A strategy, a plan is in motion to revive Ford's mid-level brand.
07-29-08:
Last week Ford finally gave dealers the news they had been waiting for, that the Mercury brand will not be killed off or allowed to die a slow unloved death. For the past year rumors had been laying low like a layer of fog that Ford was ready to pull the plug on the division which has seemed to lose its sense of purpose as well as sales.
When asked Ford officials gave ambiguous answers and there had been no new products in the pipeline to freshen Mercury’s product selection. As it turns out dealers fought hard for their entry level brand that compliments Lincoln at most of the dealers nation-wide.
Mercury they say, brings different buyers into the showroom than Lincoln does. They’re right as it turns out. Mercury had begun a couple years ago positioning itself as the “smart girl” brand. In commercials, print ads, and brand message was tailored to appeal to young women who shop, compare, and consider themselves more intelligent than others based on their buying decisions.
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The commercials showcase this marketing program by staring a footloose and fancy free young woman who always has a superior air about her message about the products. After making sure she pitches the product as the smarter choice she ends the spots by saying the tagline, “You have to put Mercury on your list”. That tagline is marketing psychology for, “Don’t forget to shop our cars when you are looking at the Honda and Toyota.” While it is outwardly pandering, gosh darn it if hasn’t been working.
This has prompted Ford to review Mercury and seek to further refine it as a premium small car brand going forward. Similar to Saturn’s recent product revival, Ford will seek to craft the Mercury line up to further appeal to the young single women who have saved the brand thus far, but offering a new small car in 2010 based on the European Ford Focus platform that will also be coming here by then.
What that new small Mercury will be is not yet announced, but a small sporty coupe similar to the Visos Concept above that is believed to become a reborn Capri is a likely option for Mercury. Other models like the Milan and Mariner will continue. Larger cars like the Sable may be dropped to prevent overlap with the Lincoln brand. The Mountaineer SUV and Grand Marquis are also doomed.
The strategy will be to generate a new customer base of these young “smart women” who might move up to the Lincoln brand as they mature, gain income status and start families. We say more power to them if they can pull it off. While we have said often that Mercury’s time was long past, there is nothing wrong with a good old fashioned revival.
