I’ve long noticed ads on TV chock full of introductory offers. New customers are sexy. Old customers, not so much. As a non-new customer with many companies I often feel a twinge seeing the attention they lavish on people who aren’t paying them any money, while I, their loyal customer, get no love. This is why I was so surprised to see a Ford TV ad offering existing Ford customers an extra $1000 off a new truck.

There is a culture around the ownership of big trucks (Chevy, Dodge, Ford, etc.) that I’m not well-versed in but I know enough to know that among many of the most hardcore customers there’s huge brand loyalty. Check out the hundreds of thousands of posts in the Full Size Chevy Forum if you have your doubts.

I wonder how this dynamic will work for Ford? I wonder what led them to this strategy as well… forward thinking? bleeding customers to other brands?

I think more brands should try to show their loyal customer bases some love instead of treating them like a cash cow to be milked. I bet if a bunch of those customer acquisition dollars were spent on customer retention, then more new customers would want to get in the club anyway. Thinking that you should lavish love on a customer to get them in the door and then take them for everything you can is a pretty short-term way of thinking anyway.

I hope Ford does well with this.