Can a company that practically invented the SUV convince consumers to buy its cars? For Ford Motor's (F) marketing czar, James Farley, that is a career-defining question. Yes, Ford has nearly caught up to Toyota Motor (TM) in the quality stakes and it continues to sell more pickups in the U.S. than anyone. But in an age of lofty fuel prices, the famous blue oval can reasonably be compared to roadkill: flattened and none too fragrant.
If anyone can revive the brand, it may be Farley, who guided Toyota's marketing efforts in the U.S. before being lured away 10 months ago by Ford CEO Alan Mulally.
Still, consider the challenge. On July 24, Ford announced the biggest quarterly loss in its 105-year history—a gag-inducing $8.7 billion—as well as plans to turbocharge its move away from gas-guzzling SUVs. Putting the company back in the black will mean selling millions of fuel-efficient sedans and small cars. And so far this year, Ford has 10.4% of the passenger car market, half what it had in 1995. Farley, who has been cutting through the bureaucracy and getting rid of superfluous marketing people, sees his challenge this way: "It's not so much convincing people who have walked away from us," he says. "It's engaging people who don't think of Ford as a car brand." If the 45-year-old Farley prevails, company insiders say he has a decent chance of succeeding Mulally, who is 62.
When Mulally became CEO in September 2006, he quickly concluded that Ford's marketing operation was broken. Ford had been through five failed strategies for its cars in as many years because no one could agree on what the brand stood for anymore. At first, Mulally flailed, reversing a decision to dump the well-known Taurus name and publicly advocating reviving the "Have You Driven a Ford Lately?" slogan. Then he went looking for a new marketing chief. "Given where we were and where we needed to get to, I felt someone from outside would break some molds," says Mulally, who came from Boeing (BA).
TAKING THE CHALLENGEAs it happens, a relative of Chairman Bill Ford had been urging him to hire Farley. Besides noting the obvious merits of Farley's resume, Bill Ford was intrigued by Farley's emotional connection to Ford. When the two men met, Farley told of his beloved grandfather who had worked at Ford and sold Lincolns in Grosse Pointe, Mich., in the 1920s. The grandson seemed an ideal fit: an outsider, but one with Ford in his blood. Farley also had a reputation for pushing conservative Toyota to take risks that paid off, such as bringing small, youth-oriented Scion vehicles to SUV-crazed America. Mulally and Farley got together last summer in the corporate jet hangar at Los Angeles International Airport to talk. Mulally offered unprecedented authority over global marketing and a big say in what vehicles Ford sold worldwide. "Jim seemed born for the job," Mulally says.
Farley had recently been promoted to run the Lexus brand. He and his wife, Lia, had adopted a baby girl. Was this the moment to jump from ascendant Toyota to flailing Ford? One of his biggest concerns was whether Mulally's shake-up would endure. It's a legitimate worry. "Ford has to change a lot for a maverick approach like Farley's to take hold," says Anne Hanson, a former Ford marketing executive. But, she adds: "Saving Ford has to appeal to one's ego rather than playing it relatively safe at Toyota." Farley told his wife he wanted to do "something important." He knows it sounds corny. "But helping Toyota rack up another $12 billion in profits isn't much of a legacy." Plus Ford generally pays better than Toyota.
After mulling the offer for two weeks, Farley said yes. His decision stunned the industry. The move was so unexpected that Toyota hadn't even made Farley sign a noncompete agreement. He went to Ford with at least five years' worth of Toyota's plans in his head (though he insists they will stay there).
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