Lincoln wants to build a world-class luxury brand and grow sales

2011 Lincoln MKS

Ford has been making a stark effort to re-image the Lincoln brand, even going so far as to put an 80-some-odd person team behind the marketing efforts. Ford still hasn’t indicated the willingness to sink resources into the brand the same way GM did with Cadillac, and that causes doubt that Lincoln will be able to get out of its own way in many experts minds.

CJ O’Donnell, group marketing director for Lincoln, says that strong performance by Lincoln’s new vehicle offerings show promise, as do the projects coming down the pipeline.

“Just a few years ago, we had the whole Premier Auto Group portfolio,” he said. “We stand here today a much more focused company with only Ford and Lincoln as the core brands. We’re recognizing that we need to invest in people and products that will take us further on our way.” And top leadership, starting with CEO Alan Mulally, is “now extremely committed to the success of the Lincoln brand,” O’Donnell reported. “We’re giving ourselves the best shot we ever have in the luxury category.”

Ford has been at a serious revival effort of Lincoln for quite some time now, having started a new naming scheme and introducing a bunch of new models under Ford’s CMO Jim Farley. Lincoln also stands as the lone survivor in Ford’s stable, from the dismantled ‘Premier Automotive Group’.

No matter the case internally, Lincoln has a daunting task ahead of them, with Infiniti and Cadillac posting sales gains in the 20’s and 30’s, and Lexus, BMW, and Mercedes constantly battling out the top spots with volumes around triple that of Lincoln.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Auto Observer