S A CHO

Its fine with me aslong as they arent like "FX35"...FDX or KLX for example are alright...but the Infiniti/Lexus names Im not too big on...

phile

I was thinking the same. And , just my

SPUDMTN

The naming isn't going to help out Lincoln at all. The naming was actually something Lincoln had going for them--it tells of their heritage. I think this is a big mistake on their part, for Lincoln has some heritage in their naming (Continental, Mark series, Town Car, Zephyr, etc...)

Might they loose some of their loyalists through this new naming (think: blue hairs)?

Python2121

im with you guys, i cant believe that they will change the names. names give more identity then some random letters. at least SOME of the benz letters represent names

SpeedyV6

Names like Continental, Town Car, Mark series are indelibly etched on the public's mind. Chrysler probably did the right thing by resurrecting the Imperial name for its forthcoming op of the line car. It's too bad Cadillac did away with name like Seville. DeVille, and of course the Eldorado.

Ten or twenty years ago alphanumeric nomeclature may have worked for upscale imported brands, but with the advent of cars like the Mazda 3 or the Scion xA alphanumerics no longer connote status. Even BMW resurrected the name MINI; same goes for VW/Audi or M-B which brought back the Bentley, Bugatti, and Maybach nameplates for their top of the line automobiles.

SPUDMTN

You can't switch midway...it just doesn't work that way. Mercedes and BMW have had alphanumeric naming for years and years. Lexus and Infiniti started that way. While I believe alphanumeric is generally used by luxury manufacturers it does not make a vehicle a luxury car. When will those tools in marketing ever figure it out?

kansaiwalker1

Lincoln's newest dealership: Amazon.com

Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News


Amazon.com shopping list:

Barry Manilow CD, check;

"Dear John," check;

Lincoln MKZ sedan, check.


Beginning Monday, Ford Motor Co. will begin selling its luxury Lincoln brand through the online retailer.

The MKZ sedan, MKX crossover and new Navigator will each have their own product pages on the popular Web site, and prospective customers can initiate a purchase with just a single click.

Doing so will connect them to a Lincoln page where they can select options and price their vehicle and connect with a live "Lincoln personal assistant" who will act as their go-between with a traditional bricks-and-mortar dealer to complete the transaction. Actual sales will be handled through the closest Lincoln dealership to the customer, based on the zip code they enter.

The aim is to connect with prospective customers in a new and different way that rises above the advertising static of the Web. But some marketing experts say the strategy is poorly thought out.

"This is patently absurd. The logic eludes me," said John Henke, president of Planning Perspective Inc. and a professor of marketing at Oakland University. "This isn't something you can buy on the Web. You're going to want to test drive, to sit in it. The personal interface on a high-priced product is extremely important. You need the reassurance that the salesperson can give you."

Moreover, since the customer ultimately has to go to a dealership to handle their trade-in and pick up their new vehicle, he sees little benefit to the new system.

Henke said this is just the latest in a series of recent marketing missteps by Ford. The automaker recently revamped its "Bold Moves" marketing campaign for its Blue Oval brand because dealers complained the unconventional ads did little to highlight the features of Ford's products.

"They are not sticking with the basics. That's part of why they're failing in the marketplace. They're starting to get some wonderful products out in the marketplace, but people don't know about them," he said. "They're grasping at straws. Their marketing people do not have a coherent strategy for bringing their products to market"

Idea appeals to demographic

But Scott Kelly, digital marketing manager for the Lincoln and Mercury brands, said the online purchasing system should appeal to Lincoln's target demographic, which he described as busy and used to shopping online. And he said the program could be expanded to other Ford products if it proves successful.

He said selling on Amazon is just one part of a broader online marketing blitz designed to promote Lincoln's new products.

Another novel component of the Lincoln strategy is a new Web site designed to help people achieve their dreams.

The site -- www.mydream.tv -- also will go live Monday. Think of it as a giant online "how-to" book. It will give users the opportunity to select one of 50 "dreams" and get expert advice on how to make them a reality. Examples range from "Get My PGA Card" and "Scuba Dive a Ship Wreck" to "Adopt a Child" and "Run for Public Office."

"The intent of this site is to be a resource and an inspiration for people," Kelly said. "We also wanted to make a shift away from what we call intrusional marketing to invitational marketing."

Henke said it does makes sense to advertise online -- it is the selling he takes issue with.

LuvMyTSX

Sounds like a pretty stupid waste of time to me.

First off, aren't most of Lincoln's customers older? Older people in general do not use computers, and would probably not feel comfortable buying much of anything online, let alone a car. Not to mention it is not wise to buy a car without seeing it first.

Second, you can already use a lot of other car sites, including the manufacturer's site, to get quotes and such, without having to step foot in the dealership, so what does Amazon bring to the table?

afici0nad0

don't most dealerships in the US have internet sales people?

phile

Yes, but amazon might be able to do it better. I had one attempt at the internet thing...dealer kept saying he could give me a good deal, I wanted an upfront price, he just kept baiting. On top of that, his correspondence was like some of the posts you see online...full of grammatical and spelling mistakes. I had a pretty low opinion of the person I was dealing with, to say the least.

SpeedyV6

Maybe Lincoln is chasing after another demographic?

Another thing to keep in mind is that people who travel extensively for work are all familiar with the Lincoln brand. It's customary for a booking agent to send a "Town Car" to pick you up at the airport rather than a limousine. They use that term even if the car that picks you up is a DeVille. This group is populated by people who always carry a laptop or Blackberry with them and who spend a great deal of time online. I think that's the demographic Lincoln is targeting with this campaign.

Ruski

Most "internet" managers at the dealership don't do anything special. They just make you come to the dealership and it is pretty must the same thing as if you came in on your own.

Internet is trendy, so dealerships try to have a presence on the internet, but it's not like they are selling cars online.

Now if you really want to buy most any car online and avoid the dealer altogehter - http://www.carsdirect.com

derrick

I think this is an interesting approach. At first ... I thought, "How can Ford do this? You can't cut the middleman (ie sell direct to the public) since it violates the agreement with the dealerships!" Then I read a little further ... now it makes sense.

I do believe using a big sales portal like Amazon will attract those web shoppers who wouldn't think of looking at the brand. But I don't see this going very far, though ...

Yumcha

From Leftlanenews...

msl82

Whos going to buy American car company,Lincoln, over BMW, Mercedes, Audi?

Moog-Type-S

^^ The british

savage

i think they are trying to copy the success of Buick in China...

savage

shouldn't Lincoln first offer a car that can actually rival a Cadillac? Nothing in their lineup comes close...

titan

With the right mix of product, powertrain, and marketing, it's very possible.

neuronbob

Who's Lincoln?

Seriously, I haven't seen a Lincoln or Mercury that has piqued my interest....ever. And we think Acura has issues about being seen as a luxury brand....Acura is healthy as a horse compared to Lincoln.

JediMindTricks

TSX69

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."

Yumcha

Sure!

From here: http://www.worldcarfans.com/11408147...new-dealership

TSX69

Ford Plans to Overhaul Lincoln with $5 Billion Push

Ford Motor Co.'s new CEO, Mark Fields, is giving the automaker's long-moribund Lincoln brand what his predecessor Alan Mulally never could: a little love and a lot of cash.

Lincoln, a storied Detroit brand which Ford has owned since 1922, has been in a swoon for the past 2 decades, leaving dealers and customers wondering if Ford management had left the brand for dead.

Now, with the renewed backing of Executive Chairman Bill Ford and the company's board, Fields has committed the automaker to a multiyear, multibillion-dollar overhaul of Lincoln that includes a significant investment in a new premium vehicle platform that will underpin several future Lincoln vehicles, 4 sources told Reuters.

Ford could spend $5 billion or more over the next 5 years to revive Lincoln, revamp its product portfolio and reposition it as a true competitor to such global luxury leaders as Mercedes-Benz and BMW, the sources said.

Details of the new platform and the size and scope of the investment have not previously been reported.

"It's really important for us to have a relevant and vibrant luxury brand," Fields told Reuters on Friday. "You need to make the investment and build this brand over time."

He declined to discuss details about Ford's spending and product plans.

Fields said Ford is looking at the Lincoln rebuilding effort "in terms of generations of products," an effort that will stretch well into the next decade.

Ford executives said last month that the immediate goal of the latest Lincoln turnaround effort is to triple the brand's global sales to 300,000 vehicles by 2020.

Several industry analysts have challenged that mark as overly optimistic, as have some former Ford executives who spoke with Reuters on condition of anonymity.

A longer-range target is to restore Lincoln's luster as a premium automotive marque in the U.S. and build it into a formidable competitor in China, where Ford is just now launching the brand years after most of its global luxury rivals entered the China market. On Friday, Ford delivered its first Lincoln in China, an MKZ sedan.

New platform

The springboard for the Lincoln revival plan is a new family of vehicles that will be built on a highly flexible premium platform that can be configured for front-, rear- and all-wheel-drive vehicles, according to industry sources familiar with Ford's plans.

That is a critical element that has been lacking in several previous, under-financed attempts to resuscitate the brand. Versions of the platform will be used by both the Lincoln and Ford brands, the sources said.

Former CEO Mulally, who retired in July, declined to make more than a nominal investment in Lincoln -- and even considered selling or closing the brand, according to two sources.

But his successor, Fields, has directed his management team to try to reverse a long-term U.S. sales skid that has seen Lincoln sink from the No. 1 spot in 1998 to eighth place among luxury brands, with about half the sales of Cadillac and one-quarter the sales of segment leader Mercedes. Last year, Lincoln sales were 81,694, less than half of the 187,121 cars it sold in 1998.

Flexible design

The revival effort is backed by the 1st significant investment in Lincoln in years, 1 that will see every product redesigned or replaced over the next 5 years.

Ford already has spent about $2 billion on Lincoln in the past 2 years, according to 1 source, about half of that to prepare for the brand's introduction this week in China and half to update and expand its product stable to tide Lincoln over until the new family of vehicles is ready toward the end of the decade.

Ford has said in some years it spent only $500 million or less on Lincoln. In September, the automaker told investors it plans to spend more than $2.5 billion through 2019 on Lincoln product development, facilities and tooling.

But that figure does not include spending on engineering, advertising and other sales-related expenses for Lincoln, CFO Bob Shanks told Reuters on Friday.

Much of the new investment is earmarked for development and tooling of the new premium platform, known internally as D6, sources said. The development is being overseen by new Lincoln President Kumar Galhotra, an engineer.

The flexible architecture of the D6 will provide the mechanical base for a wide variety of sedans and crossovers starting in 2019, all designed to give Lincoln more differentiation from its Ford-branded siblings, as well as a stronger foundation on which to build more competitive luxury models to pit against the sector leaders.

Updating

Before the 1st of the new D6-based models arrive, Lincoln will update most of its existing products, starting with a redesigned MKX midsize crossover in spring 2015 and a replacement for the MKS large sedan in spring 2016, sources said. The latter model will include a long-wheelbase version with more room inside for Chinese customers, Galhotra said.

The Navigator full-size utility vehicle is slated for an extensive overhaul in autumn 2017, according to sources, when it will share a version of the new Ford F-150 chassis and will get aluminum body panels.

Details on those vehicles were published in Automotive News' future product series in August.

A redesign of the compact MKC crossover is tentatively scheduled in autumn 2018, the Reuters sources said.

The 1st of the all-new D6 models, due in 2019, are a midsize sedan that could replace the MKZ and a large 7-passenger crossover that could replace the MKT, sources said. Both new models are expected to be offered in front- and all-wheel-drive versions.

charliemike

If Hyundai and Kia can sell luxury cars, so can Lincoln.

They just need to capture the mojo of the 1950s and 1960s somehow.

00TL-P3.2

https://carbuzz.com/news/lincoln-wan...orce-from-ford

biker

Lincoln Dealers Have Until Dec 15 To Decide On $900k EV Investment (motor1.com)

00TL-P3.2

Yikes,
Our local Lincoln dealer is much smaller than their parent Ford dealer, I could see them doing the Ford EV invest, but questionable on the Lincoln side.

SamDoe1

My guess is that a lot of Lincoln dealers will opt out. There isn't a Lincoln EV right now and who knows if there will be one in hot demand by the time 2026 rolls around. Ford at least has a hefty offering now with a robust roadmap of likely to be in demand and desirable cars coming soon as well.