Digital Marketing Strategies and Industry 4.0 Recommendations for Ford

This report provides a detailed analysis of Ford Motor Company's current digital marketing activities. It begins with an executive summary outlining the importance of digital marketing in today's competitive landscape and its evolution with technological advancements. The report then provides an overview of Ford, including its history and financial performance, followed by an in-depth examination of its digital marketing strategies, which encompass social media marketing, internet marketing (including web marketing, search engine optimization, and email marketing), and mobile applications. The report evaluates the effectiveness of these strategies in terms of brand visibility, customer engagement, and revenue generation. Furthermore, it explores the potential of Industry 4.0 methodologies, specifically the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), to enhance Ford's digital marketing efforts. The report concludes by emphasizing the value of digitalization in marketing and recommending the integration of Industry 4.0 technologies to optimize Ford's marketing strategies. The report uses various sources to support its analysis and recommendations.

Running head: TECHNOLOGY AND MARKETING
Organizational digital marketing activities
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Executive summary
The marketing strategies adopted by every organization are currently being digitalized in
order to achieve comparative advantages. Furthermore, the process of digital marketing have
been expanded to several ways along with the evolved technologies. Advertising and
promoting the products is the vital activity in every organization, as it is the only vital way of
attracting the customers towards the doorstep of the organization. Moreover, various digital
marketing methods such as social media marketing, internet marketing along with the mobile
application service provided by the organization are enhancing the process of marketing and
advertising in a better way. The effectiveness of these tactics of marketing are successfully
adding value to the growth of every organization. However, introducing industry 4.0
methodology to these will become more advantageous. This report will discuss the current
digital marketing strategies and effectiveness of those tactics in the leading automobile
manufacturing organization Ford. The effective industry 4.0 strategies in order to enhance the
undertaken digital marketing tactics will also suggested to the managers of the discussed
organization.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Organization overview...............................................................................................................3
Current digital marketing activities of Ford...............................................................................3
Social media marketing..........................................................................................................4
Internet marketing..................................................................................................................4
Web marketing...................................................................................................................5
Search engine optimization................................................................................................5
Email marketing.................................................................................................................5
Mobile apps............................................................................................................................5
Effectiveness of these activities.................................................................................................6
Industry 4.0 methodologies for improvement............................................................................7
Internet of things (IoT)...........................................................................................................7
Artificial Intelligence (AI).....................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The current competitive technical era of marketing is evidencing high adoption of
digitalization in to several stages of it; whether it is manufacturing the product or promoting
and selling it, most organization now a days adopting the advantages of digital marketing in
order to add value to their business. Moreover, the method of digital marketing enhances the
organizational business process by providing higher opportunity as well as growth options for
small business; along with that, higher conversion rate, increased brand trust, higher revenue
can also achieved by it (Kannan 2017). However, using the industry 4.0 methodology, can
provide higher efficiency to the method of digital marketing. This report is going to
emphasize the current digital marketing activities and the effectiveness of those in the well-
recognized motor company Ford. Apart from that, industry 4.0 methodologies in order to
develop the activities is also going to be discussed here.
Organization overview
The American multinational motor company Ford is well-recognized for
manufacturing amazing eye-catching and technology friendly automobiles. The company was
first founded by Henry Ford in the year 1903, and since then the company is successfully
providing its service worldwide. Apart from producing automobiles, the organization also
produces automotive parts, pickup trucks, SUVs as well as other luxury and commercial
vehicles. Moreover, the organization has recently evidenced a revenue growth of US$160.33
billion (ford.com 2019). The organization has approx. 199000 number of employees and
numerous distribution channels worldwide.

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Current digital marketing activities of Ford
The process of digital marketing encompasses all the marketing efforts, which use
internet or any electronic device. Moreover, the form of digital marketing include numerous
digital channels and tactics in order to connect with the end users (Chaffey and Smith 2013).
Though, Ford has efficiently registered its brand name as one of the reputed and well-
recognized brand; yet, the marketing managers of it continuously researching and adding
several digital marketing techniques in order to add more value to their business. The
activities are as follows;
Social media marketing
Regardless the size of business, every organization now a days majorly adopting this
style of marketing in order to reach at the customers and prospects. Furthermore, it is an
important form of the internet marketing, which intended to create as well as share the
business related contents on different social media networks for achieving the organizational
branding and marketing goals (Ashley and Tuten 2015). The social media marketing uses
different mediums such as, Facebook, twitter, You Tube, printerest, instagram and many
others in order to conduct several activities such as, posting videos, images, text along with
several kinds of updates for advertising and collecting customer attention towards the
business (Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch 2017). Prior to begin this kind of marketing, the
marketing managers of Ford look forward to the following plans;
 Deciding the exact achievement from social media marketing.
 Selecting the target audience.
 Exact place of finding the target audience.
 Creating and sharing an appropriate message for conveying the customers.

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Internet marketing
Unlike social media marketing, online or internet marketing intended to conduct
direct sales activity via electronic commerce or the sale leads from the emails and websites.
Furthermore, the internet marketing encompasses a wide range of marketing strategies such
as, content, paid media, search, email and many more (Shih, Chen and Chen 2013). The
discussed automobile making company Ford use the following type of internet marketing;
Web marketing
The web marketing tactic of Ford includes several e-commerce websites, online advertising,
affiliate marketing, informative or promotional websites.
Search engine optimization
The search engine optimization typically includes optimizing the landing pages within the
discussed organizational website in order to hike number of visitors (Berman and Katona
2013).
Email marketing
The process of email marketing involves promotional as well as advertising marketing efforts
and tactics via email in order to convince prospective as well as current customers (Nosrati et
al 2013).
Mobile apps
Like many organization, the automobile designing and manufacturing company Ford
also provide mobile application service to its customer. The vital idea behind developing its
own mobile application is to provide effective customer service anywhere and anytime
(Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch 2017). The customer can login into the application and
provide their queries and service related questions. Furthermore, through this application

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service, the marketing managers of Ford also promote their upcoming as well as existing
products via advertising.
Effectiveness of these activities
The effectiveness of the above discussed strategies reflect on the increasing customer
demand as well as high customer demand. Marketing is considered as the backbone of any
organization as it plays a vital part in increasing the organizational revenue by attracting the
customers. Hence, it is necessary for every organization including Ford to focus on the most
recent marketing strategies. Furthermore, digital marketing is one of the most recent as well
as effective marketing tactics that can be adopted by several organizations including Ford for
gaining competitive advantages for their business. The effectiveness due to the application of
the above marketing strategies can be described as follows;
 The social media as well as internet marketing can be considered as a cost efficient
marketing method that increases the brand visibility along with that, it catches
comparatively more customer attention, resulting in increasing the brand value
(Ashley and Tuten 2015).
 Without the above discussed digital marketing technology, the inbound traffic
becomes limited within the usual customers. However, the idea of expanding the
marketing tactics towards digitalization, has added effectiveness to the organizational
business of Ford, as it has brought high inbound traffics and except the usual
customer, the brand is able to get other users’ attention.
 The mobile app service provided by the popular automobile brand has successfully
able to add more values to the business. The customers are now able to get a 24*7
service, as the industry provides flexible customer support service. The customers can
post their queries and questions regarding the product and service provided by the

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organization and will get help within a span of time. Apart from that, the idea of
advertising via mobile app by providing their upcoming as well as customer suitable
products, will definitely provide effectiveness to the business.
Industry 4.0 methodologies for improvement
Industry 4.0 methodology explains the fourth industrial revolution, which has
successfully taken the automation in manufacturing in to a new industry via the introduction
of numerous flexible as well as customized production technologies. It intended to create one
efficient customer oriented manufacturing and production field, by making the machines
work in cooperation with the humans or independently. Considering the marketing tactics of
Ford, two of the industry 4.0 methodologies can be recommended to the marketing managers
of the organization in order to make effective improvement to the adopted strategies.
Internet of things (IoT)
Though IoT is one of the low potential industry 4.0 methodology; yet, considering the
case scenario of ford, it can be recommended to the marketing managers for enhancing the
process of digital marketing (Da Xu, He and Li 2014). Internet of things is the concept that
enables machines and objects to communicate with each other. Furthermore, several
important features such as, instant service, personalization, advertising opportunities and
smart platforms provided by this particular concept can enhance the process of digital
marketing of the discussed automobile development company. Apart from that, the capability
of being able to connect with several devices connected to the internet, provides an efficient
plethora of advertising facilities, where almost every single object can considered as a

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channel to attract the customers (Wollschlaeger, Sauter and Jasperneite 2017). Hence, it can
be recommended to the marketing managers of ford to adopt the advantages of IoT to
enhance the process of digital marketing.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI emphasizes on creating efficient intelligent machines, which will react as well as
work like humans. It is a vital element in industry 4.0 methodology possessing moderate
potential; however, it can be suitable for the marketing scenario of Ford. AI can help the
marketing managers of Ford to optimize the data and information in order to gather
comparatively better insight on the existing user as well as prospective customers. The vital
idea of considering AI for improving the digital marketing strategy is that, it can use the
statistical models and the data for predicting the behaviour of the customers, based on the
past behaviour (Siau and Yang 2017). Apart from that, the intelligent software associated
with it can help the managers of Ford to gather fresh insight about numerous customers,
along with that, the technology is also able to deliver appropriate marketing messages
automatically to the customers in a right time, opening best chance of sale (Weyer et al
2015). Hence, this particular technology can be suggested to the managers of Ford for
improving their digital marketing.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be conclude that, the idea of
digitalization in the field of marketing can add high value to the business. Moreover, in order
to add more value to the process of digital marketing, industry 4.0 methodologies can be best
suitable. The above report has focused on the current digital marketing strategies of Ford. The
effectiveness of those strategies have also discussed in this report. Apart from that, this report

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has also explained and recommended some vital industry 4.0 methodologies such as, IoT and
AI for the improvement of those strategies.

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References
Ashley, C. and Tuten, T., 2015. Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory
study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1),
pp.15-27.
Berman, R. and Katona, Z., 2013. The role of search engine optimization in search
marketing. Marketing Science, 32(4), pp.644-651.
Chaffey, D. and Smith, P.R., 2013. eMarketing eXcellence: Planning and optimizing your
digital marketing. Routledge.
Da Xu, L., He, W. and Li, S., 2014. Internet of things in industries: A survey. IEEE
Transactions on industrial informatics, 10(4), pp.2233-2243.
Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P.A. and Hinsch, C., 2017. Elements of strategic social media
marketing: A holistic framework. Journal of Business Research, 70, pp.118-126.
ford.com (2019). Ford – New Cars, Trucks, SUVs, Crossovers & Hybrids | Vehicles Built
Just for You | Ford.com. [online] Ford Motor Company. Available at: https://www.ford.com/
[Accessed 14 Jun. 2019].
Kannan, P.K., 2017. Digital marketing: A framework, review and research agenda.
International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(1), pp.22-45.
Nosrati, M., Karimi, R., Mohammadi, M. and Malekian, K., 2013. Internet marketing or
modern advertising! How? Why. International Journal of Economy, Management and Social
Sciences, 2(3), pp.56-63.

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Shih, B.Y., Chen, C.Y. and Chen, Z.S., 2013. Retracted: an empirical study of an internet
marketing strategy for search engine optimization. Human Factors and Ergonomics in
Manufacturing & Service Industries, 23(6), pp.528-540.
Siau, K. and Yang, Y., 2017, May. Impact of artificial intelligence, robotics, and machine
learning on sales and marketing. In Twelve Annual Midwest Association for Information
Systems Conference (MWAIS 2017) (pp. 18-19).
Weyer, S., Schmitt, M., Ohmer, M. and Gorecky, D., 2015. Towards Industry 4.0-
Standardization as the crucial challenge for highly modular, multi-vendor production
systems. Ifac-Papersonline, 48(3), pp.579-584.
Wollschlaeger, M., Sauter, T. and Jasperneite, J., 2017. The future of industrial
communication: Automation networks in the era of the internet of things and industry 4.0.
IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine, 11(1), pp.17-27.