Does Ford really have a better idea?

I'm pretty sure that Alexandra Ford English is a plenty smart cookie, even by plenty smart cookie standards. After all, she went to Stanford and majored in biology, focusing on "the neurobiology and physiology of human behavior." And she's a Harvard B School MBA. (Not that these august institutions don't accept and graduate plenty of duds. It's just that, for the most part, even the duds do tend to be plenty smart cookie duds. For the most part.)

So Ms. English could probably have had a plenty impressive career putting that knowledge of "the neurobiology and physiology of human behavior" to good use pretty much anywhere in the corporate world.

But, seriously, how could she resist joining the family business, founded by her great-great-grandfather Henry Ford. (And however virulent an anti-Semite Ford was, I'm pretty sure he was a plenty smart cookie.)

And now, she's

...been tapped to lead an effort to expand the family brand once harnessed by Versace to sell $1,135 hoodies, the automaker announced Monday. (Source: Detroit Free Press)

And it wasn't just $1,135 Versace hoodies that proudly sported the Ford logo. There were the logo jeans that went for more than $1K. And the $750 logo shirt. Worn, of course, with a pair of $700 hightop sneakers. 

But Alexandra Ford English has a bigger, maybe even a better idea for how to get "consumers to connect with the brand."

“Anywhere you go around the world, you find passionate Ford fans and we want to offer them an inspiring collection of merchandise and accessories, and potentially even digital products,” English said in a statement.

Suzy Deering, global chief marketing officer, said Ford is a brand built on consumer passion. “We’re expanding that pride to all aspects of a customers’ life; we’re becoming a lifestyle brand.”

In fact, the success of the Versace Ford line turned out to be a nice bit of consumer research. If Ford passionista fashionistas were willing to pay Versace a boatload, of which Ford only got the chump change, why can't Ford cash in on demand. I can't see that they can command Versace level money. I suspect people buying those pricey hightops were paying for the Versace name. And that the Ford logo was mostly for the irony. (C.f., "poor man drives a Ford.") But maybe Ford can go beyond the logo caps and sweatshirts that they've been selling for what a normal person would pay for a non-logo cap or sweatshirt. 

Lifestyle brand, here we come!

Well, actually not here me come. 

Not that I've got anything against the Ford Motor Company.

When I was a kid, there was a little ditty (referenced above) we all sang:

Rich man drives a Cadillac, poor man drives a Ford
But my old man goes drives the street with 4 wheels on a board

Well, my family wasn't poor, but my father always drove Fords. Every two years, like clockwork, he got a new Ford - at first they were Fairlanes, then Galaxies. Two-tone green. Bright blue and white. Yellow and white. Just plain white. Black. Green. Gold. 

(After my father died - the gold Galaxy was his final car - my mother switched to Oldsmobile. A brand that no longer exists.)

Of the three cars I've owned in my life - yes, I am a city girl - one was a Ford. A Mercury Tracer.

But for all my fond memories of Dad's Fords, and my having been perfectly satisfied with my Tracer, I can't imagine wanting anything with the Ford logo on it. 

Not that I'm totally averse to acquiring a bit of car-related "stuff." One of my three cars was a New Beetle, and I have a few Christmas ornaments that are Santa in a Beetle themed.

I'm sure if I'd ever had a Ford Mustang, or a Ford 150, I'd have at least one Mustang or F150 Christmas ornament. 

My lack of interest in jumping on the Ford lifestyle brandwagon is probably a combo of my not being a car person, and being mostly lacking in the sort of passion about much of anything that would get me to wear a company's logo.

Oh, I've had plenty of corporate logo-wear over the years, but I only wore it if I had to. Like at a tradeshow. If there were no must-wear requirements, I'd take whatever was on offer and give it to my husband, who was happy to take it. (That yellow rain jacket he loved? From Genuity. So was the very nice grey, heavy-duty long-sleeved polo shirt. And a lot of other stuff.)

Personally, if any company wanted me to wear their logo, i.e., provide them with free advertising, they should give it to me.

I'm thinking of L.L. Bean here.

My "relationship" with L.L. Bean goes back nearly 50 years. When I camped cross-country in 1972, I slept under an L.L. Bean tent. The next year, when I camped throughout Europe, I once again slept under that L.L. Bean tent. Over the years, I've spent plenty of money at L.L. Bean: parkas, jeans, tee-shirts, jackets, sweaters, turtlenecks, chinos, shorts, bathing suits, fleeces, Christmas presents. And I know that L.L. Bean sells tee-shirts, sweatshirts, and caps that scream L.L. Bean. In a large, prominent, upfront font. No way! If you want me to wear it, send it along as a thankyou.

It's one thing to wear something that tells the world that you're a fan of, say, the Red Sox. Or that you went to State U. Or that you support a certain candidate. (Red MAGA cap: gag!) Or that you've been to one of Elton John's kabillion farewell concerts. Or that you've been someplace, or your grandmother was, and have the tee-shirt to show for it. 

But to front for a commercial, corporate brand? 

I just don't get it. 

I do find it plenty interesting, sociologically speaking, that so many people are so brand-conscious. Brand proud! Brand passionate!

Huh?   

My skepticism aside, there's no doubt a market for Ford-themed stuff. And that Alexandra Ford English, plenty smart cookie that she is, can figure out a way to tap it. After all, she 

studied "the neurobiology and physiology of human behavior." 

It's just too bad that Ford doesn't seem to have a better idea.