Ford doesn’t seem phased in the slightest over Chevrolet’s attempts to pick a competitive advantage in the roll-formed, high-strength steel bed spots it began airing last month.
The ads show a Silverado and F-150 being abused, leading to damage, punctures and dents in the F-150’s aluminum bed, while the steel bed of the Silverado remains fairly in tact. According to Ford Authority, the blue oval saw a 29-percent sales jump during the month of June. Coincidentally, it coincided with Chevy’s latest ads.
“We had a sensational F-series month, particularly with F-150,” said Ford VP of US Marketing, Sales and Service Mark LaNeve, during a conference call with analysts. “It’s just been a continuation of what’s been a great story with this new product.”
The latest Chevrolet ads were no doubt a response to lackluster May retail sales, which also ran parallel with Chevrolet’s “Truck Month” sales. Recently, Chevrolet also took 20-percent off select variants of Silverado to help spur dealer traffic as well.
Comments
How is the F-150 still the best selling truck for all these years? Something isn’t right. Back in 1988 when GM introduced the GMT400 pickups they seemed to be leaps and bounds better than the then current eighth generation F-150 and the later ninth generation. Seems to me that Chevy should have sold more one year than Ford did.
The F series is the number one selling. It includes 150, 250, 350, 450, and 550 trucks. It was close between the Ford 150 and the Chevy Silverado half ton the last time I read the sales figures. GM does sell more half tons then Ford because the have the GMC and Silverado pickup. GM does not offer a 450 or 550 with the Silverado name on them which does mislead the facts some.
This is quite entertaining! 🙂 I gotta hand it to GM; this was a pretty decent ad! Ford even admits as much! Yet, their market share and pickup sales continue to increase……This is the best Silverado/Sierra GM’s ever produced, and the last refresh has made them significantly more appealing! Somehow, Ford just has a way of selling more trucks…..It’s kinda like the current Mustang-Camaro sales debate: people just can’t seem to figure out why the latest, performance behemoth is lagging behind it’s crosstown rival in sales! The question at this point is how will GM respond?….
Well two major factors is supply for the Camaro as most dealers have few cars on hand. People like choices and with the slow start up supplies have been tight in the first 6 months.
How will GM respond with the Camaro? Well they will build more and as supplied increase the customers will have a better choice and the dealers will come off the sticker price more. As of now there is little dealing on the cars they have.
Also we will have the 1LE, ZL1 and the Z/28 in the next year coming out.
This is no different than how it has worked before.
Right now most people who have purchased the car are getting the I got to have it now price and are paying dearly. No incentives and little to nothing off sticker. The dealers know you will not just go down the street to find the same car at a lower price so they are playing hard ball on the price.
Like on the trucks you have to consider all the factors out there not just the convenient ones.
What is missed here is that this marketing was not going to change the entire dynamics of the market alone with only one spot. Brand loyalty is still thought to break here as there have been some years Ford really offered crap but yet sales still were strong. Check the history on this and it bares this out.
As for this program it was really not intended for the mass market as much as it was to target the Fleets Sales meeting in Detroit. The ad was released on a Thursday knowing the Fleet sales meeting in Detroit was on Monday. The flooded the Detroit area TV with the Spot and the news papers as well as the web.
Even every hotel was given the Detroit Free Press with large ads on this for the Fleet buyers to read.
That was what they were targeting here.
Also this was just one shot here and I would stay tuned as there will be more volleys. Also this planted the seed with those who buy a truck and when they get their first hole they will recall the spot.
The Truck market is not going to be won or lost on one commercial or even one model of truck.
Also do not be fooled. Like Greg has smartly pointed out Ford offers more versions of the trucks and also uses very suspect accounting in how they come up with their numbers.
Like Greg says most years the Half ton trucks are pretty equal year to year counting GMC too. Chevy never counts the GMC line in on their totals.
Now something GM does not promote is often GM makes more money on their trucks as they do not dump cheap models on fleet sales in as large of numbers as Ford. Also they make more per unit especially on the GMC models.
There is a lot of chest thumping here and you can not get too caught up in it for either side with out really taking a look at how they get their numbers. Many of the numbers can be very misleading at times or given out of context.
GM will counter with their new trucks and like Ford retain about the same market share for the models they sell.
Also not counted here are Colorado and Canyon sales that Ford has nothing to counter till they bring the Ranger back.
The fact is GM is not hurting here and the rankings will still remain pretty much the same. Other than Fleet sales few people change brands and often if they do it is for one truck and they come back.
For GM to match the F body trucks are the best selling GM would have to bring out more versions of their own Trucks as they do not offer the same models and or even count all the weight classes as the same.
Thanks Greg you hit the nail on the head.
Note to much of the information here on this story originated on The Motley Fool that often promotes Ford in their own interest. They are not a total disclosure business forum that often is driven by advertising or market interest.
A lot of people by ford products because they are cheaper and easier to finance. It’s bend that way for ever . GM can can demand for their products because they are far more superior than Ford.
Ford’s June sales were fleet. 37% were fleet sales.(87700 units). 18% of G.M. sales were fleet(45900 units) Normally one half of fleet sales are rentals which see no profit. I think Chevy’s bed commercial worked in June. Chevy gained 1.7 points of retail market share. Ford lost 0.7 points of retail market share
Thanks for the numbers. People read headlines but never digest the true numbers and get a good read just what really is happening.
+1
Gm have 50.000 more pickup sold compare to Ford ,,I think
What i would like to see is the profit numbers.
I have read the reports about the Ford being more expensive to build and with the fleet and discounts it is at a lower profit vs the GM lines that sell at a higher ATP and is a lower cost model to build in steel.
Toss the GMC high profits in on this and I suspect Gm is making more money over all.
Volume is fine but you need to make good money per unit sold. Companies have gone broke selling millions of cars as we have seen as they were not making enough per unit.