Ford’s response to tariffs birthed a pro-America campaign that outsold Toyota

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On the evening of March 27, Ford Motor Co.'s marketing leaders called a meeting at World Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. The country was in turmoil as the second quarter was about to start. The automaker had to do something to keep showrooms buzzing as consumers fretted over whether newly issued tariffs would push car prices higher.

Ford already had a new ad campaign and incentive program "in the can," as they say. It was good to go. But something felt off.

"This was a moment in time," Rob Kaffl, Ford's director of U.S. sales and dealer relations, told the Detroit Free Press, part of the Paste BN Network, about that night. "We were thinking: What would it take for Ford Motor Co. to shine during this uneasiness in the market both for consumers and automotive?"

That night, Ford leaders would end up ditching the company's campaign plans and instead spend the weekend in a frenzy working up a new campaign with a message to promote the automaker as America's car company, dubbed: "From America, For America." As part of it, Ford offered all customers employee prices on most of its vehicles starting April 3 running to July 7.

The "From America, For America" campaign would end up offsetting Ford's dismal first-quarter results and provide a positive light in a year when Ford is leading in safety recalls. The campaign was instrumental in delivering a 14% gain in Ford's second-quarter sales and, on July 1, the Ford brand − not including Lincoln − became the No. 1-selling brand in the nation for the first half of the year at 1,058,323 vehicles, topping its closest rival, Toyota brand, by 550 vehicles and outselling Chevrolet brand sales by 136,437 vehicles.

General Motors, which makes Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC brands, remained the top-selling automaker for the first six months at 1,439,951 vehicles in the United States. Toyota and GM spokespeople declined to comment for this article.

This is the eighth time in the past decade that the Ford brand has taken the sales crown for the first half of the year, according to Edmunds.com. But given the circumstances and how it came to pass, this time makes it the most meaningful victory, Kaffl said.

"Had we not beat Toyota, we’d still be high-fiving, honestly," Kaffl said. "All of us were really proud of what we accomplished over the last 90 days. This campaign and what Ford represents isn’t just a marketing campaign. It’s every man and woman working tirelessly in our Michigan assembly plants and our Kentucky assembly plants. … This is the U.S. manufacturing that makes us so proud to be working for a company like Ford. To beat Toyota is the cherry on the sundae."

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'A win is a win'

The excitement at the Glass House, Ford's world headquarters in Dearborn, flowed from the top down on July 2 as the company leaders digested the news. CEO Jim Farley told the Detroit Free Press in an email that he was proud the corporate team and dealer body rallied as one in a time of uncertainty for consumers.

"Toyota is a tough competitor, but this is about much more than a sales race, it’s about being the company Americans trust and turn to when it matters," said Farley, who started his career in marketing at Toyota. "This was the result of a lot of teamwork, from our awesome factory teams delivering the production and launching new vehicles with quality, to our marketing team getting out the word about our ‘From America, For America’ employee pricing offer to the nearly 3,000 Ford dealers that serve every community across the country.”

For Ford dealer Tim Hovik, owner of San Tan Ford in Gilbert, Arizona, about 15 miles east of Phoenix, beating Toyota is simply "exciting," he said.

"There’s a lot going on in our country right now," Hovik said. "There are few things more American than Ford. Ford has been a titan of our industrial strength for a century. I’ve talked to a number of dealers, and it’s a huge pride point for dealers to be the distribution center for Ford Motor Co. right now."

But there are some who might say Ford's sales victory does not completely reflect Americans answering Ford's call to patriotism. That's because the sales figures include commercial fleet sales. But others say a sale is a sale and a win is a win.

"These are fleet and retail combined, and Ford does include heavy trucks," said Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds.com. "But hey, a win is a win."

Put another way by Ford dealer Brad Akins, owner of Akins Ford in Winder, Georgia: "A one-point win is the same as a touchdown win."

The birth of 'From America, For America'

On March 27, the auto industry needed a win. Earlier in the day, President Donald Trump announced he was imposing a 25% tariff on all imported vehicles and imported automotive parts to take effect on April 3. Given that most vehicles made in the United States use parts from suppliers abroad, the move almost guaranteed car prices − no matter where the vehicle was made − would rise to offset the costs of tariffs.

Ford was confident on one front: It has the largest manufacturing footprint in the United States of any automaker, importing just 21% of the vehicles it sells here. GM, on the other hand, imports 46% of the vehicles it sells in the United States. According to USimportdata.com, last year GM led imports bringing in about 750,000 vehicles for sale in the United States, most of them from Canada and Mexico. Japan-based Toyota was second with 657,000 vehicles imported.

Still, Farley had concerns about the tariff's impact. In a memo sent to the Ford workforce on March 27, which was obtained by the Detroit Free Press, Farley wrote, "While Ford supports the president’s vision of building a stronger auto industry and manufacturing base in the United States, the situation is dynamic and the impacts of the tariffs are likely to be significant across our industry − affecting automakers, suppliers, dealers and customers."

On top of that, Ford's U.S. sales in the first quarter came in 1.3% lower than the year-ago period. Ford reported a 5% decline in total revenue for the quarter. And, despite continued moves to improve quality in recent years, Ford continues to lead the industry in safety recalls this year.

So that night, Ford's leadership rethought its planned April sales campaign, seeking to guarantee a win.

"We were talking about things like during 9/11, right, when Ford came out at the time with 0% financing and GM obviously did the same thing," Kaffl said. "That was a time when the U.S. industry could be there for the consumer. It was just collectively: How do we get that message out there that we are the largest U.S. manufacturer, the most American manufacturer out there?"

The idea of "From America, For America" was born. In its TV spots, an announcer asked: "Which automaker employs the most hourly autoworkers in the country? Ford. Which automaker assembles the most vehicles in the country? Ford. That's not a coincidence. It's a commitment. And, now at this unprecedented moment in automotive history, who benefits from Ford's commitment to America for over 120 years? You."

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Working through the weekend

With Farley signing off on the campaign, the next 72-plus hours became a whirlwind.

“We went into full execution mode working through the weekend, Friday through Sunday, in the office to pull together the offers, playbooks for dealers, the marketing team getting behind it, making sure we were aligning the production that was getting released and have the inventory to back it up," Kaffl said.

When it came to inventory, Ford was in a good place. At the end of March, Ford's gross day supply of inventory, which includes the inventory at dealerships as well as vehicles that are in-transit to a dealership, was a robust 74 days, Kaffl said. Days' supply is a measure of the number of days it would take at the current sales rate to deplete available inventory. The auto industry typically considers 60 days a healthy rate.

The marketing team had to coordinate with Ford's manufacturing teams to ensure the smooth flow of products from factories to dealerships. Ford had a new Expedition and Lincoln Navigator coming, too, so it was crucial those launches rolled out amid this program, Kaffl said.

Farley goes to Ford dealers for reaction

By early the next week, Ford was ready to unveil the campaign to its dealers.

"They presented it and we loved it," said Eddie Stivers, president of Stivers Automotive Group in Atlanta and chair of the Ford National Dealer Council. "This was the quickest mobilization of a marketing plan that I can remember. They pulled it together over a weekend. It was a quick hard shift, and they executed it at a high level."

Stivers, who owns five Ford stores across Arizona, Iowa, Alabama and Georgia, has been a Ford dealer for 31 years and said this was the best sales and marketing campaign he can remember because it removed the apprehension for consumers out of what was coming in terms of new car prices.

"Consumers were concerned," Stivers said. "They didn’t know what would happen with pricing. It provided transparency and provided clarity in an unclear time. And it resonated with consumers. Since 9/11, this is the most patriotic time I can remember. The feel of the country is pro-America, and 'From America, For America' is resonating with the public."

Sales across his stores rose 25% in the second quarter compared with the year-ago period, Stivers said. He expects sales to be up for the first half, too, across his Ford stores, on the second-quarter sales strength.

At Akins Ford in Winder, Georgia, about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta, the campaign pumped up second-quarter sales by 11%, most of which were new customers turning in imports and other brands, to buy Ford SUVs and pickups, owner Brad Akins said.

The campaign made Akins Ford the No. 1 selling Ford dealership in the nation, unseating Livonia, Michigan-based Bill Brown Ford by selling 153 more vehicles in the quarter than Bill Brown Ford did, Akins said and Ford confirmed.

“The biggest thing we heard from customers was that they didn’t hear price increases," Akins said. "In our market, it really stifled out the message of an increase and brought about the better message of value.”

As the campaign rolled out, Farley and the senior leadership team took to the road for the second annual "dealer engagement tour," Stivers said. Over six weeks, Farley visited with a third of Ford's 2,800 dealerships, spending half a day with various dealers in Ford’s five regions in an “intimate setting” asking them, “What should we do next?” Stivers said.

“There was a lot of great input. Jim took copious notes and based on the television (advertising) that’s already in rotation it was a collaborative process," Stivers said.

The most recent ads Stivers is referring to were launched in mid-June. They are a series of provocations at other American auto manufacturers. Ford references the 2008 financial crisis to declare itself the most American among its local competitors − GM and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler), without naming them specifically. In the ad, Ford employees working in factories say that if other car companies "were like us, they would have said no to the taxpayer bailout and added thousands of American jobs."

During the financial crisis, GM and Chrysler both benefited from federal bailouts to keep their companies afloat. Ford declined a bailout. Instead, it borrowed $6 billion from the Department of Energy and had mortgaged many of its assets before the crisis, including its famous Blue Oval logo.

As the Free Press has reported, Ford said it is the only manufacturer among the Detroit Three to increase hourly jobs in America since the recession, adding 4,500 jobs, while GM has gone from 78,000 in 2007 to 47,000 today, and Stellantis has gone from 45,000 pre-recession jobs to 38,800 hourly workers today. GM and Stellantis did not comment on that report.

Stivers attended the meeting with Farley in the Southeast region and said: “It was a frank, intimate and private and positive conversation with leadership. They care enough to engage with their dealers. This was a conversation on how we become better in a manufacturer-dealer relationship and serve the customer better.”

'Tough to stop a freight train'

For that reason, Stivers said, he has no doubt Ford will have a strong third quarter, noting, "It’s tough to stop a freight train flying down the track and that’s what it feels like to be a Ford dealer."

On July 8, Ford is expected to reveal a new campaign to replace its employee pricing in "From America, For America." Kaffl said it will keep Ford's sales momentum going in the second half.

He wouldn't reveal details of the new campaign, only to say, "We’re trying to answer maybe a different type of consumer need or pain point they have to buying vehicles. We’re still finalizing plans.”

Stivers said he has seen the new campaign and declared it will be a "robust" program.

But some analysts aren't optimistic. David Whiston of Morningstar said the employee pricing campaign juiced up demand for Ford. He said it also helped that Ford has some "desirable vehicles as well" to drive sales.

"I don’t expect the momentum to continue at the same pace after the promotion end. ... And I don’t expect Ford to stay ahead of Toyota unless they continue discounting in some form," Whiston said.

Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities, agreed: "This was a step in the right direction for Ford. Still heavy lifting ahead with headwinds."

But Ford has new vehicle variants coming to spark buyer interest. The F-150 Lobo, a performance street truck, hits the market in the third quarter. Ford will also add the off-road trim level, Explorer Tremor, to that SUV lineup.

“The cars are the stars. I think our product lineup is set up for it," Kaffl said. "There’s been ups and downs in the industry, but there is still a really healthy retail industry that’s out there. So with our stock position, the product lineup we have and the soon to be announced third quarter program. … I think if this program resonates the way we think it will, the way employee pricing did, I think we’ll have success in the third quarter.”

Ford has already started increasing new vehicle production for the second half in anticipation for strong sales momentum, he said. Besides, Kaffl said, nothing makes him happier than to beat analysts' predictions.

Jamie L. LaReau is the senior autos writer who covers Ford Motor Co. for the Detroit Free Press. Contact Jamie at jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. To sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.