In a recent update from Ford Performance Marketing Manager Henry Ford III, it was made known that Ford Motor Company intends to bring its newest Raptor performance off-road truck to the Chinese Market. With a widely emerging auto industry in China, the Japanese, Detroit Three, and European automakers are fighting for brand position and recognition. To help build the strength of the Ford brand in the Chinese Market, Henry Ford III expressed Ford’s desire to build its “halo-effect” through the release of some of its premiere models into the new market. The Raptor would come as an addition to the already popular and performance-oriented Mustang GT, Focus ST, and Fiesta ST in the Chinese Market. Henry Ford III added, “We do see a big halo lift from these performance products in the US and Europe, and we do expect to do the same thing in China.”
As these companies seek to create a foothold in one of the last large auto markets, brand recognition and association are important to future growth in this sector of the world market. According to Ford the Raptor will not see any watered down performance with the only changes occurring on the exterior to comply with Chinese regulations. There is expected to be an increase in price for the Chinese market in comparison to the US, but only due to costs associated with doing business in China and transporting the Michigan-made Raptor across the Pacific.
Source: AutoBlog
I read recent that GM China has seen growth in the last year on the back of SUVS and luxury cars. The emerging middle class in China is eager to buy aspirational vehicles and is looking to models from the Detroit Three. It will be interesting to see if the Raptor will help Ford to expand market share in China.
It will be interesting to see how this entrance into the market will change the dynamic and make up of the auto demographics. In recent history, the automotive industry has been booming as a whole but, as the EUSME Centre and China-Britain Business Council point out in their report ( http://www.ccilc.pt/sites/default/files/eu_sme_centre_sector_report_-_the_automotive_market_in_china_update_-_may_2015.pdf pg 8). In this chart, we see that while auto sales have risen steeply the truck sales have not risen nearly as much. It will be interesting to see if and how this affects the truck sales. In a different study (https://www.accenture.com/t00010101T000000__w__/fr-fr/_acnmedia/Accenture/Conversion-Assets/DotCom/Documents/Local/fr-fr/PDF_4/Accenture-Chinas-Automotive-Market-Cosumer-Digital-Marketing-Insights.pdf ) it shows that 64% of people are influenced by opinions shared on social media, so it will be interesting to see what the reaction will be from the public as shared on Social media and whether it will help or hinder Ford’s image as a whole.
After meeting with Metalsa today, Murray’s question about the Ford Raptor in China led me back to this post. I found it particularly interesting in Bill Cosgrove’s response that one of the main reasons for this car going into market into “small car-ed” China is simply due to luxury and to appeal to those customers. Hopefully, as China rises in GDP per capita, which its doing at a great rate, the Raptor will reap the benefits, only time will tell, but I’m glad we were able to bring this article up in discussion today.
Given China’s issue with air quality, do you think a vehicle with a lower MPG will still be appealing to consumers? I wonder if the negative externalities are so great already, if consumers will recognize the correlation and favor smaller, more fuel efficient cars.