Ford's Fiesta Movement: What Successes Might Big B2C Brands Have With Social Media?

I'm going to snag a topic that would fit in well over at Aaron's Verdantic blog--the use of social media to sell Ford's new, highly fuel efficient car, The Fiesta.

It was a post over the weekend by Chris Brogan, and his referral to Pete Cashmore's post over at Mashable that first tuned me into this campaign for the US launch of the car which won't occur until 2010.

The effort began months ago with Ford soliciting applications (over 4,000 were received) from active online bloggers, of which they have chosen 100 for its Fiesta Movement. These "digerati" are each being given a Fiesta for sixth months, and they are expected to detail, with full honesty, their experiences with, and impressions of, the car as they drive it and complete various assigned "missions."

Ford's hope is to help improve its brand image with the younger US public. Heck, at least Ford is still holding on to some brand value among US car companies. They were ranked 49th in the 2008 Interbrand/BusinessWeek's Best Global Brands List (slipping from 19th in 2004), while GM and Chrysler haven't even made the top 100 for any of the past 5 years.

What I found interesting about the two posts is that Cashmore starts with a specific pondering about whether social media can help drive car sales, and then Brogan broadens this out:

Once we get past the kumbaya answers like “everyone must join the conversation,” we drive directly into the “how exactly does this sell more tractors?” types of questions.

Both believe the answer is that social media will positively effect sales, but they lack some certainty.

I'm initially surprised by this bit of hesitation, considering the examples of Monty Python, BlendTec and Dell brought up by Cashmore (not to mention lots of other examples detailed in a book I'm sure they've both read, Groundswell). I can even throw out an entire music genre built up in the late-1990s from simple "discussion board" tools and the bands' willingness to share free recordings of their music.

But I think their momentary hesitation is really about whether big brands in the B2C realm can achieve great sales through social media.

It's one thing if you have a great product or service and can build a successful niche market through a cadre of even just a few evangelists, it's another thing to be a multi-billion dollar behemoth and find the same relative impact.

Another issue is the fact that the broader adoption of social media is a relatively new phenomenon and, from my reading, there aren't many cases yet detailing specific effects on the bottom line for many of the companies that are lauded as being successful social media brands. (Other appropriate, goal-oriented (non-financial) achievements of social media are a bit clearer already.)

As people commenting on Cashmore's and Brogan's posts are already noting, its likely that most of the "beta testers" will have positive impressions of the Fiesta. I suspect it will be like the BzzAgent effect so well documented in this New York Times piece from 2004. Even with no pressure to like a product, most people have a positive impression of anything they are given a chance to try out before it's released to the masses.

Here's hoping that Ford has planned out some clear metrics for this campaign, and that they will choose to share these analyses.  They will naturally be imperfect, however, since the car itself will be such an innovative item in the US market when it is launched, it will be hard to determine exactly what the added value of the Fiesta Movement is on its sales.