Ford Names Toyota's Jim Farley to Top Marketing Post

Oct. 11, 2007; Bill Koenig and Alan Ohnsman writing for Bloomberg reported that Ford Motor Co., passed this year by Toyota Motor Corp. for second in U.S. sales, hired Jim Farley from the Japanese automaker as its marketing chief.

Farley, 45, who headed Toyota's Lexus luxury brand in the U.S., will join Ford in mid-November as a group vice president. He'll oversee marketing, advertising and communications worldwide, said Mark Truby, a spokesman for Dearborn, Michigan- based Ford, in an interview today.

Ford follows Chrysler LLC in turning to Toyota for executive talent. Farley, 45, is the third high-level U.S. manager to leave Toyota in the past two months. Chrysler last month named Jim Press, who had been the Japanese company's highest-ranking U.S. executive, as president and in August hired Deborah Wahl Meyer, formerly a top marketing official for Lexus.

``It's a testament to the executive development Toyota has in place,'' said George Peterson, president of consulting firm AutoPacific Inc. in Tustin, California, and a former Ford engineer. ``It's a sign how deeply that's respected within the industry. Farley is a real talent, but Toyota has a deep bench of talented executives.''

Ford shares rose 53 cents, or 6.4 percent, to $8.76 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Toyota's American depositary receipts fell 44 cents to $113.68.

Toyota Promotions

Toyota today named Mark Templin, vice president for its Scion U.S. brand, to succeed Farley at Lexus. Jack Hollis was promoted to Scion vice president, from corporate manager.

Before being named Lexus brand manager in April, Farley had been Toyota's top U.S. marketing official and had run the youth- oriented Scion brand. He joined the Toyota City, Japan-based company in 1990 and also worked for its European engineering and product development group.

Toyota has consistently expanded its U.S. market share, and Lexus has become the biggest-selling luxury-vehicle brand in the U.S., with sales of 322,434 vehicles last year, rising fourfold from a decade earlier. Lincoln, Ford's top luxury brand, sold 120,476 vehicles last year.

Toyota's Scion grew to 173,034 U.S. sales in 2006, three years after the brand was introduced. That's almost as many as the 180,848 for Mercury, Ford's second-largest brand.

``Ford needs a strong executive in that marketing spot,'' said Dennis Virag, president of Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally ``is trying to put his mark on the corporation,'' Virag said. Farley will report to Mulally.

`High Priority'

``A really high priority for us is for people to understand there is a new Ford going forward,'' Mulally said in an Aug. 29 interview, referring to marketing issues for the automaker. Buyers aren't looking at the company's lineup ``because they don't know about the cars at Ford,'' he said.

Mulally, 62, in a statement said Farley ``is well known for innovative marketing strategies that connect great products to today's and tomorrow's customers.''

Ford's chief marketing officer position has been vacant since Hans-Olov Olsson retired Jan. 1. Olsson, a former chief of the Volvo unit, was named to the marketing post in October 2005.

The automaker said Sept. 20 that Francisco Codina would retire Nov. 1 as North American sales and marketing chief. He will have served in the post for 20 months by his departure date. Ford is still looking for a replacement, Truby said in an e-mail.

`Coup' for Ford

``This is as a big a coup for the Ford brand as the hiring of Jim Press was for the Chrysler brand,'' said Kent Ritchey, dealer principal of Landers Ford Lincoln-Mercury in Memphis, Tennessee. ``I am pleasantly shocked for Ford. He's not beaten down, he's not beaten up. He's got Toyota DNA running through his blood.''

Vince Sheehy, president of Sheehy Auto Stores, which owns Ford and Lexus outlets in the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland, said Farley ``brings a non-Detroit perspective and that's what Ford needs.''

Ford reported a record $12.6 billion loss in 2006 and hasn't posted a market-share gain in the U.S. since 1995. The company wants to stabilize its U.S. share for the Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands at 14 percent to 15 percent. It fell short of that mark for the past three months, with 13.7 percent in July and August and 13.3 percent in September.

The company's market share dropped to 16 percent this year through September from 25.7 percent in 1995. The figure for this year includes U.K.-based Jaguar and Land Rover and Sweden-based Volvo. Ford has put Jaguar and Land Rover up for sale and is reviewing options for Volvo. Excluding the European brands, Ford's market share so far this year was 14.9 percent.

The automaker was passed as No. 2 in U.S. sales this year through September by Toyota. Ford is trying to reduce its dependence on large pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles by rolling out new car and so-called crossover wagon models.

Toyota moved ahead of Ford in global sales in 2003 and may pass General Motors Corp., the largest U.S. automaker, this year.

Ford has been No. 2 in U.S. annual sales since 1931. The company, founded in 1903, hasn't been third since 1905.