AUGUST 20, 2004

Jaguar and Ford

The rumour mill is never silent for long when it comes to the plans for Jaguar Racing in F1. The latest whisper is that there is a "strong possibility" that Jaguar's parent company Ford, will decide to get rid of the Jaguar branding because the F1 project is being funded by Ford and the US company is not getting any benefit from the money being spent. The argument is that Ford would sell more cars if the cars were Ford-branded.

One of the problems with the Ford Motor Company is that if you talk to 20 executives you will always get 20 different answers and there will always be political agendas with people from different divisions and their associates trying to argue for what they want. There is an element of logic in the fact that Ford wants more coverage but at the same time the Jaguar brand is strong and does create more passion. The marketing men will need to work out whether or not this has impacted on sales and whether or not it will continue to do so.