Ford Australia has the strongest showroom top to bottom in the Australian marketplace but doesn't have the brand strength to match it... That's the view of many -- most importantly the man at the top of the local Ford Australia operation, CEO and President, Bill Osborne.

Just two months into the top job at Broadmeadows, it's clear rehabilitating the Blue Oval is the ex-Ford of Canada chief's top priority. He says he has already briefed his marketing and advertising teams to come up with a strategy that will make the brand more relevant to a wider section of the Australian population.

According to Osborne, Ford's eroded brand equity in Australia aligns with the challenges he and his team faced in Canada.

"The Ford brand here is similar to where we were in Canada about three to four years ago," Osborne told the Carsales Network.

"The Ford brand is somewhat weak here. In fact, I would say the products are much stronger than the brand, and that's kind of where Canada was several years ago -- where we had some work to do on our primary brand... I think Australia's in the same position.

"We undertook that work in Canada and made some dramatic strides forward so it can be done. I know it can be done -- I've been a part of that kind of a transformation," Osborne said.

In simple terms, Osborne says Ford needed to make itself more relevant to its Canadian customers. He says the parallels here are strong.

"I think our problem in Canada was that the brand wasn't relevant. We didn't have an issue with awareness, we had an issue with relevance.

"As a matter of fact, people had a lot of latent goodwill about the brand, they just didn't feel that the cars we made were for them.

"They didn't want us to fail; they weren't hostile towards the brand -- they just didn't feel like we were particularly relevant to them and their lifestyle, and that's part of the issue here in Australia.

Osborne says the Ford brand in Australia is considered "very masculine, very male".

"While people may have a fairly good opinion of Ford Australia, they don't naturally think of us for small cars. So it's up to us to grab their attention and make them know that we're relevant; that we have a wide range of vehicles that are relevant to their lifestyle," Osborne opined.

Osborne says the company's relationship with its dealer group must also improve.

"The other thing that we had a problem with in Canada was we were coming off a difficult area in dealer relations, so we had to work very hard to repair the dealer relationship.

"I wouldn't say that we had terrible dealer relations in Australia, but I would say that dealers will be key to our turnaround and gaining their confidence is extremely important.

"We want to put in place some initiatives to gain the confidence and support of our dealers when it comes to launching our new products," Osborne explained.

"We want to provide very consistent offers in the marketplace so that we're not competitive one month and then uncompetitive the next month. We want to be very consistent in our message and very consistent in our price positioning," he said.

Ford Australia has come in for significant criticism for inconsistent marketing of its models, new and existing. Osborne concedes that the consistency and relevance of the brand's messages within its product-based campaigns over the last 18 months or so have been "spotty".

"What's important for us, what's missing I think, in Australia, is we haven't had a common language and communication for our primary brand... We've tried to build some equity in each nameplate [Ed: Focus, Mondeo, etc] without some overarching strategy in which they all fit...

"Consequently the communications have been somewhat spotty -- we project one image when we're advertising the Focus for example, another image when we're advertising the Mondeo and yet a third image when we're advertising Falcon...

"We need to bring a common theme and a common message around all of our products. I think that part of that is going to be to create a strong primary brand presence so that the brand itself is just as strong as the products."

Osborne says the branding work Ford Australia needs to undertake is more than a simple campaign.

"It's not just a campaign, it's really positioning -- more holistic.

"It's got more to do with an internal look at ourselves, and who we are, and what we stand for and spreading that among the company and having that become the external message," Osborne opined.

Osborne says hints of the direction Ford will move its positioning will appear in the campaign that will launch the FG Falcon, next month. But cautions he's not looking for a quick fix: "What I've told the agency, and the marketing team, is I want it to be right, not necessarily fast."

"We're working not to some internal timelines but more to milestones -- by that [I mean] I'm looking for certain accomplishments and once those happen then we move onto the next phase.

"Hopefully by the time that we've been able to meet certain milestones, we'll be able to get out a message about the Ford brand in Australia that will resonate both internally and externally."

Osborne says that though most of the new Falcon's advertising campaign was locked away before he took the reins, changes have been made.

"They'll be subtle differences [in the way we communicate about Falcon], but I think those differences will give a hint into where we plan to go in the future," Osborne said.

"As I said, the brand here is considered exclusively masculine -- we want to move that from masculine to more gender-neutral. We want to speak to families; we want to speak a little bit more to women, as well.

"Those kinds of elements you'll see as part of the Falcon launch activities, you'll see some of those elements in the Falcon launch advertising," he said.

To comment on this article click here