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Ford Marketing: Selling the New Aero Birds

By: Harvey Hodges
“Bye Bye Birdie – for now” is the title that Mike Mueller uses in his book Thunderbird Milestones for the chapter on the 1980 to 1997 years. John Gunnell in his book T-Bird - 40 Years of Thunder groups the cars 1980-82 “Silver Birds”, 1983-86 “Aero Birds”, 1987-88 “Bubble Birds”, 1989-95 “Super Birds”.

Previously published in the Script we wrote about the 1980-1982 cars as the “forgotten years” and the opportunities that Thunderbirds of these years present to collectors. Following that was a series of three articles in the Script reviewing the initial marketing strategy of Ford Motor Company presented to Ford dealers in a preproduction manual. As the first “Aero” design 1983 cars were delivered to Ford stores the company’s advertising campaign with brochures and print ads began.

A variety of slogans were used to sell the automobile to the potential purchaser. The ubiquitous “Have you driven a Ford lately?” dominated. One full color ad in magazines – “Pure Form. Pure Function” detailed “The Observers Perspective – a unique new shape, The Driver’s Perspective – engineering a driver’s car, The Link Between Man and Machine – interior design, Thunderbird in Total – aerodynamics, performance, comfort and control.

Ford was fortunate when MOTOR TREND magazine featured the “Brave New Bird” on the cover of its October 1982 issue. The glowing report about the new 1983 included “This time the beauty goes all the way to its heart – the handling suspension is so good on all surfaces that it ought to be standard equipment – this T-Bird has more wind tunnel time behind it than any Ford in the last four years”. In June 1983 MOTOR TREND featured the Turbo Coupe.

A full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal on May 16, 1983 provides an excellent sample of Ford’s numerous black and white pitches. “Thunderbird – The votes are in” featured quotes from articles that appeared in national newspapers and leading automotive publications representing what the experts were saying. AutoWeek, Jan. 1983 “With almost every new car introduction Ford Motor Company products become more exciting. They look better, handle better, go faster, squeeze out better mileage. They become closer and closer to the kinds of cars their key people believe we really want. Best of all, they’re right”. Car and Driver, 1983 Buyer’s Guide “Between the sleek styling and the strong power plants, the Thunderbird has a decidedly European Luxo-Coupe bent – one that makes it unique among personal luxury car’s. Washington Business Journal, March 1983 –“Ford is making a real Thunderbird again”.

Dealer sales brochures for the customer mirrored all the material that was originally presented in the preproduction literature – beautiful pictures of the new aerodynamic design, HERITAGE edition luxury interiors, STANDARD edition shaped to soar in style, the TURBO COUPE: thunder with lightning and pages of engineering and technology details. The brochures listed some 65 Thunderbird features and 69 options from which to make choices in the three models.

The 1983 Thunderbird was a sales success for Ford Motor Company and there was more to come.

John Gunnell writes is best in his book T-Bird – 40 Years of Thunder (published by Krause). “It didn’t take long for race car builders to realize the competition potential of the powerful, great-handling, wind-cheating, Aero ‘Birds in stock car racing. -------“Driving a Wood’s Brothers T-Bird Buddy Baker took first place in Daytona’s Firecracker 400. A week later Dale Earnhardt was victorious at Nashville in the ‘Bird that Bud Moore built for him. ---- “The final race of the (1983) season was the Winston Western 500 (km) at Riverside, CA. It was in this event that driver Bill Elliott collected his first Winston Cup win with the Melling Ford T-Bird”