Ford turns to Benz to benchmark new car

TAIPEI: Mercedes Benz gets a back-handed compliment in Ford Lio Ho's campaign to launch its luxury model, Metrostar, which uses its rival to benchmark the latter's German craftsmanship. The J. Walter Thompson television campaign features a blind man to demonstrate Metrostar's German craftsmanship and how it could be easily mistaken for a Mercedes Benz. In the commercial, two well-dressed men, one of them blind, walk along a tree-shaded street in Taipei. A leaf falls to the ground and the blind man says, "maple." His companion is duly impressed. A woman walks by in high heels. "Chanel," is the blind man's comment this time, and again he is right. Nearby a man snaps a photo, and with 100 percent accuracy, he says it's "Lecia". Next, someone steps out of a vehicle and closes its door; and his answer is "Benz". His companion glances back as they pass, but is surprised to see that it is a Ford instead. Eddy Fu, JWT's director in charge of Ford, said: "This creative was put to test long before the launch, and it was overwhelmingly preferred by respondents. There is the belief that the blind have acute hearing, and our strategy was to use that to benchmark Metrostar's German craftsmanship." Metrostar is Ford Lio Ho's flagship vehicle for Taiwan. It is a version of the Mondeo which debuted in the country in 1997, but it was re-designed in Germany according to that country's guidelines for craftsmanship. Last April, Ford Lio Ho sent a team of Taiwan automotive journalists to its design facilities in Germany, and they generated features in specialty magazines such as Car & Driver, and mainstream newspapers, including China Times, and United Daily News. This public relations effort resulted in 500 orders for the Metrostar prior to its launch. "That is very high," said Fu."Usually you get something slightly more than 200." The publicity stressed the 'solidness' of Metrostar. To Taiwan car buyers, this is a very important attribute, ranking high in all car focus groups, and the ultimate measure of solidness is the sound of the car door closing. "Mercedes' doors make a very distinctive sound, very different from the 'tinny' sound of a Japanese car," said Fu. JWT and Ford demonstrated the sound of Metrostar's door being closed to dealers. Said Fu: "What we did was different from the usual dealer meeting. We hid a Metrostar and a Mercedes behind a curtain. Then we shut their doors repeatedly, and asked the dealers to guess which was which. They couldn't tell by listening." Fu said the demonstration and TVC got the dealers fired up - two weeks before Metrostar's launch on July 7, more than 8,000 curious car buyers flocked to Ford dealerships around the island. The initial burst of 60 and 45-second spots on TV was supported by print, radio and a feature-oriented website. Key people on the account at JWT included Fu, account director Wang-ming Yang, and executive creative director for Ford, Murphy Chou.

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