the good old days

Successful companies are ones that satisfy their customer’s wants, needs and desires. The data clearly show that if your customer base is global and diverse and you reflect their perspectives and their knowledge, you’re going to have a better chance for success. The closer you get to their emotional and intellectual roots, the better you’re going to communicate with them.

So what’s the business case for diversity? It’s the only business case we need—the only way to satisfy diverse customers is to include their perspectives inside the company. This is especially true for Ford, because we probably have the most diverse set of customers in the world.

From Ford CEO Alan Mulally, posted on Ford’s website.
Mr. Mulally might wish to have a discussion with J. W. Horne, who is apparently the advertiser representing the Kieffe & Sons Ford dealership to the public. (Note, anything in brackets are my comments, as are the ellipses. I didn’t want to bore you with the whole thing, feel free to go to the source and read it yourself.)

For those of you out there in never never land or la la land or maybe underground and under the radar [?] who are so called non believers, I am the man who wrote and recorded the Kieffe and sons spot. In fact I write and produce all of the Kieffe and Sons ford spots…. I am a believer and I am pretty sure that most everyone at Kieffe and Sons ford are also believers…. Believers do not have to justify their existence…. I support everyones right to think and do and live as they wish. I do not condem [sic] any American that disagrees with me…. if you were careful enough to listen to the entire spot you would have heard me say that to the good people at Kieffe and Sons ford “everyone one is welcome at the dealership whether you are a believer or not, you are still welcome…. We do business according to the rules of the good book.. if you are offended by that, then you are offended by the truth…. If you are offended, well like I said in the commercial.. thats tough.

Even disregarding factual errors in the radio spot and Horne’s masturbatory self-justification, he’s missed the point that it’s not just atheists who are angry; there are plenty of Christians who heard it and were disgusted (not to mention the non-Christian-non-atheist population of the country). Horne’s non-apology insists that Kieffe and Sons will still welcome anybody to the dealership, meaning the ad (paraphrased) told non-Christians, “Sit down and shut up. Then, come buy our cars and we’ll pretend to respect you!” How open-minded of him. Flaunting majority status while deigning to take a minority’s money is not an apology, nor a way to gain business (except from bigots).

Owner Rick Kieffe paints a different picture, however.

This statement is provided in response to reaction prompted by a radio commercial that Kieffe & Sons Ford recently ran referring to issues of God in our schools and on our money.

For 15 years, Kieffe and Sons Ford has run ad campaigns that focus on current events. We have chosen to do this rather than presenting typical car sales ads. We do this through an agency that develops the material and sends us a package of commercials to review. From this, we select commercials that we distribute to area radio stations…. Regrettably, the commercial that has prompted the current objection to religious sentiment (”Under God”, “In We Trust”) was not closely reviewed by our dealership before it went live. The commercial has been replaced. We apologize to all who were offended. It is Kieffe and Sons’ intention to support America and the freedoms that make this country great.

All he’s done is replace the commercial? What I want to know is whether Kieffe intends to continue using Horne’s advertising company. If so… well, it’s not a sign of real concern, is it?

The fact that this fiasco was started by one short-sighted bigot in Oklahoma who’s not even a direct Ford employee is disappointing. UPDATE: Turns out Kieffe is, actually, quite happy with what Horne said, and was “forced” to apologize by Ford corporate. So, it’s a direct Ford employee making himself look like a bigoted ass, and making Ford look like it doesn’t believe in a diverse customer base.

Ford has a lot bigger problems to solve, and needs to get this off their backs, or it will continue to degrade their public image.

• Like I said, I am in the market for a new car…. I have not thought about dealers yet, though I’m looking forward to the next generation of hybrids. But I do know who I won’t be dropping $30K with. –Way of the Woo
• I certainly will never buy a car from him and would certainly not recommend him to anyone. –Underground Unbeliever
• There’s not much we can do, except boycott Kieffe and Sons Ford, and heck, boycott Ford altogether — Ford seems unconcerned about the fact that one of their dealerships is using bigotry to sell cars. –Pharyngula

It’s not just Kieffe and Sons that will feel fallout (including rude, stupid, shortsighted people calling them up and swearing, does that help anything, jerks?) — it’s also hitting Ford.

I hope to see something from Mulally reinforcing the apology, perhaps even [UPDATE: hard to reinforce Kieffe's non-apology] broadly emphasizing that Ford as a corporation DOES want to have a diverse customer base. Without that, he’s making it very hard for me to justify leaving Ford vehicles on my list of possible future purchases — and I really, really want American-made cars. I don’t live in Mojave and have no way to personally change the income of Kieffe and Sons, but I do patronize my local Ford dealerships — or, at least, I have in the past.

Should I continue to give you business, Mr. Mulally?

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 9:10 am and is filed under Etiquette, advertisement, automotive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.