Ford Opens Pop-Up Stores in California to Fight Honda, Toyota
On Thursday night, Ford will open its fourth pop-up store on Market Street in downtown San Francisco, throwing a party intended to draw in curious and perhaps skeptical West Coasters.
In each quarter this year, Ford has used a vacant space for a “Go Further” shop for 30 days. People who come in can’t buy anything, but they can take a look at a few Ford cars and participate in uniquely themed activities. Ford says they are trying to make a positive impression on locals, improving the image of the brand and getting people to look at their cars.
In California, Ford is well behind Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.
Indeed, Ford doesn’t have a dealership in the city limits of San Francisco.
The store that opens Thursday will be film-themed. People who drift into the store can do a casting call for chance for a role in an independent movie Ford is sponsoring. Other shops offered fitness classes, cooking classes and competitions and art galleries, said Travis Calhoun, who handles Ford marketing in the Western U.S.
“We have increased purchase consideration and brand favorability in the region around the stores,” Calhoun said. Each store has gotten progressively more visitors and the final store is expected to build on that trend because of its location in a prime foot traffic area. Ford said it has generated about 10,000 dealer leads from the events.
Each month, Ford executives talk about how its products are starting to sell well in the Sunshine State. It’s important because one in 10 new cars in the U.S. are sold there and it’s also been a challenging location for domestic auto makers. Calhoun said the San Francisco region, which is one of 22 regions Ford differentiates in the U.S., has had the second-largest sales increase this year and has grown 17% year-to-date.
According to Polk, a firm that provides research based on registration data, Ford’s sales at dealerships in California made up about 8.75% of all sales compared with Toyota’s 23% and Honda’s 15%. This number doesn’t include fleet sales. Hyundai Motor Co.’s market share, which has one third the volume of Ford nationally, has even higher retail sales than Ford in California. Ford’s national market share is about 15%, a figure that includes sales to commercial fleets and retail sales to consumers.
Marketing chief Jim Farley said Ford is a challenger brand in California, meaning it has to conquest sales from people who normally would only consider Toyota or Honda.
Indeed, Farley has said even taken steps to hide the Ford name in commercials and on certain vehicles so that people don’t just shut down and immediately disregard the vehicle.
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