Nestled in a New York Times article about Ford's fight for survival– switching production to small cars, building world cars, reporting epic losses on Thursday, yada, yada, yada– comes news that FoMoCo is NOT killing their Mercury brand. The Gray Lady's head automotive cheerleader cites "people, who spoke on the condition that they not be quoted by name because of the timing of the official announcement on Thursday" as saying The Blue Oval Boys will make the brand "an integral part of its new small-car strategy." Well, my mind is boggling. But not Bill Vlasic's, a reporter who feels compelled to not add a damn thing to that revelation, other than "the company will keep the Mercury brand and use it as another distribution channel for small cars." Which is the same thing, only later. The rest of the article is padded with a potted history of FoMoCo's "troubles," with the usual Vlasic Motown-thrown bone. John Wolkonowicz, an auto industry analyst with the forecasting firm Global Insight, tells Bill "“It’s hard to blame Ford for building vehicles that consumers wanted to buy."
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I think the key point there is WANTED to buy – past tense. Not wants to buy, but wanted. Ford’s still building vehicles that were more popular a decade ago.
Maybe they are going to take Mercury back to doing the lower volume alternative cars the Ford brand doesn’t offer. For example, the Villager, Tracer and Capri are but some of the past Mercury models which had no twin Ford.
Mercury might make a good home for seriously decked out premium small cars for those who want fuel economy along with all the luxury and convenience features. But please, no vinyl roofs :).
I agree, no vinyl tops will be tolerated. But, CorINthian leather is fine. :) (Chrysler won’t be needing it since they won’t exist soon).
Should be an interesting Thursday!
Well, if you have to keep Mercury (and I don’t think you do), then turning it into the American Scion/Mini isn’t a bad idea. But I think they need to keep volumes low (4 models at 50K in annual sales each) and stick to the $22-27K price range.
The key will be developing a credible branding platform. Try to substitute intelligence for sheer dollar volume and focus on non-traditional media. Stay off network TV, and focus on cool magazines, event marketing and websites. Like TTAC, maybe?
I think a lot of us have been concerned that Jill’s days on TV might be numbered. I’m glad to see Ford has removed that worry.
I think Ford’s woes are more than just building cars which were popular once upon a time.
Ford’s brand has sustained a lot of damage (despite Ford employing people whose job titles are things like, “Brand DNA manager”. A double whammy. A meaningless job title and they still didn’t to their job properly!). Dodgy reliability, SUV after SUV and poor company perception (executives paid in excess and job cuts, right, left and centre). Ford needs to restore faith in the Ford marque to have any chance of survival. Much like they’re using “Mercury” as a small car marque.
Lest we forget, that, yes, Alan Mullaly is a pragmatic manager and yes, Ford has the best chance of survival and yes, Alan Mullaly has done some good work at Ford. But Ford still have a looooooooooooooooong way to go……
does anyone know when they plan on killing the Grand Marquis?
There’s a certain whiny quality to “You can’t blame us for building what people wanted!”
No, we don’t. If people wanted to buy trucks, that’s fine, and exploiting that niche was a good move. The raw, unadulterated stupidity was in not having a contingency plan in case things went pear-shaped. I haven’t see any Big-Three executive acknowledge that particular lack of judgement.
Saying “bbbbbut we were just building what people wanted!” shows an awesome failure of leadership, or at least an unwillingness to admit what the real problem is.
“Mercury. New Doors Opened”
rofl
You’re killing me with all of the “Or not.” and “Maybe” closers to article titles. Find some new way to be snarky!
Was Mercury ever really relevant?
Mercury may indeed be a good brand under which to sell some premium compact and sub-compact cars. But aside from the fact the name has been around for a long time, it is largely meaningless today. What exactly is a Mercury? What is its brand proposition?
So this is what a ‘Bold Move’ is. I have to say, Mullaly gets my respect for taking this action.
Since the new small Euro-cars will be built at the factory that produces the Expedition and Navigator, it will be interesting to see whether the move to the Kentucky factory is just buying some time before they ultimately kill them…
Also, I can’t wait to find out what the Mercury plans are. If they do realign the brand with small cars (whether premium or not) I’m curious to see how Jim Farley markets it. He did a pretty good job with Scion, after all.
Now, the multi-billion dollar question: Will this work??
I think this is a perfect plan for Mercury – small car premium – with a 4-place convertible, a small wagon/estate, a euro-type medium sedan, and a small people carrier like the Mazda5. Great compliment to the Lincoln line in the same showroom, and no rebadging.
But will people pay the premium?
Looks like they’re planning for life after Volvo.
Isn’t this what Ford already has Mazda and Volvo for?
I don’t see how Ford can afford to build and develop 2 lines of small cars — or that Mercury is the right “brand” for premium small cars.
Perhaps this is seen as a cheaper route than killing all the Mercury dealers?
So Ford will get Focus “cheap” and Mercury will get Focus “expensive” — with what, prettier wheels, softer leather, and more faux aluminum trim inside?
Most Audi buyers wouldn’t think about buying a Passat or Jetta instead of the Audi version. Not su sure that Ford needs or can viably use Mercury to do the same.
(oh yeah — what about Lincoln?)
/p
Jill Dub is co-hosting that new ABC game show Wipeout, which leads me to believe she might not be doing any more Mercury ads. Just a gut feel that something big is about to happen. Which is good, because that brand message was weak, at its very best.
I’m touched, its like they actually listened to me!
Lynxes, Tracers, and Capris for all. Hooray!!
Bring back Merkur! We all know how well that idea of Euro premium smaller cars turned out.
As long as Jill Wagner doesn’t lose her gig who cares what they sell/build/buy.
Since I wrote and was corrected in another blog that Ford is getting rid of Mercury. In a sense they are, the original idea was mercury was to do battle with the GM mid-weights pontiac, olds, and Dodge at chrysler. Mercury for more years than I can remember has not been upscale to Ford. It was only a brand to give the Lincoln dealers. The selling price of the Ford & Mercury are even blurred to being almost identical. So, if mercury is to be a new line of small cars, then I am only partly wrong because the idea of having something between Ford and Lincoln is officially dead. Also the idea of a full line of mercury products is dead. These little Mercury models might be interchangeable and be sold in a ford store as just a new model. Since mercury now stands for nothing, I guess you can rebrand it into anything you want.
Actually this doesn’t seem that crazy to me. The domestics have always equated small with barebones and large with luxurious. People are moving away from large vehicles in droves but a lot don’t want to give up the goodies they’re accustomed to.
There is an opportunity to sell small, efficient cars that are loaded to the gills. Loaded Focuses seem to be selling well, but I think they’d sell more if they didn’t share a nameplate with Ford’s bargain econocar.
Essentially Mercury should be Ford mechanicals with Lincoln interiors and amenities.
All Mercury dealerships are hybrids with a Ford or Lincoln dealership, so Mercury would have a role. If you start looking at Lincolns but want more MPG, you look at the Mercs. If you start looking at Fords but want to be more upscale, you look at the Mercs.
plunk10 wrote:
does anyone know when they plan on killing the Grand Marquis?
Why would they? That’s probably the only model that makes any money. Every outreach service in my area uses them. Older folks buy them. Taxis use them. The platform paid for itself ages ago. Why would you kill a cash cow?
Well I hope Mercury’s small cars don’t follow in their grandpa’s (the Grand Marquis’) footsteps….My parents BOTH had 3 Grand Marquis’—6 in my family total. For a long while every new car they bought was another NEWER Grand Marquis.
It was quite interesting to notice while they were in our driveway that the fabric on the cabin’s ceiling just in front of the back window came off and dangled on ALL 6 models. Then, the paint came off from the bumpers leaving the cars front and back ends yellow & looking like they had mustard stains—on ALL 6 models. The driver’s side rear-window would not stay up on 3 of the 6 models. Not to mention, the rear tail lights were made of incredibly cheap plastic that always managed to get a large hole from a little pebble.
Eventually….my parents stopped buying Grand Marquis’ because they never improved. BTW, the only reason they had 6 instead of 5 is because one of my dad’s first one got stolen, so he bought a new one right after that.
Sajeev Mehta gets a very big I Said It First credit on these moves if things turn out as rumored!
“So Ford will get Focus “cheap” and Mercury will get Focus “expensive” — with what, prettier wheels, softer leather, and more faux aluminum trim inside?”
This can be a very successful strategy if pulled off right. Think Camry/ES and Accord/TL. The slightly upmarket versions of otherwise mainstream sedans make good profits for their makers.
The only Mercury worth a darn is the Grand Marquis. I don’t know how others may be, but I’ve owned a 1994, and now a 2002, and they have been very reliable and durable vehicles. Actually, I owend the 1994 and the 2002 concurrently for a while, until the wife said we don’t need three full sized cars (I also have a 67 Ford Galaxie 500 convertible)
So Ford is going back to making Mercury rebadged Fords, only now they will be cheap crackerbox cars. I guess the disaster of advertising to women and metrosexuals is finally being realized.
It will be like being at home with my 6 month old sson when I visit a Mercury dealership to order my last Grand Marquis in 2010 – I will have to step around all the toys on the showroom floor and find a salesman that will is willing to order the last real car sold in North America.
I read the NYT’s article and my first thought was it would be fun to listen in on a group of Mercury dealers trying to figure out what this all means.
Ford are on a loser! The small car market is firmly in the hands of far eastern manufacturers that the USA cannot compete against. You cannot compete against perfection. However with the way American industry is protected by their government how long before the sale of foreign cars is forbidden to protect the almighty dollar/USA car industry!
Apparently Ford wants to Rethink Mercury.
They should Rethink Lincoln as well…