DETROIT – Ford Motor Company wants to make your life better by becoming your best mobility friend through its new Ford Pass program that starts in April.
Through the FordPass, you’ll be able pay bills, reserve a parking space, buy coffee – and heck you don’t even have to own a Ford to use the free app. But eventually Ford hopes this new warm and fuzzy relationship will get you to buy a Ford – if not this year then perhaps next.
FordPass was officially announced Monday during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Executive Chairman Bill Ford, the great grandson of Ford founder Henry Ford, posed the question: “If not us, who?”
Ford also will roll out four new FordHubs that, much like interactive kiosks at the auto show, are designed to showcase the company’s various Ford Smart Mobility initiatives. The first one will open later this year in New York City, followed by San Francisco, London and Shanghai.
Ford sees a huge opportunity to disrupt the mobility market and make people – particularly millennials who love using the Uber taxi service or renting cars by the hour or day – to get to know, and perhaps, fall in love with Ford.
Ford wants people to register for the FordPass app on their smartphone and use its menu of applets as well as access to guides and new storefronts and virtually configure a new car in a digital space without sales pressure, because transactions are not allowed. It will introduce FordPay similar to Apple Pay, which will be located in the FordPass virtual wallet.
What’s more, FordPass includes a loyalty program in which members including non-Ford owners can win perks from affinity partners such as McDonald’s and 7-Eleven.
Ford executives say that the 18-month project leveraged deep dives into a range of digital branding successes including Amazon’s Mayday button (which summons a live consultant to a Kindle Fire screen), Burberry’s in-store digital runaway experiences (bringing apparel to life for shoppers) and Nespresso’s customer-centric strategy (which includes a mix of retail outlets and phone consultants).
The U.S. industry just came off a record sales year. But in the long term, a congested world must meet transportation needs in unorthodox ways. And consumers increasingly expect to connect their phones to every aspect of their lives and use their devices to perform daily tasks. FordPass hopes to be the app that makes all these connections – and changes young folks minds about buying a Ford.
