Direct mail-out advertising is nothing new. The photo is of the back of a postcard mailed out to model T Ford owners by an enterprising dealership in 1927 (the year the Model A was released).
Henry Ford is quoted as saying, “I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one – and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces.”
Same as today?
By 1914, the assembly process for the Model T had been so streamlined it took only 93 minutes to assemble a car. That year Ford produced more cars than all other automakers combined. The Model T was a great commercial success, and by the time Henry made his 10 millionth car, 50 percent of all cars in the world were Fords. It was so successful that Ford did not purchase any advertising between 1917 and 1923, instead it became so famous that people now considered it a norm; more than 15 million Model Ts were manufactured, reaching a rate of 9,000 to 10,000 cars a day in 1925, or 2 million annually.
The distribution of Model T’s was far greater that you would imagine, being assembled overseas in 12 locations:
Buenos Aires, Argentina;
Santiago, Chile;
Geelong, Australia;
São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil;
Toronto, Canada;
Walkerville, Canada;
Copenhagen, Denmark;
Manchester, United Kingdom;
Berlin, Germany;
Cork, Ireland;
Cádiz, Spain;
Yokohama, Japan
Ford Motor Company has an incredible history, when you look back.
