Ford Toolbox tuned by Espresso: a flexible resource for dealers

Digital technology has brought new, painless, affordable ways of implementing targeted marketing communications. The creation of images and text, and then modifying and combining them into a set of print-ready pages, is now accessible to all - although adjusting colour images for printing is still a job for the printers.
Ford has been running digitally printed direct mail service since the turn of the millennium. Now, the new Hansaprint's Espresso Service based Ford Toolbox does everything that its predecessor did, and much more. The Group's Finnish sales company modifies marketing material from the international Ford to suit the local circumstances, and sends out the materials via a centralised network for use by its retailers.
The new Ford Toolbox allows Ford dealerships to further modify these materials to make campaign, seasonal brochure and letter templates in the specifi c shape and size that suits them.
Where possible, the aim was to make the upgraded service even more fl exible and easy to use. At the same time, the company wanted to take much greater advantage of the potential of digital technology. For instance, Ford is redefining its criteria for market segmentation and mailing. This goal appears to have been realised more than adequately, even though the initial phase has been arduous.
Parts & Accessories specialist, Marketing Manager Mika Waldén at Oy Ford Ab says the comprehensive service offered by Hansaprint tipped the scales in its favour in the fi nal stretch. For the printers, the switch from being an industrial supplier to an actively involved provider of the customer's marketing communications requires an in-depth understanding of the customer's operation and operating methods, with development work an integral part of the customer relationship.
"In the end, we had three competing offers to choose from. In technical terms, the solutions were quite evenly matched. But we were impressed by Hansaprint's active approach, and by the way the company made its own expertise available to us. The offer hit the right spot; it did a good job of implementing what we were after and what we thought we needed," Waldén sums up.

LAUNCHED TO A RAPID SCHEDULE
Ford dealerships are all owned by private traders or retail chains. There are 65 Ford dealerships in Finland offering maintenance and spare parts services. The retailer portal has almost as many users as the dealerships do.
At the end of last year, Oy Ford Ab invited alternative service providers to submit bids for upgrading its network services. The system was then accessible to Ford dealerships right from the first working day of this year. The first letter templates and seasonal brochures made in the new way and aimed at retail chains were ready by mid-January. The system testing was even fi tted into this tight schedule, along with improvements in areas found to be in need of development. Also involved in the development work, apart from Ford and Hansaprint, were the YRBrands/Y&R Brands advertising agency and Kauppalehti 121.

"We've had a friendly team spirit. But the changes we wanted have not been easy to implement in practice. The complete package also incorporates a lot of totally new features. We've gone through the issues together, yet, nevertheless, the two sides have had to be able to read each others minds to some extent," Waldén admits.
He adds that in-house this has meant a bigger shift in working methods than simply updating the technology. The company wanted a more open system than was previously used by Ford dealers. Waldén also says the company's marketing transparency has now clearly increased.
"Previously, our marketing was run at Group management level. We now think about these things in various groupings, with people from Hansaprint and the advertising agency. Practice has shown that, the more people there are thinking about the issues, the surer we are of fi nding quick, functional solutions in various situations," Waldén says.

MORE CHOICE
Ford Europe is doing better than it has for a couple of decades. The company again achieved profi table results in June-September. This is now the sixth profi table quarter in succession, and the most profi table since 1988. Ford is Finland's third best-selling make of car.
"We hope the upgraded system will get us into a dialogue with companies using the service. In the future, we will, whenever possible, seek to apply the feedback we receive, whether it be a problem with using a template or more a matter of principle," Waldén outlines his vision.
Here is a direct link from the network service to Ford's materials bank, so that retailers, too, can use them more easily.
"We have divided the Ford cars in Finland into three basic segments. This also determines the different ways we approach customers. We target different measures at owners of new cars and at drivers of old ones. Offers vary, as do the things that different Ford dealerships want to emphasise. Our upgraded network service meets these changing needs better than ever. Thanks to digital production, variable data can be printed without a hitch," Waldén says.

Further information: Sales Manager Paulus Palomurto, Hansaprint Direct Oy