The Ford Collection
During a phone conversation with Scott Monty a few days ago, Scott talked about the FordCollection.com website, a site that sells … well Ford ‘stuff’. Scott is head of social media at Ford Motor Company and since we’re in the same business (although totally different regions and products) and we share some of the same Mustang passion (with the difference that I think he drives one and I definitely don’t) we had some extra good reasons to catch up.
Anyway – I was looking between the Mustang related items in the store and noticed this tin sign, which I had seen at classic car shows in the past as well. Only the price ($12) is much lower than what I have seen so far. Luckily I didn’t order right away because a few days later I came across the Steedshop.com that sold the same sign for $10.88 and had information about international shipments (something I couldn’’t find at FordCollection.com.
I will try to order something at both online shops and will let you know which comes out best (at least for international). One thing is clear from the start – if you want choice, Steedshop.com is the best option.
Mustang Blue
After my Mustang for Men (2) post something interesting happened, and quite frankly something I didn’t expect at all. In this post I wrote about the new Estee Lauder frangrance carrying the Mustang brand, and how I think it’s nice and all but also how I didn’t buy the sales pitch. So to be clear, I wasn’t very impressed.
That changed quickly though and I’ll tell you why. Not even 2 or 3 hours after I posted this, Tracy Royal from Estee left this comment. As a geek marketer that alone impressed me already quite a bit, still today only few brands engage in social media and Estee was definitely not amongst them (at least to what I had seen so far). Anyway, I sent Tracy an email with my address and a week later I received a delivery from Estee:
Now all of this is not very expensive for a company to do but nevertheless it still is very impressive. So what about the fragrance itself? It’s not bad actually. It ain’t extremely special but I don’t think it should be either, I’ll use it. And trust me, if it were shit I would have told you just the same you know, that’s the right I keep to myself on this blog.
So Tracy, you impressed me with your swift reply on my post and the Mustang Blue fragrance is pretty alright, allow me to make one suggestion to you though. I still don’t buy the marketing/PR piece you created, I think it’s too fabricated, it’s not real enough. “The Mustang fragrance had a tremendous reception from Mustang fans as well as others who appreciate the iconic American brand”… don’t say so, show me. And maybe some more pro-active outreach in the online Mustang communities would have been good as well. Anyway, your interaction with me was very real though, and that makes a lot of difference. Respect.
Ford Performance
Coinciding with the 44th birthday of the Mustang, Ford launched a new web initiative called FordPerformance.com to reach out to and connect with Ford enthusiasts, albeit mainly focused on the performance cars. I think it’s fair to say I’m somewhat of a Ford enthusiast so that appealed to me.
It took me a while before I got time to check out this new site, but I did today and must say I was disappointed. It was nothing like I thought it would be, and probably could be. The site features the 3 main clubs such as the International Mustang Bullit Owners Club or the Mustang Club of America and also their events.
There’s a short section on the different Ford models that fit in this FordPerformance.com initiative, but no new insights unfortunately. Think about some of the backstory that could have featured here on how these cars came about, the people behind them etc… But no, nothing of that, just some specs on each car.
Then there’s a section on performance parts which just links of to FordRacingParts.com and finally there’s the cool stuff section (which I check out first I must admit) which is more like a tiny little web shop to buy Mustang posters or a GT500 owners cerficate. How cool is that?
For cars such as the Mustang and the passion of their drivers and owners in general, this sites is nothing more than a portal to the 3 partner clubs and the online parts store. And if you’re a regular visitor of this site, and thus share some of the passion, I guess you understand just as much as I do that there is so much more they could have done to reach out to and connect with this community.
Bummer Ford. Back to the drawing board I would say and next time don’t just talk to the clubs, I bet they got what they wanted. Talk to owners and enthusiasts like myself, people who do the actual evangelism, whether they own one or not.
#16: In da hood
They say that hanging out with the right people is always a good place to start to get what you want. Now since we all know that what I want is that good old vintage Mustang, I’ve decided to hang out in the Mustang neighborhood. I’m not sure if this is the right strategy in a hood like this, but we’ll see.
It was Marc Bresseel, a colleague of mine, who made me aware of the Ebay Neighborhoods project when he was talking about shopping and social navigation. It seems like the perfect integration indeed between selling a product and building a community around it. Now I probably won’t be that active as a member in this case, as buying one is not an option (as I told you long time ago). And I’m not going to be buying just some random parts to be part of the Neighborhood either :)
But as a Mustang fan, you still might want to check it out if you haven’t done so already. Mustang forums, reviews, images, … and of course auctions all on one page. Nice work from Ebay, check it out.
StangNet Top 100
I just added a new button in the sidebar of this blog which is something I found at the 67 Mustang Blog from my Australian Mustang friend Cameron. I already had a little traffic counter on this blog, but this one looks more like an ‘official’ counter for Mustang blogs including a little voting feature for the StangNet Top 100 of Mustang websites so I just thought I’d give it a go. Maybe I attract new visitors by doing so.
So if you think this blog is a good read, then vote for me if you want but definitely keep coming ;) And if you came here via the Top 100, welcome to you!
#13: Unlock a Mustang
It’s all over the news the last few days: a 17-year-old – named George Hotz – has unlocked the iPhone. Quite a few people are waiting for George to unleash his unlocking code on the internets, but since AT&T’s and Apple’s legal team are after him it’s not sure that’s going to happen soon.
George did find another way to cash in on all those hours figuring out how to unlock it, by trading it in for 3 new iPhones but more importantly also a Nissan 350Z. My first thought? A Nissan?! A Nissan for Christ sake!
Anyway since he proved this works, I figured I found my 13th possibility to get myself that precious classic Mustang I’m after. Just need to unlock the iPhone… HELP. Guess I’ll keep on looking for another way ;)
#11: One little red Mustang
One July 12th 2005 a guy named Kyle MacDonald trades one little red paperclip for a fish-shaped pen. About 14 trades and one year later he got a house this way. Fascinating isn’t it? Now I’ve always been thinking this could be my next possible venture to try to achieve my goal: getting my own ’65 Mustang.
After looking into buying one, building one from the ground up or selling a few pixels… here’s trial number 11. What I was thinking of doing is to trade things, but unlike Kyle I wouldn’t start with a red paperclip – got to add at least 1 orginal element don’t you think :) – but I’ll start with a little red car. And also, I will only trade for items that relate to classic cars somehow to keep it a good fit with the content on this blog.
The little red car I’m hoping I can kick this off with is also a Ford, although not a Mustang. This one is a 1974 Gran Torino and more specifically, it’s the one from Starsky & Hutch. I think it’s a 1/18 but it doesn’t say so on the car. I still have the original box as well lying around somewhere :)
We’ll see what happens. You can contact me on mustangblog AT hotmail DOT com.
This video is no longer available
Bummer! I had two posts in my draft that included some really cool footage. Both videos were clips from the BBC program Top Gear which I found at TechEBlog. Sadly enough, it looks like the BBC had these videos removed from YouTube. Thanks but no thanks.
One clip was with Richard Hammond who took the new Ford Mustang GT for a spin, which was fairly cool, but the second one is the one I really wanted to show to you. It featured Jeremy Clarkson and a 1968 Ford Mustang 390 GT… see what I mean? He liked it ;-) If anybody finds this clip, please send it to me.
[Update: the Richard Hammond clip is still up on Google Video]
#10: Mustang blues
King of the Blues, the search for the next great undiscovered blues guitar player. Know your roots, be original! Pete Cashmore at Mashable reports on this new contest from GuitarCenter. And guess what the grand prize is?! A 2007 Ford Mustang!
There’s only one problem. Even though I have a little bit of guitar playing history, it wasn’t really the blues we were playing back then. Let’s not discuss the quality ok, it’s a genre issue ;-).
Anyway, this means that apart from the grand prize, this is not the right contest for me, there are some really good players on that site already. Maybe someone can play in my name, any volunteers? Only really good blues guitarists need apply of course, I’m thinking about something like the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, that’s some funky punk blues.
Oh, and did I already mention that the social networking element is quite good in this contest.
#8: MustangDirect
FordDirect has already sold over 1 million cars over the internet, that was the headline on resultblog (dutch) last week. Looking at the news more in detail it becomes clear that it’s not about 100% online sales, but it’s still remains an interesting phenomenon. I’m pretty sure that back in 2000 when Ford and the network of dealers started with this joint venture a lot of people probably were sceptic about the potential.
You can get a price quote from a Ford dealer in your area from FordDirect, search the inventory of the dealers or build your own vehicle. So the real buy eventually happens with the dealer, but consumers start their venture on the web.
For my personal quest it would have been better if it were a complete online experience though… and they would have to deliver in Europe of course. I hear you thinking “Kris, you started this quest because you couldn’t by one in the first place, so this makes no sense!”. You’re right and yet … If you buy something online you always have the right to return it within the first x couple of days right? I was thinking something along that road, at least I would have had some fun driving it :) Now since you still buy at the dealer’s location, this can’t be done. I’ll have to keep on looking for other ways I guess.
[Via resultblog]
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