THE LINCOLN MOTOR COMPANY: RE-IMAGING OF A CLASSICBy Richard LloredaJune 5, 2013

Executive Summary

Re-imaged in 2013 as a “stand alone” product The Lincoln Motor Company was borne, or reborn. Multi-marketing is the strategy to target its host of vehicles to the male, female straight and gay audience. By celebrating diversity, this idea is paying off handsomely in record sales that quadrupled in exceeding industry expectations. Now positioned assertively to compete with Cadillac and Lexus, The Lincoln Motor Company is not just reflecting on the glories of its past designs but is communicating to its target audience and the world, that Lincoln’s is as valid a choice for an American luxury automobile buying choice. Stronger now than it ever was.

The thrust behind The Lincoln Motor Company's idea that the experience of buying a luxury vehicle should be as luxurious as shopping couture, is one of the outstanding choices Lincoln has made with its use of the various social medias available and its customizing to the customer’s needs by way of its concierge program and also by its extensive website. Sales are four times more than what was projected for the month of April and this should convey that the re-imaging is a success.

Analysis of the Communication Situation

Alternative rock musician, Beck , is featured in series of YOUTUBE videos that charts how he is re-imagining David Bowie’s classic 1977 song, “Sound and Vision”.

This is part of Lincoln’s strategy to make the Lincoln as hip as it can be to its target audience of mostly white, successful Baby Boomer ‘s appealing to a cross market audience of men and women gay and straight.

The Lincoln Motor Company is proud to be the sponsor for one of television’s most popular and acclaimed series, AMC’s MADMEN .

The stylistic tie-in with the program’s strong mid-century aesthetic is a perfect compliment for positioning the product with the buyer, as an identifiable trademark.

Definition of Objectives

The Lincoln Motor Company has created a comprehensive website complete with widgets, a concierge and various social media.

This aggressively visible website is a totally interactive experience offering product information, social media platforms communicating the brands re-imaging campaign.

The Lincoln Motor Company’s overall approach is qualitive . This is evident as the campaign reflects in the glories of the brand’s illustrious past while heralding a siren’s call to the future.

This mode has been very successful as sales have quadrupled in April 2013.

This aspect is supported in that the new models are poised tocompete with the Cadillac and Lexus brands.

Identity of the Profile Customer / Publics / Consumers

In both print media and in television advertising, such as the recent spots featuring MADMEN star, John Slattery, the demographic is clearly aimed at the mid forties and older successful and style conscious automobile consumer.

Diversity merged with an older target audience of 40’s and up is proving to be a hit.

The public response as the April 2013 sales are at a record high and exceeded the company’s expectation times four.

Type of Campaign(s) Needed

The romantic elegance of Lincoln’s rich design history is appreciated by its target audience.

They value a strong design aesthetic as well as forward thinking.

The Lincoln Motor Company wants its audience to have a luxurious automobile purchasing experience much in the same way as enjoying fine gourmet dining .

Select Consumer Channels

The Lincoln Motor Company merges both the traditional and current channels of communications . Heavily featured are Lincoln campaigns appearing in newspapers, press releases, radio, magazines and television advertisements.

This is reflective of the company’s attitude toward honoring their products rich history of classic innovation.

The Lincoln Motor Company utilizes the current mode of communication and technology to embrace the thrust of a forward thinking company that honors the traditions of its historic past.

With a bold webpage that is designed to create a gourmet buying experience of elevated customer service through its concierge program.

By building storylines that are in spirit with The Lincoln Motor Company’s attitude toward innovation, such as Beck’s re-imagining of the 1977 David Bowie classic song, “Sound and Vision” , the public is being invited to consider Lincoln as both a classic and an innovator .

Describe Messages

The Wheel of Progression

The Lincoln Motor Company strives to align the new product s offered to the luxury target audience with an accent on classic beauty that embraces the best of modern technology.

This simple and effective message has been aided greatly by the invention of the concierge approach of customizing the luxury automobile buying experience with a personalized service approach.

The success of this approach has been reflective in the hugely successful sales recorded for April 2013.

Implementation Plans-Schedules, Administrative Issues

Situation: How to re-launch a known brand and revitalize the product to excite the target audience and gain a share in the luxury automobile market. This entails an image make over to re-establish the brand’s reputation as a fine luxury automobile.

Objectives: Lincoln understood that to reinforce audience connectivity it would have remind this audience of the brands former track record in creating automotive masterpieces.

Strategy: The strategy was to show the great beauties in Lincolns design stable metamorphosing toward greater validity until the present day, as a way to communicate that the new Lincoln product was and is, the proud descendant and a worthy standard bearer to take up the torch from its stellar automotive ancestor's.

Audience: Lincoln has an interesting multi- target audience they felt would be correctly marketed to, namely the successful Baby Boomer, male and female, gay or straight. This market’s diversity is prominent in several of their key advertisements appearing in luxury themed fashion, lifestyle and shelter magazines.

Tactics: Lincoln was taken out of the Ford Motor Company and was positioned to “stand alone”. The company’s employees were given a better health plan with their incentive packages that turned around to create more favorable reviews. This means great customer overall satisfaction. The leaders took charge and created a very unique looking product and the relationship with dealerships and vendors underwent a change as well.Spotlighting exclusives that are held by the dealership solely. The biggest change has come from the social media training that employees have received as well as the concierge approach of customizing a consumer profile individually and to provide first class service to the customer in a variety of social medias and product information.

Calendar/Timetable: The launch phase was all important to convey to the audience demographic that Lincoln was back as a presence. The re-launch was aligned with the recent Super Bowl with Jimmy Fallon as it’s spokesperson, by using the concept of turning the Lincoln buying experience much like shopping at the Apple Store and by using nostalgic imaging of the ads appearing during such hit shows as the season premiere of MADMEN.

Budget: Multimillion dollar budget, carefully spent to generate interest first while delivering a quality product.

Evaluation: If sales are proof positive that the formula is working, then Lincoln has hit a home run in sales being that they were quadruple what industry expectations had forecasted. Amongst the car buying public focused on the luxury market Lincoln’s overall approval rating is so high most owners want another Lincoln vehicle.

Evaluation Plan to Determine Post Campaign Effectiveness

What was learned from a , “study based on 31,325 consumer responses” were the problems and successes of the new Lincoln automobiles and SUV’s.

These customer responses are helpful to all aspects of the Lincoln Motor Company maintaining a quality product that this public desires and can trust.

The fact that Lincoln ads appear on television, in print and online can attest to the vehicles popularity. Besides which there are automotive blogs and a whole host social networking sponsored and mostly not, that are chat forums exclusively aimed at “Lincoln talk”.

Except for late delivery dates and some product recalled totallying around 500 but could be much more globally, the company was quick to correct some engine heating problems and leaky fuel tank issues but are congratulated for being so quick to repair immediately any problems with any of their Lincoln products .

These problems are comparatively small held up against the target audience over-all success and positive consumer response to the new Lincoln Motor Company’s family of fine American luxury automobiles.

FIN