Well, finally. The Blue Oval Boyz promised to unveil a new product plan for their Mercury brand on the same day their financials were revealed. Nope. I guess FoMoCo didn't want to steal the "thunder" of the press release re: the 2010-or-bust-and-maybe-even-then Mexican-built (but Euro-style) Ford Fiesta and Focus. Anyway, enough scene setting (it was a dark and stormy car market). Here's Mercury's new theme song, as sung by Derrick Kuzak, Ford's global product chief, [via The Detroit News]: "Ford Motor Co. will reposition Mercury as an entry-level premium brand that will support Lincoln [which] will no longer get any smaller vehicles, as had been planned, while Mercury will only get smaller cars and crossovers." In practice, the Sable dies, the Mercury Mariner and Milan live (with hybrid versions) and the brand gets a new, new-Focus-based sedan as and when. MA Lincoln Mercury dealer Chris Lemley responded to the revelations from the bowels of the Faint Praise Department. "Not only is some product news better than no product news, but some Mercury strategy is better than not having one." How great is that?
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“Ford Motor Co. will reposition Mercury as an entry-level premium brand …
Suddenly it’s 1939.
… Mercury brings a different demographic into the showroom than any other Ford brand — a fact Kuzak acknowledged.
“Mercury brings a younger, more female customer than the Ford brand,”
Mercury = chick cars
I sold Mercury’s for 2 years. The Jill Wagner type NEVER came in to buy them. NEVER. Those ads, while nice and well presented, are a total waste of money.
Ford positions Mercury as an “entry premium brand.” Isn’t that what they have been doing all along???
It would be great if Ford would design 3 or 4 unique Mercury’s that compliment Lincoln but don’t step on Ford (since more and more of Ford’s stores sell all 3).
I would like to see a Focus based hard top convertible, a Focus based coupe and sedan, then the Milan sedan and Mariner SUV – which needs to be Kuga style and lose the truck look. Nothing should be a strippy model and all should have unique sheetmetal.
Maybe Ford should introduce the brand to the world market to get the economies of scale to afford the unique bits.
I agree with dwford… Mecury has always been an “entry level premium brand.”
Whatever that means. They should just axe the entire brand and upgrade Lincolns to compete with the Germans.
I agree, I have never seen anyone approximating Jill Wagner come in for a Mercury either. Currently, the Mercury vehicles on the lot serve as switch cars when someone comes in looking for a Fusion/Escape/Explorer/Taurus and there is none in stock with the color/options/etc that they are looking for, and as a conduit for Grand Marquis for the AARP crowd and customers so flipped in equity that only a vehicle with huge rebates will get them bought.
Entry premium sounds like a good idea for Mercury, although I would have to assume that any Focus based vehicles should come from the next generation euro-Focus, as the current one is not that desireable… The return of the Cougar would also be nice, stuff the 3.7 liter engine from the MKS/CX-9/upcoming Mazda6 into a small coupe with svelt styling and create a legitimate competitor to the 350Z et al.
Well they have their word cut out for them. Me, and most everyone I know, think of Mercurys as just re-badged Fords. How are they going to change that?
dwford Says: Ford positions Mercury as an “entry premium brand.” Isn’t that what they have been doing all along???
Amen. That’s been their modus operandi ever since 1939. No doubt a ’49 Merc was a better planned entry-level premium model than a Mountaineer, but they’ve always tried. Maybe this time they won’t half ass it like they’ve done for decades.
Mercury: we’ll use our whole ass this time!
Lincoln [which] will no longer get any smaller vehicles
That makes perfect sense. Too bad it took several failed models to figure out what worked from the beginning.
I think all in all this is better news for Lincoln than for Mercury.
Who is Ford kidding? Lincoln is their “entry level luxury brand”. Does anyone other than the people hopped up on the Ford kool aid believe otherwise?
Lincoln is Ford’s Buick and Mercury will be their Oldsmobile.
NulloModo : The return of the Cougar would also be nice, stuff the 3.7 liter engine from the MKS/CX-9/upcoming Mazda6 into a small coupe with svelt styling and create a legitimate competitor to the 350Z et al.
I’d sure like to see a car with traditional Cougar Styling cues from the sixties built on the Mustang chassis, although with IRS, and postioned to be more like a competitor to the likes of the Infiniti G37 Coupe.
Once Ford establishes a clear differentiation between Mercury and Ford, it is time to take Lincoln to a whole new level. The MKS is nice, but it is wrong wheel drive and its interior quality – while the best Ford has to offer right now, only equals what Hyundai is doing in the Sonata, and is certainly no equal to the real luxury brands. Compare the interior of the $35k Hyundai Genesis to the $45k MKS. No contest, Hyundai wins. The MKZ needs to be RWD, and Lincoln needs a coupe or convertible.
Part of the Big 3s problems is that they think so local. Does anyone think Hyundai plans to sell huge numbers of those Genesis sedans here in the US? Of course not – their reputation as a seller of cheap econo cars will see to that. But they can sell that car all over the world where they enjoy a better reputation. Maybe a RWD chassis will have a limited market in the US for Lincoln, but if it is a quality job, why can’t it be sold worldwide??
The 2002 Lincoln Continental concept car was a real winner and would be an excellent direction to take the brand in … if Ford can find a way to afford doing it. Ford was onto the right idea in platform sharing when they did the Lincoln LS/Jaguar S-type as a joint development, but then they lost the plot. Why was there no Lincoln interpretation of the Jaguar XJ platform?
http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/1174/Lincoln-Continental-Concept.html
I sold Mercury’s for 2 years. The Jill Wagner type NEVER came in to buy them. NEVER. Those ads, while nice and well presented, are a total waste of money.
At least she’s not advertising Virginia Slims. It’s the same concept, though. Mercury isn’t trying to sell cars to the Jill Wagners of the world (wherever they are). They are selling the idea that buying a Mercury will bring out the Jill Wagner in you. In other words, they are selling to women who smoke Virginia Slims because they think it makes them look glamorous.
Hey, a demographic is a demographic.
I couldn’t care less about Mercury’s brand or image, but I do “get” it with regards to the use of Jill Wagner.
Sex sells. Even to people who are discreet (for lack of a better word). Maybe ESPECIALLY to people who are discreet.
I remember years ago, I started reading “Maxim” magazine. Haven’t read it for a long time, but their thing was that it was a men’s magazine FOR MEN. Maxim was the mag that put hot women in the calendar and on the cover, not pictures of some androgynous male model (yeah, that’s you, GQ).
The picture accompanying this article has that same appeal; Don’t know who she is, but… great pose, nice legs.
Uhhh, but what’s this with the dirty feet again?
I doubt Jill Wagner ever helped sell any Mercurys. Those ads just made a minor stars career.
The “chicks” that are supposed to buy these cars will still be buying Mustangs.
I’d like to see a new Cougar too. A Mustang with a slightly different shape. Maybe a nothback? and a plush leather, top of the heap like the Caddy CTS interior.
Dirty feet are sexy.
cleek
Mercury = chick cars
And 30 years ago, Mercury advertised themselves as “The Man’s Car.” Just goes to show that Ford has never really known just what Mercury is or how to market it.
I think that Ford could actually make Mercury work for once if it could manage to actually not overextend/muddle the brand. I think that Mercury could be a great brand for economical luxury and premium small cars. This would mean only hybrids and something like a premium fiesta and focus car. This would free up Ford to keep producing a cheaper product for current customers (i.e. U.S. Focus customers) and allow Mercury to compete against the Mini, Civic EX, Mazda 3s, etc. However, they should never give Mercury anything above a midsize hybrid.
Yes Mercury should compliment Lincoln, but No not primarily with small cars.
No Grand Marquis = No Mercury
Grand Marquis is to Mercury what Camry is to Toyota. So of course now the Ford logic will be to dump it and go for small cars, since small cars are what Mercury is known for , that makes as much sense as marketing Mercury to women, eh?
armadamaster Says:
July 28th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Yes Mercury should compliment Lincoln, but No not primarily with small cars.
No Grand Marquis = No Mercury
Grand Marquis is to Mercury what Camry is to Toyota. So of course now the Ford logic will be to dump it and go for small cars, since small cars are what Mercury is known for , that makes as much sense as marketing Mercury to women, eh?
The problem with the Grand Marquis (or really any panther platform car) is that only old people are remotely attracted to them. The big V8, RWD, huge hood, sofa-soft bench seat and simple retro dash and ergonomics make for a durable and comfortable car, but there is no flash and pizazz. What makes for an excellent platform for police cruisers, taxi cabs, and limos doesn’t make for an appealing mass market car.
Ford would have to spend big bucks to update the platform so that it could appeal to new tastes, and with the new RWD platform waiting in the wings somewhere, that doesn’t make the most sense.
What makes for an excellent platform for police cruisers, taxi cabs, and limos doesn’t make for an appealing mass market car.
You mean police, taxi, and limo is NOT a mass market? On top of that, it’s a captive market because there is no one else in that space. To abandon it would be insane.
What, exactly, does this version of Mercury, one selling premium small cars, do that Mazda isn’t already doing, and without the baggage of negative brand equity?
Ford, please, just knife the thing and let Mazda handle this. They have the respect, they have the demographics and–this is important–they already have the product.
In other words, they want to give Lincoln dealers a Focus-class car to sell, in case that’s all the market wants…
Not sure why anyone would want to jump into the Mercury demographic.
Mercury owners, like their Buick counterparts, always seems to have the faint odor of formaldehyde about them.
You mean police, taxi, and limo is NOT a mass market? On top of that, it’s a captive market because there is no one else in that space. To abandon it would be insane.
Cough cough… Charger?
“Cough cough… Charger?”
The Charger is relatively cramped for its size — I doubt it’ll be a better fit for RWD fleets than the CV/GM duo.
“Ford Motor Co. will reposition Mercury as an entry-level premium brand that will support Lincoln
Talk about reinventing the square wheel here… I thought this was what Merc was already doing? So just what is changing here? This makes it sound like Ford is just going to kick back and keep pressing the reset button on Mercury until *maybe* they get what they want, or just kills it.
As I mentioned in a different blog, they need make more drastic changes with this company if its not feasible to just kill it off. All I see them doing is saying “yay, we made changes; but not really”. I strongly feel that the name Mercury should be changed to something new to get away from the “its just a Ford with overprices chrome” mentality. If not, then what kind of changes could Ford expect to get back out of this division? Make this division of Ford like Scion, and sell the small fuel efficient cars that everyone is buying or wants to buy instead of selling redundant oversized cars that overlap both Ford and Lincoln.
snapper35 wrote:
Cough cough… Charger?
Charger is a small player in that market compared to CV/GM. On top of that, given Chrysler’s uncertain future, many will not risk making long-term commitments of this sort.