Makeover For Mercury

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Mercury is launching its most ambitious product assault in the 65-year history of the Ford Motor Co. brand. The carmaker seeks to overcome its image as stodgy.

"We have lost a lot of customers for lack of product," says Darryl Hazel, president of Lincoln Mercury. The marque's new models "give us a real meaningful way to initiate a dialogue with them."

Critics have panned Mercury for selling premium versions of Ford models that weren't different enough. Its sales dropped by more than half in the past five years, to 202,257 vehicles in 2003. Sales are down 3.0 percent this year through August vs. the year-ago period.

High incentives

At the same time, Mercury's sales incentives have been higher than the industry average since mid-2002. In July, they rose to $5,186 per vehicle compared with an industry average of $2,885, says Michael Chung, an analyst at Edmunds.com.

Mercury has used 12 advertising tag lines in the past 25 years, including three in the 1990s.

"Here's a brand that's been around for 65 years, and nobody knows what it is," says Art Spinella, president of automotive research at CNW Marketing/Research Inc. of Bandon, Ore.

Among consumers who put Mercury vehicles on their shopping list last year, only 14.5 percent bought one, Spinella adds. John Fitzpatrick, Lincoln Mercury's general marketing manager, says the average age of Mercury buyers is 61. He says consumers evaluate Mercury "by three models: the Grand Marquis, the Mountaineer and the Sable."

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[ByTheLake]

For a while now I've felt that Mercury had become irrelevant in the eyes of most buyers ... Ford's version of Oldsmobile.

It will be interesting to see if Ford can make Mercury relevant and profitable.

Mariner and Montego might help a bit, but will Mercury get any exclusive products to help create an identity?

[cemaxc]

If Ford does make Mercury profitable that may be inspiration for Buick.
Hopefully.....

[tgagneguam]

Originally posted by cemaxc@Sep 6 2004, 02:45 PM
If Ford does make Mercury profitable that may be inspiration for Buick.
Hopefully.....

Or vice versa.

Either way, both of these brands can be relevant again. It will be interesting to see if and how FoMoCo and GM figure that out.

[Ming]

Clue to Ford: When you strip a brand of all R&D dollars and give it a complete lineup of rebadged vehicles, you can't expect much

Mercury needs something to differentiate itself, such as Buick's "quiet tuning" - and really fancy sound systems -- Mercury needs aspirational vehicles - call it a gimmick, or marketing ploy, but it needs to be more than Ford with leather seats and chrome accents.

Among consumers who put Mercury vehicles on their shopping list last year, only 14.5 percent bought one, Spinella adds.

Yes, because they realized they could get the same thing down the street for less at the volume discount Ford dealer.

I like the look of many Mercury vehicles, but I wouldn't pay a premium for slightly nicer looks.

[Swahili]

IMO, I think Mercury might be a dead duck in the water.

[BigAls87Z28]

exactly what Ming said. You cant expect great things from Merc when they just get a grill, and headlights to seperate it from their Ford counterpart. Merc has ALL rebadges, and nothing that says "Now THAT is a Merc!" You say "Now that is...oh...its a Taurus, nevermind."

[gmwsag]

Sorry, I just can't believe Ford continues to do this. The only Mercury vehicle I liked was the 99' Cougar which was desperately shot in the head fifty times. Now, they are bringing out a rebadged Escape & a revamped Five Hundred. Both of these vehicles look almost the same. The only thing that is different is the grille, and the interior colors...come on!

I like some of the designing, and I find them better than others but if Mercury continues to lose money, and Ford continues to bank on Merucry...a lot of money is going down the drain.

[jro4566]

The only differentiation between Ford and Mercury is CHROME TRIM. Sure it looks nice, but does that require a $5,000+ price increase over a regular Ford? I think not. If Mercury were to differentiate itself from Ford, they should have their own verison of "QuietTuning", premium audio systems not available on Fords, navigation systems available, and probably a slight increase of HP.

[RWD60]

I have one thing to say about mercury: Cougar. They need a new, lux-sporty RWD Cougar. It could compete with the GTO (at least in XR7 trim) but with a bit softer image. Take the 05 Stang, add about 4-6 in wb. Make base engine the 220hp 3.0L V-6 form the Mazda 6. Then have a 360 hp 5.4L engine as XR7. Price same as GTO, and it should be a hit. I think Mercury even put out a concpet similar to this about a year ago. I know this may still be a "rebadge", but if they make it a different size, they will almost certainly give it different styling. Also, bring back the Marauder the way it was meant to be, perhaps even steal the jaguar XJ chassis, use the same 5.4L as the Cougar, and go 300C hunting. Then Lincoln could get a proper Continental, as either a sedan and coupe, or a suicide 4-door (). Do that, and give the Futura etc.. and 500 etc.. a 260+hp 3.5 L V-6 as top engine options, and Ford will at least stop falling, if not start flying.

[paul3230]

Their still slowly killing Mercury! They continue to rebadge the same vehicles! Man, when they learn!

[big swede]

Originally posted by Ming@Sep 6 2004, 03:23 PM
Clue to Ford: When you strip a brand of all R&D dollars and give it a complete lineup of rebadged vehicles, you can't expect much

At least Mercury knows the problem and plans to fix it. "We have lost a lot of customers for lack of product," says Darryl Hazel, president of Lincoln Mercury.

I'm just glad that FOMOCO isn't trying to snow us into believing their outdated product is just as good as anything currently available. I think that's a big mistake because then people go oh ok let me go check out your cars. Then after checking them out they obviously see that they are outdated and come away with the feeling that this particular company doesn't make good cars.

I don't think Ford has expected much because of the fact that they haven't given any concentrated effort or R&D dollars to the Mercury division. Ford had a plan to update their mega selling F-150 first and then go after their cars second. They're done with the truck and now it's on to the cars with Mercury included.

[richb65]

Originally posted by ByTheLake@Sep 6 2004, 07:28 AM
Mariner and Montego might help a bit, but will Mercury get any exclusive products to help create an identity?

This is really the question, isn't it? The products are important, obviously, but what does Mercury stand for... how does a consumer identify a Mercury, and what promise does this brand make?

Personally, I think Mercury is dead in the water. Ford either needs to kill it, or spend lots of focused marketing dollars to develop a real identity for the brand. A few differentiated vehicles would help too.

[Carguy]

I think there would be room for Mercury between Ford and Lincoln if they would stop loading Fords with Lincoln like luxury. GM does the same thing with there truck lines when you can buy eny luxury feature in a Chevy that you can get in a GMC. Chrome trim wont do it buy it self these days. With base brands getting more and more Luxurious by the year and the SNOB APPEAL of true luxury brands remaining there seems to be less room for midrange brands eny more.-------------OLDS eny one?-------------Future of Buick??---------------Murcury??? <_<

[pontiac is for me]

However, the one recent Mercury that was NOT a "rebadged Ford" was the Mercury Marauder. Neither Ford nor Lincoln (nor GM nor any other car maker) had anything like it. It was NO rebadged Grand Marquis or Crown Vic, it was truly a rocketship with a unique performance engine, race gauge cluster, completely differnet interior and exterior design, 18" chrome wheels and what seemed like a really good aftermarket exhaust. But sales weren't good (but they were MUCH better tban the GTO), so instead of continuing to improve it, Mercury drops it and offers a rebadged Ford 500, rebadged Ford Escape and rebadged Ford minivan. Oh well. And they wonder why they continue to lose market share?