Ford Motor Company Analysis
Ford Motor Company, founded in 1903, has been a global multi-business company since the 1920’s. Currently Ford has major manufacturing facilities in the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, Germany and many other countries, 200,000+ employees and automobiles distributed in over 200 markets across 6 continents (Ford Annual Report 2009). Ford has utilized its product portfolio, brand strategy and global business structure to withstand recent financial disasters in the auto industry and strive towards its vision to be the world’s leading consumer company for automotive products and services. Ford began its manufacturing with mass production assembly lines in the first part of the 20th century. Now, one of the world's largest automakers, Ford the brand is world renown. Ford Motor brands, or marques, include Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury (the latter to be dropped later this year). The brands Land Rover, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Volvo were also under the Ford umbrella but have recently been sold off to create a leaner business structure. The company still manufactures a vast array of cars, trucks, vans as well as vehicle chassis and engines at its numerous facilities. Until recently Ford was manufacturing 97 distinct vehicle models, however chief executive Alan Mulally has whittled that down to 40. In a recent Branding Strategy Insider article (Ritson 2009) Mulally claims “Fewer models means better economies of scale and significantly improved profitability, as well as enabling better marketing support for the remaining products and a more coherent segmentation, targeting and positioning approach.” In addition to being streamlined Ford focuses on marques that are successful in each of its global markets. Auto sales provide the bulk of the income but Ford also provides other automotive products and services. For instance Ford’s finance unit, Ford Motor Credit, is one of the US's leading auto finance companies. Ford also owns OEM parts producer Motorcraft as well as Hertz,