Just to be safe, I would like to point out here that I am in no way affiliated with The Ford Motor Company. This is a fictitious marketing campaign created for my college assignment(s).
The client I am choosing to represent from the automobile industry is the Ford Motor Company. The challenge to build sales during a time of economic downturn is no small feat. When people all over the country are losing their jobs and falling into debt, how can we possibly expect to boost sales? Since one of the major contributors to the failing state of our economy is job loss, I think focusing on helping to resolve this problem could help to boost brand loyalty and encourage consumers to seek out American made products. While the long-term goal of this campaign is to boost sales, the immediate goal is to help bring jobs back to the American worker.
The target audience of this campaign is the average American, blue-collar worker. Since it is this group that is most affected by the current state of our economy, I feel that they would be more inclined to respond to a call for action in response to this campaign. Having a job and being able to provide for their families is extremely important to this segment of our population. I think if we focus our attention on helping to boost our economy, we will build a better rapport with the average American.
Since we are looking to connect with our audience on a more personal level, I feel that our digital marketing should take advantage of strategies that encourage interactivity between the company and the consumer. One digital media form that this campaign utilizes is a dynamic, interactive web site. This site will be a resource for the working class of America, consistently updated with ways everyone can help to boost the economy, find jobs, and get educated. Registration on the site will allow members to interact and network with each other and the Ford company through a blog type forum that will focus on the economic state of the United States. As a nation, we need to alter our spending habits and lessen our reliance on foreign production. One way I feel that this task can be accomplished is by uniting our country towards a common goal. However, the only way this will work is if people are educated, concerned, and willing to change. As the old saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water…” This campaign will take the first step in the effort to educate our target audience of the seriousness of our country’s economy and look for ways to improve it.
Although this web site sounds like a wonderful idea, it will not be worth a stick in the mud if no one visits or uses it. In order to pull traffic to the site the campaign will use strategically placed web banners ads and advertise through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Since one of the goals of this project is to involve, well really, every working class citizen in the United States, we want this campaign to go viral. Prior to the date of the web site’s launch, social networking posts will work to peak interest by spreading little known and/or shocking facts about the problems our country is facing and provide a call to action to visit the web site. The web banner ads will be placed on employment seeking web sites, such as monster.com, in order to reach those who are most likely to be unemployed.
Looking at a way to keep costs down, since an increase in sales is not immediately expected, yet we still want to remain true to our theme, college interns will be recruited for all web and design work, minus senior administrative positions. We want our audience to see that we are more concerned with the welfare of our country than we are with making a quick buck. The goal here is to help everyone, not just ourselves. I think most people want to help and they want to change things, they just do not know how. This campaign will open up the door and lead the way.
Tags: Facebook, Ford Motor Company, Goal, Google, United States, Web banner, Web search engine, Website
