The Value of a Solid Product

In a press release this week, Ford Motor Company announced that its 2010 Ford Taurus was commanding an impressive resale value compared to previous models:

The huge leap reflects the strong appeal of Ford's full-size sedan,
according to Rose Peng, manager, Global Lifecycle Analytics Department (GLAD).

"The successful product launch of the 2010 Ford Taurus coupled with the vehicle's best-in-class quality, upscale design and state-of-the-art technology has resulted in a sharp improvement for the brand," she said, adding that the resale value of the Taurus after one year now surpasses that of one of its strongest competitors, the 2010 Toyota Avalon.

"The 2009 Taurus was selling at a significant discount compared with the 2009 Toyota Avalon," Peng said. "Now the 2010 Ford Taurus is commanding a $2,500 premium over the 2010 Toyota Avalon." And Taurus ranks highest in its segment for initial quality, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Initial Quality Study (IQS).

This represents a monumental turnaround for the Taurus (and Ford in general). Only five years ago, the Ford Taurus was a poster child for terrible resale value, generally regarded as a bland, uninteresting vehicle with a short life expectancy, best left to rental agencies and other fleet-based usage. (In fact, the 2007 model was sold exclusively as a fleet vehicle.) When the model was redesigned extensively for 2008, analysts speculated that poor name association would restrict the vehicle's sales potential.

Additionally, industry experts openly doubted the future of the Ford brand, as the company was hemorrhaging billions of dollars annually.

Today, Ford has become profitable again on the momentum afforded by strong vehicles like the new Taurus.

What can we learn from this? It's really quite simple. Despite past image problems for the Taurus, Ford put its best foot forward and invested in exclusive technologies, bold design and mechanical improvements to deliver a vehicle that would surpass their customers' expectations. In an age where the public has literally hundreds of vehicles from which to choose, people demand reliability, comfort, safety and performance, and the evidence suggests that Ford has succeeded in giving them what they want--and that buyers are willing to pay a premium for quality.

When people have a plethora of choices, expensive marketing campaigns and celebrity endorsements will only achieve so much. When you put forth the effort to create the best product money can buy, the rest will become easy by comparison.

As the voice haunting a cornfield once said, "If you build it, they will come."