Millinger FreeLance Writing

Ford Quality Hot Sheet

In today's automotive marketplace, quality is a major buying consideration for many customers. So naturally automakers look for ways to publicize quality improvements and awards for their products.

This Hot Sheet was written to help salespeople share Ford's good news about its quality awards with customers.

While it is a simple piece, this Hot Sheet proved to be quite challenging in that it required balancing Ford's desire to make the broadest claims possible based on the awards, and the legal verbiage that J.D. Power and Associates required to use its award in a publication.

Download 092008FORDQuality.pdf

EPA Fuel Economy Ratings Hot Sheet

Beginning with the 2008 model year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) changed the methods it uses to assess the fuel economy of vehicles sold in the U.S. The new testing methods, which would better reflect real-world driving habits, were expected to result in reduced gas mileage numbers across the board.

Because of its early launch, the 2008 Escape was one of the first to receive new new ratings. This Hot Sheet was designed to explain the new EPA ratings and address any customer confusion --- especially when 2007 and 2008 models would be on sales lots at the same time.

Download epa20mpg20hs20final.pdf

New Hire Meeting Leader Guide

Download NewHireMLG.pdf

This scripted Meeting Leader Guide was one of the first for Ford Retailer Education and Training's online Sales Manager Assistant (SMA), available via eSourceBook.

SMA was designed to give a busy Sales Manager a ready-made sales meeting package. The meetings cover a variety of topics --- from new vehicle launches to new features and vehicle systems. SMAs were also designed to make use of product training materials that are readily available in the dealership from RE&T.

The New Hire meetings gives the Sales Manager an organized format for introducing new salespeople to the RE&T training materials. Product knowledge is one of the keys to winning customer trust and satisfaction. By becoming familiar with the available product knowledge resources, new Sales Consultants can get up to speed quickly on the showroom lineup and sell more effectively.

2008 F-Series Super Duty Insert Card

I wrote this "hero card" in response to a request for support from the Super Duty brand team. Durability was a key message in the launch of the 2008 truck; the Web site supported the message with a number of video testimonials. The purpose of the insert card was:

• To familiarize Sales Consultants with the Web site content

• To challenge them to log on and see the videos for themselves
• To help them steer their customers to the Web site
• To give them compelling stories from the videos to use in their Super Duty sales presentations

  Download SDHeroCardInsert.pdf

2008 Edge --- Frontline Magazine

Download Frontline_EdgeMatching.pdf

This article for the Ford Sales Consultant magazine Frontline was designed to help guide customers to the most satisfactory vehicle choice among 5- and 7-passenger Ford SUVs and crossovers. This was an especially important issue as Edge was a relative newcomer to the Ford showroom and the 2009 Flex was coming soon. By focusing on the key features and capabilities of four vehicles, the article helps Sales Consultants address customer confusion. The article differentiates among the vehicles by features, seating and storage capacity, towing and off-road capability. Using this information and asking customers open-ended questions about their vehicle needs, Sales Consultants would be able to find the right "fit" for their customers.

2009 Flex Safety --- Frontline Magazine

During the lengthy lead-up to the 2009 Flex launch this summer, Ford wanted to gradually introduce the new crossover vehicle to its dealers and Sales Consultants. In the bimonthly Frontline magazine for sales personnel, this was done by highlighting different families of vehicle features over the course of several issues. This early-preview article focuses on Flex safety features, while also reinforcing the consistent message of Ford's commitment to safety innovations. The "Additional Resources" sidebar is a regular magazine feature that alerts the Sales Consultants to related materials they have already received, or will receive shortly.

Download Dec07Jan08flex.pdf

Fuel Economy Hot Sheet

I wrote this brief Hot Sheet in response to a Ford client request for help in giving the Sales Consultants ready answers for customer questions about the fuel economy of Ford vehicles.

The Hot Sheet specifically needed to address the concerns of F-Series Super Duty truck customers, who may have been concerned that their trucks were not performing up to expectations. Content of the Hot Sheet needed to address these concerns as well as give Sales Consultant general tips for helping customers improve their overall fuel economy through driving techniques and proper maintenance.

Download 052007fuel20economyhs.pdf

My Resume

Accomplishments

Communication skills: Translating the function and benefits of sometimes complex vehicle systems into layman's terms.

Creativity: Developing and maintaining a recipe blog, Eating Well on Dialysis, which caters to the specific dietary needs of people on hemodialysis. I collect from a variety of sources recipes that are low-sodium, low-potassium and low-phosphorus. The blog is linked on common-interest portals such as Foodbuzz, Wellsphere and Blogger.com.

Teamwork: Coordinating work closely with other team members, including instructional designers, art directors, video producers, product information specialists, project managers, account executives and the client.

Problem solving: Working with the creative director to develop a standard process for projects, wich included creating an assignment-desk system for the writers/creative leads.

Experience

Senior Writer: Gathering information, organizing and writing various training materials for use by Ford Motor Company sales personnel. These materials included Web-based training, Web sites, brochures, magazine articles, e-mail and other Ford communications media, and interactive distance learning broadcasts. Subject matter included product, marketing and brand/customer information.
Carlson Marketing Worldwide, Troy, Michigan. May 12, 2002-July 25, 2008.

Assistant Creative Director/Writer: Gathering information, organizing and writing various training materials for use by Ford Motor Company sales personnel. These materials included Web sites, booklets, brochures, magazine articles, videos and interactive distance learning broadcasts. Subject matter included product, marketing and brand/customer information.
Visual Services Inc., Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. November 1997-April 16, 2002.

Proofreader: Checking and correcting grammar, spelling, style and usage in training materials for use by Ford Motor Company sales personnel. Other clients included General Motors Corp., Lexus and Volkswagen.
Visual Services Inc., Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. April 1996-November 1997.

Free-lance proofreader: Proofreading and copy-editing print and broadcast advertising, annual reports, brochures and spec comparisons for clients including Chrysler-Plymouth, Jeep and Eagle, Cellular One, Rockwell, Hush Puppies and Southeastern Michigan Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Bozell Worldwide Inc., Southfield, Michigan. October 1995-March 1996.

Copy editor: Editing and writing headlines for feature stories and columns; designing inside section pages and black-and-white display pages, sometimes paginating on Quark XPress; acting as copy desk supervisor in the absence of the regular supervisor.
The Detroit News, Detroit, Michigan. October 1992-July 13, 1995.

News editor: Supervising daily production of newspaper (news and feature sections) and managing staff of six copy editors and two assistants.
The Oakland Press, Pontiac, Michigan. October 1989-October 1992.

Assistant news editor: Designing all inside news pages, monitoring wire service news, supervising copy desk on weekends.
The Oakland Press, Pontiac, Michigan. January 1988-October 1989.

Editorial page editor: Designing editorial and op-edit pages, editing opinion pieces and letters to the editor, acting as liaison between newspaper and readers.
The Oakland Press, Pontiac, Michigan. June 1985-March 1987.

Education

B.S. Mass Communication, University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, Mo. 1978.