Ford's Mulally Vows to Restore Lost Luster to Lincoln
Posted by Dale Buss on January 11, 2011 05:00 PM
Lincoln, Ford’s luxury brand, has gotten a number of new products over the last few years. But Ford corporate chiefs have admitted that they haven’t paid nearly as much attention to reviving their venerable luxury brand as they have in renewing the place of the Ford brand among the market’s mainstream leaders. That's all about to change.
Lincoln has languished, of late, even as the Ford brand has ascended. While some of its new products, such as the MKZ and the MKZ Hybrid, have caught a sales wave, total Lincoln sales rose less than 4% in 2010 from a year earlier while the company’s overall sales rose by an industry-leading 19% for the year.
But talking to automotive securities analysts at the North American International Auto Show on Tuesday, Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally pledged that he would finally be giving the Lincoln brand its due again.
“Eight or nine years ago,” Mulally allowed, “Lincoln was the No. 1 luxury brand” in the U.S. market.” Then, Ford took its eyes off Lincoln as it built a stable of luxury brands it called Premier Automotive Group, which at one point included not only Lincoln but also Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin and Volvo.
Ford since has jettisoned all of the Premier brands except Lincoln, of course, and Mulally wants to juice the company’s remaining luxury brand.
“Now, we can have a laser focus on creating a true premium brand with Lincoln,” he said. “We’re going to [improve] the consumer experience in the U.S.,” for instance, Mulally said. Lincoln has pledged to work with its dealers to make showrooms more attractive and effective.
Next, he said, Lincoln designers would take advantage of their opportunity to “take the platform to the next level” with innovations in areas such as electronic controls.
Yet Mulally said it’s too early to think about taking a renascent Lincoln overseas. “Our focus will be the U.S.,” he said.
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