Re*Move

Does the car industry now get it... whatever 'it' is?

The past few weeks have seen a flurry of activities by the car companies, and their design and marketing departments, to take social media to another level and exploit its potential usefulness for designing and selling future vehicles.

First came GM with its LAB. GM has been in the social media auto world for a long time, but the Lab was a new way to test the waters with some of its more 'skunkworks' projects – such as the 'bare necessity' car and truck concepts, which you can see more of here.  What's interesting is that it gives designers, who remain - to quote Roland Barthes (yet again) "unknown artists" who are creating the "gothic cathedrals of our era" a window out into the world, and respectively, one back in to them. The videos are over-produced and slightly inauthentic feeling (the hands of a slightly nervous PR team are all over them), yet the Lab presents a platform, which, outside of the razzmatazz of the auto show, might be one of the only ways for a team to test an idea, and open up a dialogue about what they're doing, outside of the company.

The power of social in this respect seems to be growing - with the web going all-a-chatter just a couple of weeks back, when GM canned a proposed SUV, apparently in part, due to adverse responses on twitter.

GM's bare necessities car, showcased with its LAB platform

Next comes Fiat, downsideupdesign drawing our attention to their 'Mio' project, which is openly 'collecting' user research via the web, as part of the early process for developing a young person’s car, which will be showcased at a forthcoming Sao Paulo auto show. The interesting bit is that Fiat is going to openly publish all of the information it collects, licensing it under creative commons. Why interesting? Because it represents a u-turn in an industry famed for its secretive research and development processes. Furthermore, it means that others can not only reference and use the research in their projects, but critique and analyse the information, and the way Fiat use and interpret it.

While at first glance what's interesting about all of this is that it simply provides greater volumes of available raw data, what'll really be interesting is following the creative process of how Fiat translates this into something physical, and - in particular - how their reading of the data differs from that of other (outside) observers.

I'll come back to that in a minute, but it's worth mentioning the third project in this arena right now, which is Audi's (facebook log in required). As part of the development process for the LA design challenge, Audi is asking users on its facebook fan page for their input to the development of its entry to this year’s competition, which sees the car design studios of Southern California competing to design a youth-orientated car for 2030. This will only exist in 2D form, and is traditionally a place where we see designers experiment with the sublime and the ridiculous. As such, this is a low-risk, semi-serious dipping of its toes into the shark-infested waters of social media for Audi. It does signal though, that crowd-sourced ideas, and social media research could play some part in future car developments and marketing campaigns.

Audi design video from its Facebook / LA design challenge page

So what? I hear you ask about all of this. Well, let’s get the positives out of the way first. The auto industry is repeatedly accused of lagging behind other sectors when it comes to getting on new bandwagons. No such worries with social media - the train has left the station, auto industry onboard (for once). Secondly, it’s one of the simplest, fastest, most high-profile ways for an industry which has been repeatedly accused of ‘not listening’ to customers, to actually engage them and show it’s interested in their view.  

The question is, does all this mean that the auto industry now ‘gets it’? Is this a way of acknowledging the development processes needs to change, that it needs to listen more, open up, and that user-based design and research has much to offer?

I’m honestly not sure. On one hand, thinking and attitudes – in some companies – is clearly changing. On the other, using social media platforms for data collection and user research is a complete no brainer – and is becoming a prerequisite of proving that you’re a contemporary company.

But the ‘is it marketing bullshit’ or ‘is it genuine new engagement’ argument actually misses the point. Because simply having conversations, running competitions, asking for input and conducting user research online is only the first stepping-stone, and arguably not the most important. What’s missing today is the bridge between talking to customers and collecting information from them, and when the designer first picks up his or her pencil in anger. At the moment, the bridge between these two places is called 'marketing', but it has oft proved inadequate at helping deliver products people want, or in helping companies successfully innovate. In my view, there’s a clear role being created, which exists between the data collection point (be that online or in the real world), and the marketing and design teams. An ‘auto analyst’ if you will – whose critical skills are three-fold

• Being able to ask the consumer the right questions in the first place
• Analysing the data, digging deeper than the raw numbers, and testing the conclusions that these new types of research – or indeed other existing methods – lead to

• Translating the findings of research and user engagement into meaningful insight, which marketing and design teams understand and can work together around.

At the moment, social media-based user research in the auto industry is in danger of just becoming 'the next big thing' - jumped on by marketing teams as something new and radical, that they’ve got to have in order to look contemporary, but which ultimately is being treating as just another marketing method. Left like this, the results of these – often worthwhile and interesting - new means of research and engagement seem destined to be the subject of the same frowning and eye-rolling from the designer, engineering and planning teams who are ultimately charged with designing the ‘fallout’, that exists in the industry today. 

Related reading:

User research on the Ford Fiesta - the view from real life Antonellas

Drew Smith on the car industry's failure to do digital

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 1st September 2009. Hat-tip to Drew Smith at Downsideupdesign for sparking the train of thought that led me to this

Images: Joe Simpson and Drew Smith talk future auto in London - June 2009 (Mark Charmer); GM bare necessities car (GM), Audi video (Audi)

Three New Shapes for Ford – Sue Cischke, meet @amydoesdesign and @potatowedge

Last Thursday we interviewed Ford's Sue Cischke about the company's sustainability strategy. Then on Saturday we met design students in the DAAP (Department of Design, Architecture, Art & Planning) at The University of Cincinnati (UC).  Two of those students - Amy Johannigman and Robb Hunter, now follow Dan Sturges and Drew Smith in giving their views on what Sue said, and what Ford should do next. Over to Amy and Robb...

Sue has a great base of conversation. We loved that she dropped the “T” bomb (TRAIN!) right at the beginning. Her knowledge of Ford’s current sustainable facts and figures proved her credibility. The mention of a “Hub Concept” got us hopeful that Ford has big plans in this space.

But while she seems to be developing some models for Ford’s future, we would like the shape of these models to reflect more progressive shifts. Peter Drucker reminds us that "wherever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision".

We’ve three key points, and have represented each one graphically. We call them “Shapes for Sue”. The ideas they contain are explained in the text below each diagram.

1. Be a Game Changer


At a recent Designer’s Accord meeting in NYC, Allan Chochinov of Core77 said "we know too much not to design in a sustainable manner”. He’s right. The facts are in, and climate change has created a situation that is in urgent need of addressing. Sue's talk of "transitional changes" will not suffice, when one considers the magnitude of our problem. We need bold actions and strict practices from industry leaders.

We need to impress behavioral change within users to set firm attitudes and outcomes. Ford has the opportunity to be a "Game Changer" as P&G’s A.G. Lafley would say, and implement large scale shifts. Traditional business models would see Sue's prescribed strategy of "near-term, midterm, and long-term" solutions as smart. But these are strategies for a previous era - comfortable change rather than radical rebirth. If Ford claims to be an industry leader, it needs to step up, and differentiate itself as such. The danger is that the world is now changing much faster than Ford.

2. Mash-ups not Mix-tapes


Mash-ups are a current, popular form of music created by taking parts of many existing songs and overlapping, restructuring, and recreating them into an entirely new compilation. A mash-up creates a song from familiar parts but creates an entire new way of hearing it. Artist Greg Gillis (aka GirlTalk), may mix Pras's "Ghetto Superstar" and Yo La Tengo's "Autumn Sweater" all in less than 30 seconds. We think Ford should see this as an inspiration and analogy for creating industry partnerships. Currently, Ford’s partnerships feel more like a mix-tape, a mix of single tracks from different albums on one tape. Most of Sue’s discussion paints Ford as merely a hardware maker. Ford needs to reach out and begin partnerships that embrace service design, infrastructure change, mobile urban living. The possibilities are endless when we are open to creative, collaborative, non-traditional forms of ourselves.

3. Co-Creation

 
Sue spoke of Ford’s interest in current thought leaders and Industry conferences. It seems to be talking with many of the industry's tastemakers to make more informed decisions. The fact that Ford has created positions for sustainable strategy and social media are impressive in themselves. Yet while creating all these new positions and discussions, Ford seems to have forgotten the primary rule of ‘sales’: be a good listener. Ford’s product development models a collaborative inner-circle of new-age hybrid leadership. This model resembles a funnel and seems to focus more on "a perception’s game" as Scott Monty describes in a January 12, MDB interview than a receptive open-source model.

Traditional leadership models will not meet the pressing needs of our current economy, and climate change. We propose a co-creation model similar to the work of academic design researcher Liz Sanders, in her "Make-Tools" workshops. The idea of co-creation is not design by democracy, but rather design by listening. The advent of social media penetrates today's participatory culture in completely new ways - ones that are highly digestible by the public.

So come on Ford, let's cut the jargon, turn up our tweets and begin a real dialogue. One that's devoid of traditional marketing and watered down plans.

Amy Johannigman and Robb Hunter are both currently undergraduate students in the Department of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning at The University of Cincinnati. Amy majors in Product Design and has worked at The Ford Motor Company among others, while Robb majors in Transportation Design and has worked at Hasbro toys, DEKA and Intrago.

Both bring a multi-disciplinary approach to what they do - favouring collaborative processes over demarcated disciplines.

Could Scott Monty's one percent goal change Ford?

Joe and I had a drink with Scott Monty, Ford's head of social media, on Monday night. Arriving in a splendid old-fashioned bow-tie, Scott's at the heart of some of the big change going on at Ford, to communicate the company's story more openly.

Scott - aka @scottmonty on Twitter - is building quite a name for himself. @amydoesdesign, a design student at the University of Cincinnati cut to the point this weekend:

"Oh my god, you meeting Scott Monty is way more interesting than meeting J Mays [Ford's design boss]."

We talked about the challenge of getting 200,000 employees comfortable sharing more about what they do, and bringing to life what the organisation is about and how it's changing.

Scott's confident he can drive a change in how Ford communicates online. "Even if we get only one percent of our employee population doing this, that's 2,000 people - on Twitter, blogs, Facebook, discussion forums. We'll have an army of influencers from inside the company that will be able to share their own perspective on Ford. And put a human face on the company at the same time."

You can see a video of part of our chat below (in the super-low-light Dearborn Inn bar).

We talked about the tendency of young talent to be forced to leave behind the dynamic communication and collaboration tools of their college and personal lives when they arrive at a big corporation. Scott was adamant that these people shouldn't have to compromise how they communicate, just because they work at Ford.

"We're not necessarily competing with GM or Toyota for talent. We're competing with Google, with Oracle, with some of the best technology companies in the world. This has become a standard of working conditions. People want access to their Facebook pages, their favourite YouTube videos, their AIM accounts that allow them to communicate and stay connected."

If we don't do that from an enterprise structure, whether it's creating our own internally or allowing them to access it externally, it's going to be a huge problem.

He also stressed "it's not just a young person's game". And then Caroline arrived with our food. We'll pick up on that point next time we see him.

Ford's overall change theme is "Drive One". Somehow I can't help think that getting one percent of staff quickly onto Twitter would deliver radical change. Today, when we meet a Ford engineer or designer we walk away without a business card. The PR person is the funnel for communication. If Scott gets his way, maybe that will change.

Related reading:

Scott Monty on Ford's approach to social media

Posted by Mark Charmer. Mark is founder of The Movement Design Bureau, a global think tank. Video filmed in the Golden Eagle Lounge. Dearborn Inn, Michigan. 20 April 2009.

Sue Cischke, meet Drew Smith

 

On Thursday we interviewed Ford's Sue Cischke about the company's sustainability strategy and put the interview online. Now we're gathering comment from key thinkers we know. First up was Dan Sturges, next comes Drew Smith, currently based in Germany working as a freelance design strategist for an automotive design strategy consultancy. He also runs the downsideupdesign blog. Over to Drew...

By way of introduction, during a live interview last night at the Fortune Brainstorm: GREEN conference, Bill Ford went on record saying “One thing I’ll tell you for sure: our ability to forecast has been just horrible.” He added that despite bringing in external advisors to help forecast three-to-five year market developments, the company “might as well have just tossed darts” given their lack of success in defining the future of the Ford. Apart from demonstrating a, frankly, shockingly short term view on Ford’s future, one other thing occurred to me: Ford is talking to the wrong people.

Comfort zone

Against this background, I was, in some measure, pleasantly surprised by what Sue presented in the interview. It showed that the company is at least cognisant of some of the longer-term (i.e more than five year) mobility issues that the company will increasingly be party to.

Sadly, however, there was little to quell my fear that there’s not much in the way of a strategic approach to defining a sustainable role for Ford as part of an sustainable mobility future.

Furthermore, evidence abounded that old-school business thinking continues to reign supreme in Dearborn. From choosing to partner with an oil company, BP, in devising future vehicle strategy because “...they know... the fuel side of the business, we know... the vehicle side of the business” to continuing to interface with the old guard of the business development networks, there’s a sense that Ford is sticking, largely, to it’s comfort zone. 

Yet Sue goes on to say that it’s going to “...take a different mindset” for America to make the transition to smaller, more efficient cars and, in the longer term, to alternative modes of mobility. She never communicated, however, how a change in mindset, either Ford’s or America’s, might come about.

Sowing the seeds of change

The cultural climate, to my mind, has never been better for sowing the seeds of substantial change in the way societies relate to mobility. It’s clear, based on Bill’s comments and this interview, that if Ford wants to participate in, and profit from this moment, they need to start talking to a different group of advisors. Now.

From an American perspective, issues surrounding energy independence, environmental degradation and the collapse of the credit markets (with the resultant modification of consumer values), provide the right environment for a visionary car company to take the lead in presenting an alternative, more sustainable transport future. Importantly, the American political leadership is in a responsive, supportive frame of mind too.

"I can’t help thinking that Ford would do well to stop seeing themselves simply as a producer of cars and more as an active component in a sustainable mobility future."

Creating a vision, taking it public

Imagine the possibilities if Ford sat down with the real thought leaders in sustainability (I include in this group anthropologists, designers, design strategists and urban planners among others) and developed a wide-ranging, flexible series of options for sustainable mobility in urban and suburban areas. Then, through a document/movie/multimedia extravaganza (Scott Monty could define the form), picture Ford taking this vision to the public.

On the one hand, the event would act as the touch point for opening up grass-roots community discussion about how we would like our lives to be lived in relation to cars and the urban environment.

More importantly the discussions would provide feedback and an opportunity for in-depth study of how the culture surrounding mobility is changing at the end-user level on a local scale.

It’s not as if the idea of going public with a broad vision of the future is unprecedented in the car industry. The GM Motoramas that ran from ’49 to ’61 sold an entire nation of eager consumers the idea of expressing themselves through how they moved from place to place. Ford could do the same to usher in a new age of sustainable mobility and, as a bonus, get themselves truly back in touch with the consumer, a vital relationship that the Big Three have squandered over the last 30 years.

For Ford to attain global relevance as a mobility provider, and for their products to dovetail elegantly with local transport infrastructures, the company needs to provide solutions that are at least regionally and, ideally, locally appropriate, assembled close to their final destination. This is a concept that Gordon Murray is already working towards with his T25 small car.

Ford: Think beyond the product, think entire ecosystem

Needless to say, this shift towards system thinking is risky for Ford because, as Sue said “..systems aren’t our core business, cars are”.  But systems, beyond computer and OS, weren’t Apple’s core business either. Yet from the introduction of the iPod in 2001, via the opening of the iTunes Music Store in 2003 to becoming the world’s most popular online music and movie store, Apple transitioned from simply selling a product to providing the entire, highly profitable ecosystem.

At one point during the interview, Sue talks about the shift in environmental discourse from a binary, “black and white” approach to a more nuanced, “middle ground” view. I can’t help thinking that Ford would do well to undergo a similar shift in their thinking so that they stop seeing themselves simply as a producer of cars and more as an active component in a sustainable mobility future.

Drew lives in Frankfurt, Germany but originally hails from Australia. He holds a degree in Industrial Design from The University of Technology in Sydney, and a Masters Degree in Automotive Design from Coventry University - one of the world's premier automotive design colleges. He was recently named as one of Design Droplets top 10 industrial designers to follow on twitter. You can check out his profile here.

Meeting Carrie Nolan, one of the faces behind @thehenryford

Joe and I have decamped this week quite a lot to the cafe in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, because the wifi's so much faster than the Dearborn Inn, where we've been staying. We first visited the museum in December, when we interviewed the all-knowing Bob Casey, curator of transportation. Bob had great insights into the historical problems of matching demand to supply in the mass-production auto industry.

Proving the power of Twitter to get people together, we tweeted we were here and yesterday were soon joined by Carrie Nolan, a PR manager from the museum, who came to say hi and tell us how things are going.

See our short discussion with her below.

The Henry Ford Museum is a must for anyone interested in the social and technical history of how we move, mass produced vehicles, the story of the American railroad and its aviation history. One of my favourite exhibitions is its story of the transition of aviation from a dangerous sport to a credible, safe form of transport. The area had one of the world's first proper airports, and its first airport hotel, the aforementioned Dearborn Inn, which opened in 1931.

Follow Carrie through @cmnolan10 or the whole team via @thehenryford on Twitter.

Posted by Mark Charmer and filmed at The Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan on 20 April 2009.

Geneva auto salon 2009 - what do you want to know?

Despite the fairly parlous state of the auto industry right now, one event you can guarantee no manufacturer will pull out of is the Geneva auto show. This is Europe's big automotive deal, and it's a guaranteed draw for the car world's great and good each March.

Because of this, hotel rooms tend to book up about half a year in advance, and because I never like to plan things too far ahead (*ahem*), I won't be staying overnight at Geneva this year because I didn't organise a hotel soon enough... I will, instead, be getting up at a frankly silly hour next Tuesday morning, to drive to Gatwick and hop on an Easyjet flight which will hopefully have me in the exhibition hall before 10am.

Despite there being a lot of stuff to cover in just one day, I'd like to experiment with making my coverage interactive, rather than just trundling round photographing cars, and lunching at the expense of Nissan, Audi, Peugeot or whoever. So what would you like me to try and find out, who would you like me to try and field a question to, and which cars are you particularly interested in? Drop me an email or leave a comment here and I'll do my best to cover it or get you an answer.

What's more, I'll be tweeting throughout the event on Tuesday, so you can follow my thoughts and photos or direct a question to me there, then come back throughout Wednesday and Thursday for reports, updates, photos and video both here on Re*Move, on my flickr account and on our BlipTV and Youtube channels.

Are you keen to know more about the BMW Concept 5 Series GT's general bizarre-nesss (above), or if I've got it wrong about the Citroen DS Inside? Or just who'll spring a surprise? I wonder what the show star will be this year? Stay tuned...

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 25th February. Geneva Auto Salon's press days are 3rd and 4th March. It opens to the public from 5th-15th March.

Scott Monty on Ford's approach to Social Media

Do you use Twitter? That's been the UK media's number one obsession over the past few weeks. And the answer is yes, we do - as you'll have (hopefully) noticed by the widgets down the right hand side of this blog, showing our recent 'tweets'. We know that half the people reading will have turned off by now - because they're sick to death of hearing about it - but stay with me, because the auto companies - those supposedly slow-on-the-uptake, most old fashioned beasts, are quietly using twitter - and wider forms of social media - to dramatic effect.

A few weeks ago, Mashable published an article called "40 of the best brands on twitter and the people behind them" and heading the list were Chevrolet, Ford, General Motors and Honda. If you search closely, you'll also find brands and organisations like Renault, Citroen of Brazil, Daimler and Toyota's iQ on there. In fact Twitter has become a valuable tool - particularly for GM and Ford (no sign of Chrysler yet) - for communicating, updating (and correcting) people on the news that's been pinging around surrounding the recent auto bailout.

At January's Detroit Auto show, we got the opportunity to interview Ford's Head of Social Media - Scott Monty - to find out more. Watch the video below to see him explain how Ford are using various media channels to not only tell their story - but begin to change perceptions about Ford.

Interestingly, Monty has found himself at the centre of what you might describe as a Twitter 'row' these last couple of weeks. His detractor came in the unlikely form of Ray Wert, the guy behind online car site Jalopnik. He accused Monty of being a 'bit of a twit' on the Jalopnik site, suggesting Monty was merely enhancing his own personal brand, and not Ford's, by using his own personal account on Twitter, rather than a Ford one.

Monty is quite clearly capable of sticking up for himself, while Jalopnik is a site we massively admire for managing to do a rare thing in the online automotive world - offering informed, up to the minute news and analysis, laced with a huge dollop of humour. But here's not really the place to analyse this particular game of online fisty-cuffs (check back through this tweet search list of comments relating to it if you want to know more).

All we can really say is that twitter (and most forms of online media for that matter), to us, are about having a conversation (as opposed to simply broadcasting, in a one-way fashion). This is something Monty seems to be doing pretty well at for Ford. By using his own account, he might not be as 'findable' as simply being behind one account named 'Ford', but having heard endless criticism of 'faceless' or 'evil' corporations recently (we're talking about mainstream media vilification of banks and auto companies here), the notion of having a recongnisable, real, individual who reaches out to people from within an organisation to have one-on-one conversations, seems rather smart and refreshing, to us.

Whatever your take, one things for sure. The car industry - particularly that much maligned corner of it that resides in North America, has been on to Twitter longer than most. From an industry that is so often slated for refusing to change and embrace new ideas and technologies, it be just be an indication that the auto industry as a whole is now listening, and ready to change. Let us know what you think.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 20th February 2009

Disclosure: Ford is sponsoring The Movement Design Bureau's design research work in 2009. We have an independent eye though, so tell us if it seems we don't.

Here are the questions for Ford

Thanks to those of you who've sent us questions for Ford's design and research teams.

Here's a list of some highlights:

(where people openly sent us questions on twitter, we've included their Twitter Handles, if they DM'd or emailed us, we kept it anonymous)

So, from Twitter:

• From @danieleizians What do you think of the new Taurus? Ford definitely made the right adjustments in my book. One of the best Sunday reveals.
• from @endac: why is it taking ford so long to bring an EV to Market? They *had* the Th!nk and ditched that.. - Thanks Endac
• from @TomRaftery When is their 1st EV available? EV, HEV or PHEV? Price? Range? Charge time? Swappable battery? Updatable firmware (for v2g)?
• from @Charmermark my Q is... producing volume EV batteries is surely the No1 challenge. Could the industry collaborate rather than compete here?
• From @monkchips: Where is the iPod moment for auto transport, or do we have to wait for Apple to deliver it? Segway CTO now at @ $AAPL
• From @bjelkeman: Throughout the IT industry it's been proven that networks that are built through open collaboration have worked much better than competitive, proprietary ones. Think of the Internet versus AOL, GSM versus CDMA. In Sweden, Saab and Volvo are right now collaborating, together, with the Swedish government. I wondered if Ford at a global level considered this kind of collaboration to be key to creating the electric vehicle infrastructure we need, or an exception.

...and some of the others:

• ask them if it is really possible to develop a good EV from an existing ICE chassis (Focus) or is this just the best they can do for now?
• ask with whom they plan to work on batteries, as battery engineering and supply is the biggest issue
• what is the actual energy saving by switching to eclectic in CO2?
• are they purely aiming at achieving the technology or are they thinking about driver satisfaction too?
• how will I charge it from my house if I park on street?
• Honda is not even pursuing plug-in battery technology.  And Toyota (which came out with the Prius back in 1997 and knows batteries well) has repeatedly brought up all of the problems with plug-in battery technology. Furthermore, the Toyota FT-EV only gets 50 miles of range and is a very small car. Instead, both companies are aggressively pursuing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.With this in mind, do you think plug-in battery vehicles are being overhyped?
• what do you think about the Chinese electric cars, and what are your plans, in general, for EVs for developing world markets?
• what can car companies do (and how can they make it profitable for themselves, as they won't do it otherwise) to get people to start to buy smaller and more efficient automobiles?  it seems like car companies set the standard through advertising and marketing, and themselves hold the responsibility for the "car culture" in the united states?  why is it that a particular model of car gets bigger and bigger each subsequent year?
• i realise its quite futile to ask car companies to start marketing that people should drive less, but, honestly, what are they doing about that?  are there any business models for car companies that involve either setting up car sharing programs (similar to zip car, hertz, etc.), or to start moving into revolutionizing public transportation, etc.

Any more, let us know, or add a comment.