Henry Ford About the Model T. Ford: Essay

Henry Ford about the Model T. Ford: 'You can have any color you like as long as it's black.' What attitude does this reveal towards marketing?

Henry Ford was the founder of the Ford Motor Companies and he played a major role in horseless transport systems. Since youth he was interested in mechanics and not his father's farm and he grew up to manage assembly lines in production of the Ford vehicles. (Greenwood, 1998)

The first T. model Ford was built in 1908 and when production started it was in all colors, and also it was extremely affordable to all Americans. And that was Ford's aim: to make his product not only available but accessible to all. And to cut down costs everywhere. Which is why in 1914, he reverted the T. model to only black vehicles. They were only produced in black after his famous quote "You can have any color you like as long as it's black." And this was also to cut down costs. Black required less drying time and was cheaper and lasted longer. Ford wanted to produce more models in less time and increase productivity as well. (Company, n.d.)

This also revealed Ford's marketing plans. His target market wasn't the elite, but the masses. He wanted his product to be rampantly available and also produced as fast as it was sold. An efficient assembly line was adopted and more workers were hired and cheaper black color was also used on the vehicles on all the parts. The color had to be black because of the cost effectiveness of this color and even though more colors were introduced later on to increase sales, but this was his primary motto and obsession.His marketing strategy was to sell more and for less. (Gale, 2008) More units needed to be produced, and dollars were cut down at all steps of all the process. Even the industrial was cut down or used or recycled because Ford believed that one dollar on every step wasted was a fairly large amount when multiplied by million, and in that way they lost out on millions. (Mccarthy, 2001)

2. What sectors of the economy do Slywotzky & Morrison identify as no-profit zones? Can you think of other examples?

Slywotzky & Morrison in their book "The Profit Zone" have identified what the problem with today's business models are and how to tackle them. And it doesn't just offer advice as to what to do and what not to do but specific examples and how to keep up with the economy.

Basically what a business has to do is to realize who are its non-profit customers, areas, products etc. Even business models can be a massive failure and in that case what do you do? First of all integration of all processes is out, just like economies are moving towards technology, every firm should do what they specialize in. Because owning the highest market share doesn't ensure the greatest profitability in the market as well. And when firms start flailing or falling below their mark the first thing they do is that they start downsizing. In their aim to grab the highest market share they forget the need to earn profit and grab customers and their needs as well.

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