Ford Ka Case

1. What is your opinion of Ford’s strategy (up to and including the development of the Ka) in the small car market in France? i) Ford made its presence in small segment car (less than 390 cms) with its Ford Fiesta model which was one of the top 5 selling cars in small segment in France and top 3 in Europe. ii) With market getting highly segment and competitors’ move to come up with models as per requirement of highly fragment segment made Ford to decide to come up with new model to target emerging segment Trend-B market. iii) Renault was the first to move to target this emerging segment with Twingo model, which took every one with surprise and it was well accepted by the segment. They offered more forcing competitors to offer more than basic transportation. To respond to this competition Ford decided to come with Ford-Ka model to compete in the same segment as Twingo iv) In response to develop the car quickly with low turn over time and development cost, Ford decided to manufacture Ka with the chassis of old Fiesta model, which proved economical but hindered the technical innovation. v) Twingo had changed perception of people to what to expect from a small car, so Ford even though challenged to be a spacious car, it was not perceived by consumers, according to whom Ka was just spacious in look from exteriors but not interiors. vi) Ford’s Ka could not communicate strongly the message to the target consumer. Consumers were confused with the positioning of the car. Due to lack of strong communication message it lead to a distorted perception of Ford Ka’s image in consumers’ mind. vii) Ford also went back to sell older version of Fiesta in the segment of small cars when it could not catch up with the increasing demands of highly fragmented consumer base and with competition catching up competitors were providing more for value of money of consumer. Ford was a bit late to react to this and hence lacked to capitalize in the segmented market.