Ford Winstar

Ford Winstar Case Analysis

According to Ford Windstar's market research, their market base is split between a few different market segments. One third of their buyers are in the 35-49 age group and another third of their buyers are retired persons who expect a low maintenance vehicle. Recently, Ford Windstar's market share had faced a significant decrease of almost 5 percent. That combined with various quality problems, such as the difficulties with Firestone's tires on Ford vehicles, and increased competition, played a key role in the decline of Ford's market share.

Faced with the possibility of a disastrous outcome, Ford is forced to reexamine their market research and realign their target market as well as their positioning to the new targeted market. Once this is established, possible advertising and promotional ideas must be made to promote Ford's new brand image. With the analysis of the most current market data, Ford should focus their Windstar to persons in the 50+ age group and increase Tier 1 and 2 advertising, concentrating on selling price, value for money, and reliability as their brand image.

Stated previously, one third of Windstar buyers are in the 35-49 age group, however, Ford's market share of this age bracket is rapidly decreasing mainly because they are also the targeted market for SUVs. This is why Ford should focus their efforts on a new targeted market including persons that are in the age range of 50-69. According to Exhibit 3, that age bracket is expected to have the largest growth increase from 2001 to 2006, with an 18.6 percent increase for persons ages 50-59 and an expected 15.3 percent increase for persons aged 60-69. This means that within the next few years, the targeted market would significantly increase, leading to a flourishing market base, if advertising and promotions are successful in selling the Windstar brand image of price, value for money, and reliability.

As seen in Exhibit 7, a large percent of buyers, approximately 50 percent, over the age of 50 say their top reasons for purchasing the minivan is focused on the idea that the vehicle is at a good value for its price, reliable, durable, and has great overall quality. This puts Ford in a great position to focus on this market segment because these features are seen, through Exhibit 5, in the Windstar. The performance of the Ford Windstar ranks among the best within the 14 attributes, including driving like a car, power to keep you out of harms way, dependability, providing peace of mind, superior ride, and proud to own. Seeing that the Windstar ranks among the best in the categories most sought out by persons aged 50+, it is key for Ford to position itself correctly in order to sell its brand image.

Windstar's positioning for this target market, should most definitely be emphasized on price, deal, value for money, while remaining seen as a reliable, durable and best overall quality vehicle as to retain the market share seen in Exhibit 7 as the two top reasons of purchase. These reasons must be concentrated on to secure Ford in its positioning to the target market because, as seen in Exhibit 9, at each stage of the buying process, a lot of potential Windstar buyers are lost, especially during the decision phase where, out of 56 percent of potential buyers, only 6 percent remain, thus, realizing that sales cannot be made and possible buyers cannot be influenced that the Windstar is in fact, reliable and a good deal for its price. This is mainly a result of poor previous positioning by Ford. Knowing that the majority of Windstar buyers focus their attention on aspects such as price, quality, and reliability, Ford, instead, concentrates on trying to sell safety as its brand image. In Exhibit 12, we see a Tier 1 advertisement for the Ford Windstar depicting the minivan on a street surrounded by foam, with a phrase stating "Feel Safe Inside". Below this image, they go on to list key safety features that are including in the minivan. Although this is all nice and good for consumers to know, safety is just not the greatest selling position to take to a targeted market focused on price and reliability of a long lasting vehicle.

In order to fix its marketing strategy, Ford has created an Action Plan that consists of many advertising and promotional options such as direct mailing campaign, repositioning through advertising, value pricing, sales incentives, leasing, and cash offers. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world and not all of these options can be taken because Ford is already close to its break even point as it is. In order to effectively increase Ford's market share, it is