Saving Lincoln
The Wall Street Journal today has an interesting article on Ford’s efforts to revive the fading Lincoln brand.
Turning around Lincoln is not a hopeless task but it is certainly a challenge.
The good news is that Lincoln is a rather well-defined brand; it stands for something distinct and unique. Lincoln’s are stable, solid and respectable. The Lincoln Town Car is almost an icon.
The issue is that this image doesn’t seem to resonate. Indeed, Lincoln executives are phasing out the Town Car and trying to reposition the brand.
My fear is that in repositioning Lincoln the brand will become just like every other luxury car brand, only not quite as good. I suspect Lincoln won’t ever measure up to BMW on performance or Lexus on perceived reliability.
I think Ford might be going at this all wrong. Why not let Lincoln be Lincoln? Why not make Lincoln the most reliable, sturdy, respectable brand of cars around? Why not make Lincoln the best brand of cars for executive transportation?
Being different and unique is priceless. Embracing points of difference is usually a better approach than trying to be like everyone else.
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