ford Mustang, and more. Most of the content posted on these channels involve the introduction of new products as well as more mainstream mentions of their products. These mentions include Super Bowl coverage, since they were an official sponsor, as well as Kurt Busch winning the Daytona 500, since Busch drives the Ford sponsored car. These pages are also a source for customer feedback and interaction. I found Ford s engagement of their customers to be lacking due to their limited response to customer complaints. Ford seemed to respond to about one-third of the customer posts on their page and when they responded, it was obvious that the responses were prewritten and little care seemed to be given to the actual problem. To be fair, when Ford responded, they requested the customer directly message them so that the issue could be handled with discretion. However, there were multiple customers that posted multiple times complaining about Ford s lack of help and attention regarding the handling of their original complaint. Facebook General Motors Similar to Ford, General Motors uses their Facebook page to promote new products as well as innovative advertising campaigns they have created. However, General Motor does not focus as much on products and instead include posts related to their story as a company. This includes telling the personal stories of personnel that work for them as well as innovative people they have partnered with. Unfortunately for General Motors, their customer service problems follow the same pattern as Ford. From generic, pre-scripted responses to customers to multiple customers continuing to post saying their issues were not resolved, it appears that GM is not effectively using their Facebook page to properly engage with disgruntled customers.

8 Facebook Winner When deciding which company has the edge on Facebook, a decision has to be made between the company which has cultivated a larger reach and the company which I feel produces better content. Ford has a much larger community of followers than General Motors, but I feel GM has curated and created content which better suits this social channel. It is for this reason that I give the edge to General Motors. Through the content GM publishes on their Facebook page, they paint a more well-rounded picture of the company. GM not only shows off their products, but promote their involvement with cultural issues, such as their pursuit to close the gender gap in STEM. By not constantly hitting visitors over the head with promotions of products, consumers better understand the company and associate them with good causes. While I appreciate the effort GM puts into their posts, I feel both companies need to improve their customer service interactions and consumer engagements on their corporate pages. Responses should be posted in a more timely manner and should be personalized so that the consumer knows that they are truly heard by the company.

9 Ford Ford uses Instagram in exactly the way you would expect an automobile manufacturer to use it. All of their posts are high quality shots of their different products in different settings. The only significant change between the different posts is the change in the automobile shown and, at times, certain landmarks in the background. This approach is an effective way to increase awareness of their products, but it seems unimaginative to me. For a company to successfully advertise on Instagram, they must have a distinctive view of the world and the only view it appears they have is a world of their products. Instagram General Motors When looking at General Motor s Instagram account and their Facebook page, it becomes clear that there is a large amount of overlapping content. However, the unique posts offer insights about the company that Ford does not include. GM s posts show their involvement in local communities and some of the posts showing their products relate them to aspects of life. The variety of posts produced by GM paints a clearer picture of the company and allows consumers to better connect with their core values.

10 Instagram Winner Since most of the information posted to both Instagram accounts was duplicate posts from the companies Facebook pages, I cannot judge this channel the same way. Even though I feel Ford and GM underutilize their Instagram accounts, I will give the edge to Ford due to their picture quality and overall reach capabilities. Ford has cultivated a much larger following and has access to more potential customers. Additionally, one of the main components of an Instagram campaign is the aesthetic appeal of the posts. The content posted by Ford is high-quality and positively accents the look of the Ford brand. While this may influence the purchase intention of consumers, I feel the best strategy for Ford would be to post content which better articulates the company s story.

11 Twitter Ford Ford uses Twitter in a variety of different ways. Firstly, some pictures posted promoting new vehicle rollouts are those that are shared across the other two major social media channels: Facebook and Instagram. Secondly, Ford utilizes this particular channel to post relevant information regarding their partners and sponsors, from Danica Patrick working with a charitable organization to Kurt Busch winning the Daytona 500. The main difference I noticed for Ford on Twitter was the promotion of a sweepstakes that they have had going for a few months. Ford partnered with Zipcar to provide $25,000 in prizes to the student which receives the most votes on the community involvement video. General Motors In addition to posting content shared across Facebook and Instagram, General Motors uses the Twitter outlet to communicate financial updates to their followers. While I understand that the sharing of positive information about the company can enhance the consumer s perception of the company, this sort of information seems misplaced. Twitter should be used to promote helpful articles and sweepstakes to followers and I believe financial information about the company should remain on the brand website.

12 Twitter Winner Even though Ford and General Motors have some similarities in their Twitter engagement strategies, the edge goes to Ford. Not only do they have a large audience for their content, but the content published engages the audience in a number of ways. By combining general information about product launches with pop culture interactions with the Ford brand as well as sweepstakes opportunities, the company appeals to all followers regardless of the intensity of their social media engagement. These posts also incentivize consumers to consistently track tweets sent out by Ford, which allows the brand to stay top-ofmind.

13 YouTube Ford Ford s YouTube channel is full of relevant and engaging material, ranging from societal involvement to aspects of their current advertising campaign. They have developed a video series where certain Girl Scouts can build and race their own cars. This strategy is used to encourage girls across the country to become more involved in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. Additionally, Ford will release new advertisements for their current promotional campaign, Go Further. These videos highlight how certain people are driven to make the world a better place, from protecting the great lakes to saving Haitian children from the street. The most impressive videos posted by Ford are their wide array of How To videos. From the twin-panel moonroof to a towing overview, these instructional walk-throughs show every day consumers the innovative advancements which exist in their current products so that Ford customers may fully experience their vehicles. General Motors The YouTube channel of General Motors appears to be targeted towards the Canadian automobile market. A large majority of the videos produced highlight the innovative practices being implemented by GM Canada or include important announcements for the Canadian automobile market. This practice seems strange to me because they are segmenting their targeting methods to appeal to one section of their market. I understand that they are focusing their efforts on Canada in an attempt to boost regional sales, but it seems odd to focus the efforts of an entire social channel almost exclusively to one region.

14 YouTube Winner I will be giving the edge to Ford for the YouTube social channel. The content provided to consumers has three purposes: to educate, to promote, and to help. It educates consumers on the impact the company has in local communities, which increases brand awareness and liking. The videos also serve as another medium for Ford s Go Further promotional messages. Finally, and most importantly, the videos aim to help consumers utilize their vehicle components to their fullest potential. This communicates to consumers that the relationship Ford hopes to have with consumers does not end with a purchase, but continues throughout the life cycle of the vehicle. All of these components will help Ford be seen as a company that truly values its customers, which increases purchase intention as well as consumer loyalty.

15 Ford Ford has not created any information on Pinterest and therefore as no digital footprint on this channel. The fact that they still have nearly 7,000 followers tells me that people followed it without any real attention to intention of purchase. Pinterest General Motors The content distributed on Pinterest by General Motors is divided into three categories, represented boards. They include GM: Building America, which includes posts related to the start of the company, GM Today, which highlights the current offerings of the company, and The Future of GM, which includes information related to the direction the company plans to go in. While I like the breakdown in categories of this information, there is so little which exists that it creates no interest on the part of the consumer.

16 Pinterest Winner Since only one of the companies had created content on this channel in the form of pins and boards, the edge for Pinterest goes to General Motors. However, even though they are more involved than Ford on this channel, I do not see it as an advantage. It is my opinion that neither of these companies should be active on Pinterest. Pinterest best serves food-based companies or companies which produce items that can be easily collected. The content Ford or GM would consistently share on Pinterest would be synonymous with the information shared on Instagram. Content sought after from Pinterest are typically smaller gift items or recipes and the high level of investment needed from a consumer to purchase an automobile does not match the format of this social channel.

17 Corporate vs. Local When it comes to companies like Ford and General Motors, there is a large amount of significance placed on the local dealerships since they are where consumers will make their purchase decisions. When comparing the social media engagement of local dealerships of Ford and GM, I will be focusing on the Facebook pages because they represent the largest opportunity for customer feedback.

18 Corporate vs Local Ford The local Ford dealership I researched posted similar information as the corporate Facebook page. However, the local dealership did a good job responding to customer feedback, positive or negative. Almost all customers were responded to within a day and the message was personalized to their situation. General Motors The local pages for General Motors dealerships promote similar content to that which is shared on the corporate page. With regards to customer feedback, it appears they respond to consumer concerns on a scheduled basis. Over the last two months, the dealership I researched responded on December 15 th, January 3 rd, and January 16 th. While they answered consumer questions and concerns to the best of their ability, I think it would be beneficial to consistently monitor social channels and respond on a daily basis.

19 Corporate vs Local Winner Because of their greater attention to detail and the speed at which they respond to their customers requests and issues, I am giving the local edge to Ford. In order to increase customer loyalty and retention, General Motors cannot continue letting feedback pile up until the next scheduled interaction day. Ford has been able to establish a trust with their local customers based on the knowledge that the local dealerships are listening to the concerns of consumers and responding in a way that will not only resolve the current situation, but improve the environment of the next visit.

20 Overall Champion Based on the analysis of the major social channels utilized by these two major automobile manufacturers as well as the customer engagement at local dealerships, the overall winner of the brand comparison is FORD! Even though they have work to do in order to fully integrate their marketing campaign and engage their customers at every major point throughout their day, Ford has built and maintained a very effective digital and social media persona. As long as they effectively communicate their core values and incorporate important consumer insights into their social media channels, I expect Ford to remain on top of the social media ladder compared to other major automobile manufacturers.