Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Ford's Farley addresses 'the burden of being Lincoln'

For at least two years, the plot lines concerning Lincoln have been "How much longer until Ford kills it?" and then "How much longer until Ford turns it around?" We were told that the 2013 MKZ would begin the resurrection of a brand that many felt nostalgia for, but not love (not unlike Cadillac of not so long ago). But Lincoln knows it can't get back in the good books with just one new model; Ford's global marketing chief, Jim Farley, clued Automotive News into the lengths Lincoln will go to get customers' attentions again.

Calling it "the burden of being Lincoln," Farley said that the company's duty is to "remove any barrier that would prevent people from considering a Lincoln, taking a test drive and deciding to buy." That means a "massive" and experiential marketing campaign called, in the interim, "Reimagined," that not only wants to make the case for the brand and its cars but give consumers plenty of ways to get into those cars and drive them. Perhaps most importantly, the campaign aims to do this with younger consumers: 65 is the average age of the Lincoln owner, Farley would like to get that particular demographic way down to the 35-50 bracket.

In attempt to make the most of every interaction, Farley said Lincoln will inaugurate at 24/7 "concierge service" that offers live sales reps to help customers build and price an MKZ. It will also rebrand itself Lincoln Motor Company, which is a bit of a head-scratcher, but apparently they've determined that that's what will resonate better with the "cultural progressive magicians" and "agile visionaries" in the 35-50 age group they're after. The push will commence with a music performance on November 26, around the time of the Los Angeles Auto Show. We don't have details on the event yet, but it will be live-streamed on the website that's home for the campaign.

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/09/11/f...being-lincoln/

LexFather

I'm not sure who blows more fluff, b.s and hot air, Lincoln or Acura. Just build good looking, class leading in some area cars. Its the product stupid.

Shut the hell up and just produce.

S2000toIS350

Have you seen what they call a Town Car now?

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

First, Lincoln needs a line-up worthy of tier one status following a simple formula of core RWD sedans. Small, Midsize, and Fullsize as well as two CUVs FWD/AWD in Small and Midsize and a Fullsize 4WD SUV. Two coupes and two verts Small and Midsize luxury/sport and grand touring. Secondly Lincoln needs to fix the nomenclature of their vehicles

GS69

For Lincoln Dealers, Fine Cheese & Jason Bourne Hold Key to Brand

For those who think the car-buying experience stinks, Ford Motor Co. is teaching its Lincoln dealers about fine cheeses.

Ford is spending more than $1 billion to try to resurrect the Lincoln brand and it knows it needs not just better cars, but a luxury car-buying experience that will attract younger, better-educated and wealthier buyers.

So it's putting its dealers through training at the Lincoln Academy, where they raise their consciousness and sharpen their senses with exercises including sampling cheese.

It's a challenge. When 1 of the trainers asked how old the dealers' customers are, several shouted out numbers in the 70s and 80s.

"People who literally live their whole lives to aspire to buy a Lincoln," responded Doug Fiedler, a Lincoln Academy trainer who consults for the likes of Ritz-Carlton Hotels and Norwegian Cruise Lines. "That's not a good business model."

And yet whiffs of concern in Dearborn, Mich., over the state of Ford's luxury brand are starting to clear from the air thanks to the MKZ luxury sedan, Lincoln's 1st of 4 new or redesigned models in 4 years.

The MKZ posted sales records in each of the past 2 months and spent fewer days on dealer lots than BMW's 3-Series or Mercedes-Benz's C-Class, according to data from Bloomberg Industries and researcher Edmunds.com.

Ford has been on a roll, with record North American pretax profit of $8.34 billion last year and a 0.8 percentage point gain in market share so far this year. Still, Lincoln is important to its future because Ford needs a successful high-profit luxury line to complement a range of vehicles in its namesake brand that is the best in a generation.

'Change the client'

The trainers at Ford's Lincoln Academy are calling their coveted buyers the progressive luxury client. Dealers are being coaxed into catering to this customer by tapping into their own senses of taste, touch, sight, smell and sound.

"This initiative isn't just going to change our brand, our advertising and our products," Holly O'Donnell, a trainer, told dealers last month during 1 of the sessions in Chicago. "This initiative is going to change the client that's going to walk through our front door."

Lincoln is moving to shake buyers from their association with the now-defunct Town Car, an airport shuttle for generations of business travelers, to build the sort of cachet belonging to brands like BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Critical to that will be promising products like the MKZ and the brand's next offering, a small utility similar to the MKC Concept shown at the Detroit auto show in January that drew comparisons to the Range Rover Evoque.

'No hassles'

In the meantime, Lincoln is taking aim at sales and service staff to make sure luxury buyers want to do business with them. That's an area where Ford says even leaders like BMW and Mercedes are falling short of consumers' expectations.

When the researcher Luxury Institute LLC last year asked premium buyers what level of importance they placed on dealership experience on a scale of 1 to 10, the average score was 8.3, according to a survey released in November. At the same time, that sample of wealthy consumers scored their last sales or service experience with their current car or truck at less than 7.7, the study found.

"These clients want no hassles," Andrew Frick, a Lincoln group marketing manager, says in a training video beamed into Lincoln Academy sessions. "They want quality, reliability and effortless customer service. They're cynical, but open-minded. And there's a chance they have never stepped foot in a Lincoln dealership."

Lincoln is betting the redesigned MKZ, sporting a chrome grille inspired by eagle wings and features like push-button shifting and a retractable glass roof, will be the sedan that lures shoppers into showrooms.

Lincoln sales

The brand has had trouble drawing buyers at all. Lincoln sales fell to 82,150 cars and utilities last year from a peak of 231,660 in 1990. BMW and Mercedes each delivered more than 3 vehicles for every 1 Lincoln sold last year.

At the Lincoln Academy sessions in Chicago last month, Fiedler ticked off attributes of the client base Lincoln is after in addition to a lower age: median income of $143,000 and 66 percent college-educated.

How did this compare to the dealers' current dwindling client base? Dealers threw out terms like "Social Security," "pension" and "fixed income" when asked about their current customers. Another estimated that about 10 percent of his customers are college-educated.

"For our brand to grow, we simply need younger, more affluent buyers," said Frick, the Lincoln marketing manager, who said in another video message that the brand needed to take 60 percent of its buyers from other luxury manufacturers, such as BMW, Mercedes, Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus and Volkswagen AG's Audi.

Bear costume

After running through the demographics and viewing the videos of Frick, dealers in Chicago last month were whisked through sessions to get them in touch with their senses, meeting with a representative for Leader Dogs for the Blind.

Later, a trainer challenged the room to watch a video and count how many passes a basketball team in white jerseys makes as they run around another in black jerseys. Many in the room get the correct answer: 13. Almost nobody, though, noticed that a man moonwalks through the crowd of players in a bear costume in the middle of the video clip.

The idea is that the dealers need to become more sensitive to signals right before their eyes.

And their noses: An Italian chef ushered his staff in an out of the hotel restaurant's dining room with an aged Irish cheese, candied ginger, Hawaiian lava salt and white and black chocolate mousses. Each was sampled and discussed.

Frick: "For our brand to grow, we simply need younger, more affluent buyers."

Bourne out

The messages were clear: Maybe Lincoln dealers ought to be hosting wine and cheese tastings and offering premium coffee creamer rather than putting out Dunkin' Donuts or grilling hot dogs for their customers. Guests' chairs should be as comfortable as the staff's, and desks littered with junk or showrooms that smell like service bays could be overlooked by employees, turning off potential buyers.

Dealers are told to be more like Jason Bourne, the Central Intelligence Agency assassin in novels and action movies played by Matt Damon. A clip from "The Bourne Identity" is played in which Damon tells another character in the 2002 film that he can recite the license plate numbers of the 6 cars outside the diner where they're sitting, and that their waitress is left-handed.

"The Jason Bourne in the hospitality industry will walk through the lobby and notice that there's a light bulb out 100 yards away," said Matt Traub, a former sales and marketing executive at W and 4 Seasons hotels.

Lincoln's 'journey'

The new MKZ, sporting a chrome grille inspired by eagle wings and features like push-button shifting and a retractable glass roof, may be the car that lures shoppers into showrooms and gives dealers the 1st test of their sensory abilities.

MKZ posted record deliveries in April and its best May sales in the model line's 7-year existence. Each MKZ spent 27 days on average on dealer lots in April and 36 in May, fewer than BMW's 3-Series, Mercedes-Benz's C-Class or Lexus's ES 350.

Lincoln is "on a journey that will take some time," Jim Farley, executive vice president of Ford global marketing and sales and Lincoln, told reporters on a May 31 conference call. "We're encouraged by our MKZ sales in May, but we have a long, long road to rebuild this brand."

Megafast13

All you need is a cooler name and a rock concert to get buyers... Forget the whole product design/quality thing

mmarshall

THAT's their main error. They blew it when they dropped the Town Car (which was quite popular and handily outsold almost anything Lincoln has today). But, because Ford/Lincoln management doesn't want to publically admit they made a mistake (and the error, of course, of dropping the Crown Vic police car), they keep trying to sweep the whole issue under the rug by pretending the Town Car didn't matter, it's disappearance was inevitable, and that the public just needs to "Get Over It" and get used to smaller, lighter, firmer-riding Lincolns. I've seen, reviewed, and driven some of the new Lincolns, and I just don't think that policy is going to work....they have been compromised too much.

Vladi

They actually paid somebody to tell em that! LOL!

For Christ sake building a shelter for orphans would have been a lot better money management than giving that money to some "guru" to do "what is luxury" research.

mmarshall

Especially when the real problem is staring them right in the face and they won't acknowledge it. Most (but not all) of the newer Lincolns have been flops.

TangoRed

I completely understand why they got rid of the Town Car and Crown Vic. As far as the Town Car is concerned, no one equated it to luxury. It was a generic livery vehicle that said nothing about the brand other than "I paid more for my ride from the airport." When you look at the Crown Vic and Town Car together, there was no way they were going to pass crash safety standards without some serious investment. It's disappearance was inevitable.

What Lincoln really needs is a full budget- Cadillac has done wonders because GM actually gave them the money they needed. That being said, I'm willing to bet their upcoming small SUV will bring in lots of cash.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

I'm very excited for the MKC small ute

dc893

I don't know what the attraction and obsession with the Town Cars is. For a car with a MSRP reaching $50,000 , they sure didn't feel like a 50 grand car. I have been in several of them and none ever felt like they should have cost anywhere even near $30,000. Just a big car made with a bunch of cheap interior materials. The only good thing about them is the ride quality.

I think it will take a few years, but Lincoln will have some more competitive models in the lineup. I have driven all of the new Lincolns and they are very comfortable cars. As for the people who can't figure out MyLincoln touch, I'm surprised they can even figure out how to turn a computer on. It is a VERY simple infotainment system to figure out.

People need just a little more patience. It takes time to revamp an entire company and the whole lineup.

The nomenclature is fairly simple as well MK=Mark, S=sedan, Z=zephyr, X=crossover, T=touring. I will admit the nomenclature sounds boring, and I am not the biggest fan of the grilles on the Lincolns either.

Tantrix

Personally I think the new MKZ is super hot and sexy, 49mpg at about $35k sounds very attractive.

dc893

It's not 49MPG, just a pathetic 45MPG.

robloc93

Agreed, I really am digging the MKZ and have actually caught myself drooling at a black one!