A short summary on naming the EDSEL

1. Background
Edsel was an automobile brand planned, designed, developed and manufactured by
Ford Motor Company in late 1950’s. The brand was launched by spending a promotional
budget which industry has not witnesses till that date. A yearlong teaser advertisement
campaign was done. Huge hype was created and expectation about the product has high
rocketed among customers, but Edsel failed miserably. Ford motors was forced to stop
production of Edsel within 3 years of its launch and were able to sell only less than 1.1 lakhs
vehicles.
There are many factors behind the failure of this model starting from its looks,price,
time of launch,qualityof product, overexpectationaboutthe product, dealernetwork, name
of the brand, etc.
Edsel was named after Mr. Edsel Ford who is the only son of Mr. Henry Ford, the
founder of Ford Motor Company. Edsel Fordwas the president of Ford Motor Companyfrom
1919 to 1943. Edsel Ford suffered yearsof bullying byhis father HenryFord during the period
as President of Ford Motors. Many of Edsel's decisions were either overruled or nullified by
his father. Edsel Ford died in 1943 at the age of 49 and his son Henry Ford II succeeded his
grandfather and became president of Ford Motors in 1945.
The first half of 1950’s saw the boom in automobile industry and by 1955 growth in
industry volume was 20% YOY. During 1955 General Motors had wide range of products to
cater all segments of customers. But Ford was having only 3 brands – Ford brand with
economy models, above that Mercury brand model and Lincoln Brand as luxury brand
vehicles. Fordwaslackinginmid-segmentprice range where competitionwas strong. SoFord

2. decided to introduce a brand between Mercury & Lincoln at a Price range between $2600 &
$5000 which was the mid segment price range.
Mr David Wallace, Director of planning in Ford Motors, with the help of Colombia
University did a survey among mid-segment price customers and concluded that these
customers resonate on three core product characteristics- masculinity, youthfulness and
speed. Based on these learning Ford started to work on their new model which was code
named as E car (Experimental Car). Mr. Wallace and his team, based on their findings, need
to position this car, includingits name. It wasthe first car tobe introduced by companysince
1938, nearly 20 years after last car Mercury was introduced.
Naming the Edsel
Ford Motor Company could not finda name byitself for itsnew model codenamedas
“E“car. The company hired different research outfits which tried public opinion on different
possible names suggested internally, those names free association that comes to mind and
possible opposite word for those names. But result was negative. Unable to find a name
internally, Mr.David Wallace and team gave the job to a Pulitzer Prize winner poet named
Marianne Moore, who was good with words. She came with hundreds of imaginative names
such as Utopian Turtletop, Andante Con Moto, Mongoose Civique, Pastelogram, Intelligent
Bullet, and Bullet Cloisonne. But none of those names were acceptable to Ford team.
Then company asked its ad agency, Foote, Cone & Belding (FC&B), to come up with a
name. FC&B,wentall outforits newassignment, even by askingits employeesinitsChicago,
New York, andLondon officesto come up withpossible namesfor thismodel. The employee
who came up with the winning name would win an E-Car, this was the reward offered by
FC&B. They got 18,000 names in whichthey filtered and selected six thousand names. These
six thousand names were presented to Ford for consideration in alphabetical order in
beautifullyboundbooks,complete witheachname’swordassociations.DavidWallace,asked
a research company to find out which name from six thousand names, the public liked best.
The research company finalised four names from the list —Corsair, Citation, Pacer, and
Ranger, but Wallace and team working on the project, were unsatisfied.
As the product launch was approaching, and names need to be embedded in vehicle
body, Wallace and his team presented the four top research-tested names to an executive

3. committee meeting headed up by Ernest Breech, a vice president at the company. Breech
rejectedall fourresearch-testednames.Thentheystartedconsideringotherrejectednames.
Among the rejectsconsidered byBreech andthe othertop officials at Fordwere Drof (“Ford”
spelled backwards), Benson (one of Henry Ford II’s sons), and Edsel (Henry Ford’s son who
had died at age 49 in 1943).
Breech finalisedEdsel as the name for “E”car,which wasacceptedby Fordfamily only
after lot of persuasionfrom Breech. Most people involved in naming didn’tlike this name to
be given to E car. The general public just didn't like the name. Outside Detroit, the name
meant nothing.
InSeptember1957Edsel waslaunchedafterhuge hype withyearlongteaserads,Edsel
show, Eday andother promotional activities. FourModels of Edsel —Corsair,Citation,Pacer,
and Ranger with its variations totalling 18 variants were launched by Ford.
Though lotof efforts,logic, marketsurvey andresearch were done fornaming the “E”
Car, the finalised name has no logic in it.