A new Astra will soon be on sale but Ford of Britain Product Marketing Manager Chris Muers believes the segment leading Focus has a lot of life in it yet. The second generation Galaxy, plus forthcoming tweaks for existing models and the addition of the Mustang and Edge are other weapons in the brand's battle to remain the number one passenger car brand.
What does your role as product marketing manager entail?
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Myself and my team are responsible for preparing the products and pricing for vehicle lines. So we work on products prior to launch and go through the pre-sale period and then we launch the products onto the market. We have lots of interaction not only with our internal teams in Finance, Engineering and Marketing but also with our dealer body as well – we’re involved in training and getting the dealers ready to sell the product.
Does your department stay with a vehicle through its lifecycle?
Yes. You will have seen the Focus MCA (Ford terms a facelift a Model Cycle Action) as a recent example of what we do.
The Mondeo has been well received by the media but isn’t selling as well as the similarly sized Mercedes-Benz C-Class or indeed the much older Insignia.
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By GlobalDataFrom our point of view, Mondeo is hitting the targets we set. Certainly, as we launched at the back end of last year, we’re only just over half a year on from the launch; we’re still on ramp up. We went through phase two in June when we started to produce the all-wheel drive cars. So we’re comfortable with Mondeo, and sales are up on last year.
Closing Genk and having to retool Valencia for Mondeo production meant the car was late to the European market. It’s already had a facelift in other countries so will it go without an MCA in this region?
We haven't announced anything yet in terms of what you have planned.
OK, but will the car have a short lifecycle so as to sync with the models built in North America and China which are likely to be replaced in 2018?
Again, it’s too early to say. Our focus is on continuing to launch all variants of this vehicle. Yes, it’s later than we anticipated but we’ve got to make a success of this one, get it established back primarily into the fleet audience and make sure we maximise the opportunity there.
The Kuga had a strong July and then it made the top ten in August. It’s been on the market since December 2012, so can you explain why it’s suddenly selling so well?
When we first launched Kuga we had volume aspirations of about 7,500 and we’re way up on that, with hopefully about 20,000 to be sold this year. It’s gone with the JF segment that it competes in. We’ve ridden the tide of the segment’s expansion and we have got some further updates coming: production of the Titanium Sport starts later this month. The idea behind this is to offer a good looking vehicle with a body styling kit on the exterior for less money than Titanium X Sport which was the vehicle that did have the styling kit on it. We’re trying to get into the heartland of the price that people will pay.
Are the product changes specific to the UK market?
Yes, the Titanium Sport is a UK action.
The Fiesta is seven years old but it’s still Britain’s best seller – 85,247 registrations for the year to date and 28,000 cars ahead of the number two Corsa. How far away is the replacement and how will you keep the current car selling?
We haven’t announced anything about the Fiesta replacement and I can’t disclose anything about it. The car does incredibly well in Britain and it’s just gone from strength to strength since we launched it.
New Astra will hit the market soon, so what actions have you got planned for the Focus?
We’ve just announced some updates for our new model year, which commences this month. These are minor updates but we’ve had four phases [of the facelifted car] since the end of last year until now. The Zetec series cars will have a new grille and we’re also introducing Sync 2 to the interior, with a touchscreen. We’ll be watching Astra keenly as well. We also start production of RS by the end of the year so you should see that car early next year.
Fiat has just given the 500 a facelift but there’s nothing for the Ka. Is that because a new model is getting close for Europe?
Ka keeps selling well and we added a special edition in May, which was well received. But yes, it’s coming to the end of its lifecycle and you’ll see a model based on the vehicle already available in Brazil to replace it.
It’s been a few months now since we saw a minor update for the EcoSport to address things such as the heavy tailgate and hard plastics on the inside. But sales are still nowhere near those of the Vauxhall Mokka and other rivals.
We’ve had what I would call a gradual start for this vehicle. Yes, we’ve made some changes to the product. The full-sized spare has come off the back of the car but you can still have it if you want it, otherwise you can have the inflator kit. Next year will be when we really start to see EcoSport takes off, as the growth is in sub-JS and JS segments.
What about Vignale, how is it doing?
It’s very early days. We only started [Vignale Mondeo] production in June and cars have only just reached the Ford stores. The stores have a unique Vignale lounge and that’s where the dealers can show the car to customers. We want people to touch and feel the quality of the vehicle, take a test drive, appreciate the silence with the noise cancellation technology.
The idea behind Vignale, is it to push up transaction prices for the dealers?
The idea is to stretch the Ford brand to places where we haven’t been before. It’s through the quality of the materials and the experience that the customer has in the showroom that we want to see the brand go up a notch or two. We’re not competing head-on against premium brands but we do want to offer Ford customers something more than what we have been able to offer in the past.
You have two additional models coming: Mustang and Edge. How do you think they will be received by British buyers?
We’re so excited by these models. Mustang production has only just started so we’re waiting on the first shipment of cars and we’ve got some very excited customers. This is the first time in the 50 years of the Mustang that there’s right-hand drive production and people are really responding to that. We announced pricing back in January and that’s when interest and then the order bank really started to build. So we’re looking forward to seeing the first cars delivered to customers and out on the roads.
And Edge, that’s a new segment for us. On the back of the JS segment this will be at the premium end and great for us to be competing with premium brand SUVs. The vehicle does extremely well in the States and it will nice when we have a full portfolio from EcoSport, up through Kuga and then up to Edge as well. That’s to look forward to next year and we’re busy planning that at the moment.
Hyundai does OK with the Santa Fe but do you really think there’s enough potential for another non-premium brand in the segment?
Yes. If you take the premiums and the non-premiums, the premiums sell at around 50,000 combined a year so there is an opportunity to take part in that segment. And thanks to One Ford, we now have the right products for all sorts of segments – both the Edge and the Mustang are examples of that.
