Mercury aims new ads at "smart" women drivers

[Rex Raider]

USA: Ford's Mercury brand aims new advertising at "smart" women drivers

Just-Auto Story



Ford's Mercury brand reportedly hopes to change its image as the car retirees might buy, with new US advertising geared toward the smart woman driver.

According to Reuters, Mercury has introduced four television commercials for its new Montego sedan and Mariner sports utility vehicle under the tagline "New Doors Opened," its biggest brand campaign in at least a decade.

Mercury has struggled to define itself as a brand for decades and in recent years, lost ground to foreign automakers filling in the niche between entry-level and luxury vehicles. Company executives cite 12 attempts to create an encapsulating slogan for its cars over the last 25 years, the report noted.

"Our sweet spot is (women) from 35 to 50 years old," Mercury marketing communications manager Tom Grill told Reuters. "When people say Mercury right now ... it's a slightly older demographic. We're trying to introduce people to Mercury again."

The news agency said a revival will be hard won for Mercury, whose sales dropped 23% last year and 1% to the end of July.

Consumers most often put the Mercury name at the top of a "stodgy" brands list, Art Spinella, president of CNW Marketing Research, told Reuters.

In one of the new ads, a young husband and wife adopt outlandish tactics to get out of the house early in the morning, each vying to claim the wheel of their Mercury Mariner. A second commercial shows a woman dumping her date in the rain after he disparages "women drivers", the report said, adding that the ads play to several versions of a song created for Mercury by Grammy-award winning singer Paula Cole. Mercury works with ad agency Y&R Brands, part of WPP Group.

Reuters said Mercury spent nearly 25% of its campaign budget on online advertising and customer events, a sign of how automakers are shifting a large part of their spending away from television as consumers devote more time to the internet.

Company officials reportedly did not reveal the cost of the campaign.

Mercury has also unveiled its entry-level 2006 Milan sedan, geared toward younger consumers, part of a range of six new vehicles to be introduced over four years, the report said.

Spinella told Reuters consumers polled by CNW on average say they could envision buying a Mercury car at the age of 46, compared with 25 for General Motors' revamped Cadillac brand.

Mercury has done little to distinguish itself from Ford models, he told the news agency. "Their one advantage is that women tend to be really neutral regarding the Mercury brand while most men are very polarised about it," Spinella said. Appealing to women "is probably the best tack to take."

[KingElvis]

The Mercury problem or Oldsmobile, Plymouth, etc can only be solved by essentially getting rid of the famous "brand engineering."

They're going to have to restrict certain options to the higher level brands.

I don't see how you can expect a brand to survive by selling a version of a car with only a different grille. You could give the Sable a bigger available engine than the Taurus, or make people buy a Merucry to get a navigation system.

Another way to do it, is if you restrict certain platforms to certian brands. Maybe FOMOCO could axe the Crown Vic and just sell the Grand Marquis.

With Lincoln being turned into the sort of Buick of FOMOCO, as Jaguar is the Cadillac, Lincoln too is being squeezed into irrelevance.

The problem with the solution? Dealers will go ape. If the Sable has a V-8 and starts selling then the Ford dealers raise hell with corporate to give the Taurus the same engine.

I find it ironic than as Toyota is adding brands - Lexus and now Scion - The so-called big three are axing them.

I'm skeptical of efforts like this to convey some instant image on a brand. I guess it's been going on for some time. Afterall, in the late fifties Mercury's tagline was "Mercury: the MAN'S car." I guess now Mercury is "The effeminate car"

[T-Type]

Originally posted by KingElvis@Aug 27 2004, 10:02 AM
The Mercury problem or Oldsmobile, Plymouth, etc can only be solved by essentially getting rid of the famous "brand engineering."

Or just by getting rid of the brand

[THUNDER-X]

Any one see the sketch yet?

http://www.mustangmods.com/data/533/mercur...y_milan_800.jpg

[MelvinJ]

Seems like they are leaving the dumb woman market wide open for another automaker to steal. :P

[svx92]

New Doors Opened? That's a tag line?

what about
Mercury
Quicksilver for the Soul

If I can rattle this off in 2 minutes...how long did that "Smart" tag take?
Mercury needs an Identity. The FoMoCo stable is so full that Mercury is lost in it's own organization

[StevenJ]

Originally posted by MelvinJ@Aug 27 2004, 05:59 PM
Seems like they are leaving the dumb woman market wide open for another automaker to steal. :P

Hey anything that can get soccer moms out of suvs and minvans and into cars is a good thing! Mercury needs masculinity, that's what it's lacking, and it needs to get rid of brand engineering. I'm more worried about Lincoln though, at the moment. That and they need to fire their marketing.

[jro4566]

I can't believe I actually read that article...why am I even posting? Mercury is almost pointless and unless FoMoCo can remedy this, they'll be at the point of obscurity soon enough.

[ChevyLaxMan]

Mostly Every Reasonable Car User Really Unleashes Yawns. That was pretty bad but still, you get the point. Mercury has to be the most useless automotive brand available. Change the direction of the bars on the grille and wham, you have a mercury. Also, if mercurys are supposed to be luxurious then how come there was ever the tracer? (escort) what a pos!

[gerardo_zg]

Originally posted by LakeMichigan+Aug 27 2004, 09:54 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (LakeMichigan @ Aug 27 2004, 09:54 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Buick61@Aug 27 2004, 10:21 AM
Mercury Milan??&nbsp; Eech.&nbsp; I guess that's the Mercury clone of the Ford Fusion (another cruddy name).&nbsp; I think Mercury is in a race with Buick to come up with the most pretentious, French sounding names possible.

Milan, French???? [/b][/quote]
Italian

[velocipede]

To the undereducated bloke who thought 'Milan' was French: just for reference, if you'd like to see a real French name, look no farther than 'Chevrolet'. Or 'Cadillac'.

[yoblues]

When I saw the first drawings of the new Merc Montego I said, nice design, sharp car. Mabey Merc is turning around. Then the real car showed up. A ford 500 with a different grill. BORINGGGGGG! This Milan drawing also looks good. The real car will look nothing like it. Ford screwed it all up. Lincoln should be RWD and have gone upscale to challenge Caddy. Then Merc goes in against Buick etc. with their own unique sheet metal and engines with permenante AWD cars. Ford remains the everyman car. As it stands now what is the reason to buy a Merc over a Ford? The Merc has a nicer dashboard? Merc will be gone in five years. Another famous brand the Detroit suits screwed up.

[stewacide]

People's who've seen them side-by-said say the Milan is quite unique from the 500, with unique front and rear. Other than as Ford styling option, however, I don't see any point to Mercury: why not make 10 unique fascias for the Fusion? (if it sells more cars)

[AMcA]

I disagree.

Mercury has got a good, consistent program going. Yes, it's all trim, but much of the differentiation in the auto industry is, and always has been about trim.

What's key here is that Mercury has carved out a genuine trim niche. It's the soft polish metal trim finishes, the waterfall grill, and stylish two-tone interiors. Mercury currently has one of the most distinctive aesthetic statements in the market today.
And they're doing a nice job of it: go look at one of those new Mariners. Its package of trim bits vaults a cheap and cheerful workaday Escape into a stylish fashion accesory. It looks like it oughta cost twice what an Escape does. And targeting a more stylish car to women is something no one else is doing in a coherent way. Let's not forget: women make the buying decision on over half the cars sold, if I recall correctly.

It's encouraging to see that Ford has sprung for a new hood, headlights and fascia for the Milan. They're getting more serious about this, and that's good. What Mercury really needs now is a halo car, something that will cast a really, really stylish glow on the lesser Mercs. I'd argue that a halo car is of paramount importance for a brand that's all about aesthetics.

So what should the halo car be?

[pcsario]

Originally posted by velocipede@Aug 28 2004, 01:30 AM
To the undereducated bloke who thought 'Milan' was French: just for reference, if you'd like to see a real French name, look no farther than 'Chevrolet'. Or 'Cadillac'.

ROFL...

Nice.