Consumers will have fewer choices on some 1998 models, and the car companies say that is because they are getting smarter about who their customers are and what they want to buy.
Instead of sifting through a long list of options to order the vehicle they want, shoppers in Ford showrooms may have to choose a specific model in order to get the features they’re looking for.
This streamlining of choices is an indirect result of brand management, a marketing technique embraced by General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. that treats each vehicle as a separate “brand” that targets customers with specific features instead of trying to appeal to a broad audience with a large selection of options.
GM adopted brand management, widely used to market consumer products such as toothpaste and soap, in 1995. Ford followed a few months later and is making more dramatic changes because of it.
All 1998 Ford division passenger cars are being sold under a simplified two-model strategy called Ford Choice. Whether it is a subcompact Escort or a full-size Crown Victoria, there are two models, a basic version and an upscale version.
Last year there were four versions of the Contour sedan and nearly all the options were available across the board. Now, there are just two versions, the LX and SE, and if you want fog lamps, a rear spoiler, spiffy wheels and other sporty touches, they are available only on the SE.
Previously, Ford grouped options into what it called Preferred Equipment Packages designated with numbers, such as 317A. For 1998, the option packages carry such names as Sport Group and Comfort Group, with fewer packages and individual options available.
Ford found that having four models and a laundry list of options confused buyers, who last year had to pay as much as $2,600 for a Preferred Equipment Package to get a V-6 engine on a Contour. For 1998, the V-6 is a $495 stand-alone option.
“Our customers are looking for simplicity,” said Brian Miller, brand manager for Ford’s passenger cars. “They don’t like haggling, and they don’t like sorting through discounts in all those Preferred Equipment Packages. They don’t know what PEP 317A is. They relate more to user-friendly language like Sport Group or Comfort Group.”
The decision to offer just two models in each car line came after Ford asked more than 1,400 customers in Chicago and Atlanta to identify the features they wanted most.
With the Contour, Ford found some buyers wanted a basic car like the LX for practical reasons, and another group wanted a car with more emotional appeal, like the SE with the Sport Package. Ford positioned the 1998 models and option packages to fit those customers.
“It’s simpler and customers understand it,” Miller said. “It also makes it easier for our dealers to order cars that customers want.”
Ford’s initial brand management product was the Escort ZX2, a sporty coupe introduced in the spring and aimed at young buyers. Instead of using traditional model designations such as LX and SE, Ford calls the two ZX2 versions “Cool” and “Hot.”
“For our target audience, these are words they use in their everyday language,” Miller said.
Brand management requires each vehicle to serve a different group of customers, and Ford’s 1998 lineup eliminates some price overlap between car lines. Higher-priced versions of the Escort used to bump into the low end of the larger Contour, which in turn infringed on the Taurus.
“We had a lot of overlap before. Now we have more distinctive price bands for the Escort, Contour and Taurus,” said Miller, formerly sales manager at Ford’s Chicago regional office.
Ford limited the new two-model strategy to cars, a spokesman said, because trucks are “a different breed” that typically offer more models and features aimed at a wider spectrum of buyers.
GM does not take the same approach but closely targeting customers through brand management means vehicles are equipped the way people want to buy them, said Karen Francis, brand manager of the Chevrolet Venture mini-van.
Historically, domestic vehicles have come with fewer standard features than foreign vehicles and a much larger selection of options. Francis says building vehicles to suit a target customer makes a long list of options unnecessary.
As an example, Francis cites a cargo net between the Venture’s front seats, which she calls a “purse net” because mini-vans are driven primarily by women.
“It’s a small item, but it’s really a response to us watching how the consumer used the van and how purses and diaper bags and all kinds of things would fly all over the place because there was no real place to put them,” said Francis, who marketed Crest toothpaste and school supplies before she joined GM.
The option list for Venture, introduced last year, is shorter than the ones for the rival Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager, and Francis said it could become even shorter as Chevy gets more feedback from owners.
“We are new to the mini-van segment with the Venture, and we have a lot to learn,” she said. “It will take the first couple of years to see what’s more popular and sort out what the consumer wants.”
A few new features are being added for 1998, but Francis said the narrow focus of brand management requires restraint so Venture doesn’t compete for the same buyers as other GM products. While Chevrolet goes after mainstream mini-van buyers, the similar Pontiac Trans Sport aims the Montana model at consumers who lean toward a sport-utility vehicle.
Because brand management is less than 2 years old at GM and Ford, its most visible effects are in the marketing and positioning of vehicles rather than design and engineering, which take longer.
“The biggest changes so far have been in the merchandising and advertising arena, and we’ve made smaller changes in the product arena,” said Ron Stanley, brand manager of the Chevrolet S-10 compact pickup. “I think you’ll see some pretty dramatic changes as we go forward.”
Stanley said brand management doesn’t mean consumers will have fewer choices. However, eliminating internal competition is a goal, so in the future the S-10 will be much different from the GMC Sonoma, a clone of the Chevy pickup with a similar selection of models and options.
Chevrolet will position the S-10 as more of a rugged vehicle and GMC will stress sportier attributes, Stanley said, and that means the two trucks won’t offer the same features.
