1.  What is the brand's business mission?

       Out of the 10 best perceived brands of 2013, I choose to blog about Ford Motor Company.   Ford is a multinational leader in automotive and other automotive-related production and services.  They thrive on the motto, ONE TEAM, ONE PLAN, ONE GOAL and are steadily improving their products and services to fit the needs of their customers.  Doing this allows them to flourish as a business and in turn provide a judicious return to their stockholders.

 

 2.  What would you say is the brand's competitive advantage?

       The company's competitive advantage came about when they implemented a centralized decision making system. This allowed the company to focus on accessible marketing contingency both locally as well as globally. The new centralized resolution method allowed their top management officials to become more involved in the improvement of products to satisfy customers' assumptions in competing markets and enhanced communication across the board.

 

         They also established ways to cut production costs, operation costs, and the costs associated with obtaining raw materials.  They then introduced an online manufacturing procedure for the purpose of developing their cars on one mechanism as opposed to having multiple divisions of engineering and production, there by giving them advantage over their competitors in premise of lower cost.

3.  Which growth strategy do you think the brand uses (Ansoff's Opportunity Matrix)?

      Due to a successful year in 2013, Ford is predicting another successful year in 2014 because they have the most innovative production lineup in the automobile industry.  They are also forecasting that their international launches this will be twice as much as that of  2013and its U.S. market share is expanding rapidly than any of its advisories.  Ford strongly utilizes two of Ansoff's Opportunity Matrix, product development strategy and diversification strategy.  Over the years, this company has built a successful reputation and continues to produce innovative products that sets them apart from their competitors.

For your second blog post, discuss the corporate social responsibility behavior (Chapter 3) of the brand you discussed in the first post.

Ford applies some of the corporate social responsibility behavior as laid out in chapter three of our text by:

• Ethical responsibilities: They have taken initiative to reduce the direct impact of the creation of waste that would have dire consequences to their employees health, and the environment.

 

•  Legal responsibilities:  This company complies with all legal and government standards.  Should  there be a legal or government enquiry, they encourage their employees to cooperate. 

 

• Philanthropic responsibilities: Ford is committed to supporting their local communities, some of which their own employees live.  some projects they support within their local communities includes  human rights, water and driving safety.

 

 



 "People don't know what they want -- they only want what they know"
      To what extent do you think that marketers shape and/or create consumer wants.


        Advertising and Promoting strategies used by Organizations, in my opinion, defines the quote, "People don't know what they want -- they only want what they know." They bring a service to the attention of potential and current customers, for instance,  I purchased a smart phone exactly five months before a newer, updated version came out.   The more I saw various forms of advertising, television, posters, even random strangers on the streets with the phone, the more I convinced myself that I needed an upgrade.  However, after side by side comparison of both phones, I realize that they still had the same features, only difference was that the newer phone was a little bigger.


    

b.  How do you think a course in marketing will be helpful even if you don't pursue marketing as a career?

Even though I am not a marketing major, I think a course in marketing is beneficial to any student whether they are pursuing a career in a business or non business field because all Businesses or Organizations' success, revenue, and overall longevity depends on how well they market their products or services.  In my opinion each employee in an organization provides direct marketing for that particular company through the services they provide to customers.