Mustang II Network - 74 Mustang - Young Car With a Tradition and a Future - Page 68

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74 Mustang - Young Car With a Tradition and a Future

CREATING EXPECTATIONS That alternative is to request the Ford Design Center to produce a striking show car approximating the Mustang design - as was done with the Mustang II styling car in 1963. Such a show car would glamorize the most attractive features of the new Mustang, with special attention to luxurious interiors. the show car would have a code name other than Mustang. (The show car introduced at Watkins Glen in October, 1963, presumably would not have been name Mustang II if the company had known then that the 1965 model car was to be called Mustang rather than Torino.) A plan for introduction and display of such car will be discussed in the Public Relations Support Program section below. As for confidential background briefings of key media representatives, a major campaign in the first quarter of 1973 will be recommended. Such a campaign stimulated early planning of major articles, including cover stories, by several national magazines in 1964, and did not lead to premature disclosure of product details or photographs. As in 1964, it may be possible to prepare a marketing-oriented presentation with interest even broader than the car line, the company or the industry. Two areas for possible extended presentation have been suggested. Such confidential briefings obviously would clsoe with a "reveal" of the new car itself, and this should be done in the most dramatic way practical. One possibility would be to design a special staging facility that could be used effectively, for example in the Ford Division auditorium or at the Ford Design Center, with optimum lighting and viewing angles completely programmed. The display should be designed so that it could be removed when necessary for other auditorium uses, but otherwise kept intact for confidential showings even on short notice. Many other techniques can be used to help create advance expectations for the new car. The essential point here is that creating such expectations paid tremendous dividends in sales of the original Mustang, and that similar benefits can be gained from a carefully planned, aggressive advance campaign for the new car.

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