myFord Magazine Special Issue Spells Disaster

Last week I received a special issue of myFORD (myFordmag.com), Ford Motor's owner magazine, entitled "New Directions". First off, I've owned a variety of Fords over the past few decades, and they've all treated me well. But frankly, I'm not really sure what they are trying to do with the latest issue of their custom magazine. If the goal is "sell, sell, sell...feature, feature, feature" then they are doing a good job. myFORD has never been an elite lifestyle magazine (actually, it's always been pretty poor), but this one may take the cake.

There is no need to go into great detail on what's wrong with myFord magazine. It takes just one analysis.

There are 17 separate content sections in the magazine (mini-features, sidebars, etc.). Of the 17 areas, Ford is mentioned in the title or first sentence of 14 of them. What this means is that the magazine has nothing to do with customers...it's all about Ford.  Just take a look:

"...Ford Focus is a sporty car with serious smarts..."
"...at Ford, hydrogen fuels are starting to hit full speed..."
"...Ford has received more 5-star crash ratings than any other..."
"...the Ford Personal Safety System responds in milliseconds..."
"...Ford is continually improving its vehicles..."

I'll stop there. I'm sure you are wondering what they did in the other three sections that did not mention Ford in the title or first line? One mentions the Focus (a Ford Brand), one mentions the Escape (another Ford Brand), and the last one is a short sidebar on "What Five Star Means". Wow, no mention of Ford...until the 4th sentence (and the big Ford Taurus Trophy next to it).

This is not content marketing...it may not even be marketing. I can't even start at recommendations or changes because there is no place to start. If I were Ford, I'd start over. Does anyone read this thing? (besides me, that is.)

It doesn't get better with the myFord website
While I was looking for the myFord website a couple things happened. First, I typed in myford.com into the browser. I was directed to a UK machine shop in Nottingham (which by the way is celebrating 74 years of service). I wonder how many Ford owners end up on that site. If Ford was smart, they'd do whatever it takes to get that URL (or should have picked a different magazine name).

Second, I came across an article on the Motley Fool called "myFord Makes Me Cringe" by Seth Jayson (I didn't realize there was a hate club against the magazine). You can read this for yourself, but here is a taste of what Seth writes:

"Yes, myFord is just a tiny bit of a vast company, but I also believe that sometimes we can diagnose the body's disease by examining a single digit. If this plug-per-paragraph magazine is any indication of the sophistication of Ford's marketing people, they need to take a break from laying off assembly-line workers and start hunting bigger game."

Ouch!

Finally, when coming to the myFordmag.com website, I found a collection of covers that direct you to digital magazines for each issue. Not a lot of thought went into this one. No user experience, no searching for articles, no finding answers to questions through magazine archives, no interactivity (I'll stop there). It could be so much more...

To Ford Marketing: As a Ford owner and someone who has and had many family members work at Ford, please, I beg you, do something...quickly.

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Comments

[Bud Caddell]

Joe, dead on about the myFord website. Why is it acceptable to still only offer digi-mags? As I tell clients, when you move from one medium to another, you MUST adapt for an optimal experience. No one would ever consider merely printing a website and packaging it as a magazine -- why then, the reverse?

[Joe Pulizzi, Junta42]

Good point Bud. There are many ways to leverage digital magazines, but Ford's is an example of how not to do it. It's funny how some companies use the digital magazine and pdf in this way...especially the likes of a company like Ford. Digital mags have very refined purposes, which unfortunately most are unaware of. I'll be blogging about this shortly. Too important of an issue.

Keep the Faith!
Joe

[patrick kearney]

i just saw an advertisement for the new dodge challenger ,ford should bring back the ford capri2.8i i owned one in 1984 in ireland excellent car would be a good rival against the challenger