Anyone spot what my gripe is about this screenshot from the Ford Motor Co.?



   If you discount the photograph of CEO Alan Mulally, there’s not a single Ford logo on the page. Even in the photo it’s not complete.
   One argument might be that Ford doesn’t want to associate the whole company with the Ford brand, given that it also has Lincoln, Mercury and Volvo that it wishes to give equal time to. (How the mighty have fallen. Remember when we had to write Mazda, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Daimler on to the end of that? The time before last when it had four brands, the fourth was Edsel.)
   Unfortunately, for most of the world, this argument falls on deaf ears. I specifically mean those markets—virtually every one outside North America—where neither Lincoln nor Mercury is sold.
   Ford, as the corporation, is associated with Ford, the brand with the blue oval.
   And this does not seem to be a good time to skimp on that association.
   In the US, Ford is receiving more acclaim than Chrysler or GM because it hasn’t used taxpayer funds, and it was the only company to have models in the top 10 as a result of the government’s “cash for clunkers” programme.
   And that translates wonderfully to the brand—which is why the badge adorns the cars. A mere ‘Ford Motor Company’ in Helvetica seems out of place in a day and age when consumer power is stronger, and the omission of the logo harms the overall brand equity of Ford. Even with Massimo Vignelli’s Helveticization of American corporate design, the Ford blue oval remained present—and in my book, Vignelli, at 78 years of age, still has yet to put a foot wrong. Posted by Jack Yan, 08:16  permalink

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