Throwing the Brand Out with the Bathwater

This week at the Chicago Auto Show, Ford announced that - just months after they retired the model - they would be resurrecting the Taurus/Sable nameplate. This summer when they release new models of the Ford Five Hundred sedan, the Freestyle crossover, and the Mercury Montego, they will be rechristened as the Taurus, Taurus X, and Mercury Sable respectively. I think this is an important step in helping the recovery of this particular Detroit giant. How big of a step it is I'll get into in a bit.

I also had occasion this past week to hear Jack Welch speak before the National Automobile Dealers Association. When first asked what he thought GM and Ford were doing wrong he sighed exhaustively and said "Jesus ..." More impactful, though, was when he took an informal poll of the audience. He started by asserting that he thought Detroit was getting better but they were still in the process of brand recovery so it's still an uphill battle. He then asked the crowd if they thought the current cars were better then peoples' perception of them. A majority of hands went up - mine included.

See these are the issues: perception, brands, story.

The product is on an upturn but they've squandered most of their equity so most of these early-recovery innovations will be spent getting their brands out of the black. So if admitting you have a problem is step #1 and making some immediate course corrections is step #2 the next questions have to be How did this happen and Is what they're doing now enough?

In the case of Ford, I think resurrecting the Taurus is a smart tactic. Who in their right mind thought it would be a great idea to kill the model for middle America - your average apple pie sedan? I think it's safe to say that most people have at least ridden in this classic at one time or another. How many models can you say that about? But I think Ford's using the wrong 'r.' I think they would have been better off reinventing the Taurus rather than slapping the nameplate on a slight redux of the model's less-than-popular successor. It seems everyone - especially Ford - has forgotten the legacy of the Taurus brand.

Before the Cadillac and Nissan design renaissance there was the Taurus. In a sea of boxy, post-seventies aircraft carriers, Ford birthed an automotive design revolution with the original jelly-bean inspired '85 Taurus. It looked like "the car of the future" (this was reinforced with great product placement as the police cars in Robocop - this helped Ford tell the "car-of-the-future" story). And everyone wanted to emulate the design of this innovative vehicle.

What followed was the most dangerous spoil of success - brand stagnation. It's so successful we shouldn't change it at all. And they didn't. Not significantly for the next decade. Even then it was, at best, a slight update with the jelly bean model making way for the late '90s "bubble" Taurus. This changed little also and only for the worst with all of the design funk being squared out and leaving a large, average-looking sedan. Ironically, the car had evolved into the very thing that the original had rebelled against.

So, again, I make the case that what they should be doing is reinventing the brand. It may sound crazy but if I was Ford I would make the new Taurus about reinventing the design of the American sedan again. That's the right way to be a good steward to a powerful brand like the Taurus.

As for Detroit recovery, I put more stock in broad strokes like GM's new electric car the Chevy Volt. This could be a crazy move and it could indeed fail. But as Tom Peters points out "crazy times call for crazy measures" and every now and then you have to blow up what you've worked forever to create and reinvent it in order to ensure your organization's staying power in the years to come.

Do you see the nuance? You have to risk blowing up what you've created but not at the cost of your most valuable asset - your brand. See, it's not enough to do something 'good.' You have to jump in the deep end and either triumph or fail fabulously. But being 'good enough' is clearly no longer good enough. And you need to be a steward to a brand and help it grow and develop. You can't just leave it alone for years thinking that times will keep supporting your product because they always have. A steward helps your brand change with and for the times.