Ehab Kaoud, Chief Designer, Ford North America, is responsible for all car exteriors developed in the US, including many global products. Prior to his current role, he led the company’s South American studio in developing products for emerging markets, based in Brazil. As Ford prepares to grow aggressively in India, Kaoud discusses issues on design in an email interview with Murali Gopalan. Excerpts:
With emerging economies now becoming the growth drivers for automakers, does design become a challenge for companies such as Ford?
Under the One Ford plan, we are able to tap into our global resources, with product development centres across the world. This way we are able to use the skills and knowledge of personnel in India as well as Brazil, in Europe as well as Australia…providing insight from the local markets and hands on experience for these regions’ special needs making market shifts much easier to adjust to.
In most cases no, more so today than ever before, with the help of the Internet, people everywhere have access to the same information, making the customer very aware of what is being offered elsewhere in the world. People in India know what is hot and what is not in Europe. And they are keeping up to date with all the trends.
The areas where the cultural DNA impacts the design are usually in the colours and the materials used in the product. Whenever we design a new product, we do market research in the regions where the product will be sold. We listen to what the customers say. We go to great lengths to ensure that we provide for their needs in the product. In most cases, we find common grounds in the regions a particular product is sold in, such as the consumers’ needs for space, fuel efficiency and safety.
Is convergence of design possible as part of the One Ford vision?
Yes, convergence of design is possible.
A good example of this is the Ford Ecosport, the same product is sold in many markets around the world, and it is successful in all of them. We are learning through the market researches we conduct in the regions we are selling a particular product, that’s what matters to customers the most.
Cultural perspective is in the use of colour and materials, as I said before.
In Ford's view, how much importance do Indian buyers give to design?
The Indian customer cares significantly about design. They are all well informed through the Internet about new trends in design and they do not want to be left behind. Ford understands this.
As a matter of fact, when we were designing the Ecosport, we conducted three researches in India (in two different regions).
The first was early in the design process, where we tested the idea of the vehicle. The second was half way through the development, where we incorporated the finding from the first and produced several design themes. There were likes and dislikes for each of the themes. We took all of this information and produced the final product, which we took to our third research for confirmation. The rest is history. The product today is very successful.
Do design tastes differ between men and women?
Both men and women care about design, but their tastes are different. Women may not like an aggressive looking design but men would.
However, there are common grounds for tastes of both men and women and those (common grounds) are what the market researches are there to find and accomplish.
As the youngest car buying nation in the world, does India present a particularly interesting market (from the viewpoint of design) for Ford?
Today’s customers, especially the young ones, are very savvy. They are informed and their expectations are much higher than any generation before them. Based on this, we spend a significant amount of time on details, fit and finish, how parts go together; not only from a manufacturers’ ease of assembly but also from an aesthetic sense of quality.
Could you give an update of some design initiatives from Ford and customer reactions which would be a story worth telling?
Yes, there is an interesting story. When we were presenting the Ford EcoSport to the media, we began to talk about SYNC, which is our voice command system in the car.
One of the journalists was extremely sceptical about SYNC understanding his accent. He said that if he used the system to “call his wife” that the system would fail in understanding his voice command because of his heavy Indian accent.
After he got into the car and tried using the SYNC for that very purpose, the call went through seamlessly and his wife answered.