Holden goes better, but Ford will go further

Ford and Holden will be engaged in a battle of similar slogans later this year when Ford Australia introduces the blue oval's new global ad slogan 'Go further'.

The ‘Go further’ pitch replaces the ‘Drive one’ tag used in markets such as the US and ‘Feel the difference’, which has been used in the likes of Europe and Australia.

The new slogan has the potential to clash with Holden’s ‘Go better’, though Holden says it is currently not planning any action to prevent Ford from using its new line.

“From our own point of view, our Go Better campaign has worked well over the years,” says Holden spokeswoman Kate Lonsdale.

“It resonates well with consumers. We’re confident in our marketing strategy, but we’ll watch with interest what Ford does. We have no real concerns.”

Ford Australia is set to launch the new ‘Go further’ slogan about mid-year, though is still working on exact timing.

“We’re still a while away from rolling it out here,” Ford Australia spokeswoman Sinead Phipps says. “It is a global brand promise. It will come here and we’re working out how we make it fit with everything else we’re doing … and what’s the right time this year to launch it.

“It makes more sense to launch it with a vehicle.

“It’s really more than just an advertising slogan for us. It’s about you having to be able to live up to it. It’s not just cars, its service … and all our employees do two days of volunteering a year on company time, and it’s seeing if we can incorporate that into it.”

Asked if Ford was expecting a call from Holden, Phipps said, “We’ll deal with that if we do.”

While the new ‘Go further’ slogan is also aimed at Ford’s own employees, Ford’s ‘Drive one’ and ‘Feel the difference’ campaigns were targeting directly at consumers – challenging them to drive its products and compare directly with competitors.

Ford Australia ran commercials, with models such as the Focus, pointing out their advantages over direct segment rivals.

Ford is hoping the new ‘Go further’ slogan can resonate globally with consumers with the same kind of success as McDonald’s ‘I’m loving it’ and Nike’s ‘Just do it’.

The ‘Go further’ campaign doesn’t replace the company’s ‘One Ford’ motto, which was introduced by president and CEO Alan Mulally not long after he arrived from Boeing in 2006.

The ‘One Ford’ motto reflects the company’s product strategy to save costs and improve efficiencies by building a single vehicle for each segment worldwide rather than its old approach where it would have different models in different markets.

It’s the ‘One Ford’ strategy that will see the demise of the Falcon as a locally built large car. The current model is only guaranteed until 2016, when it is expected to be replaced by a model based on, or identical to, the next-generation US market front-wheel-drive/all-wheel-drive Ford Taurus.