As a proud Lincoln owner, I know that they’ve been making great cars for years. The LS was a great vehicle, and the new MKZ is a great sedan as well. The MKS, the new flagship vehicle, is a beast that would satisfy most Lexus buyers with its styling and performance. Now they’ve added the new MKT crossover (pictured above) to the mix.
Generation X, often referred to as the “slacker generation,” has shed that stereotype and now is a coveted consumer group at the top of its earning potential, Ford Motor Co. officials say.
With pockets flush with cash, consumers born between 1965 and 1976 are the target of Ford’s Lincoln brand, which is trying to reinvent itself after years of giving ground in the profitable luxury segment.
“We have an aging owner body, and we have the ability to move it in the right direction and get younger,” Matt VanDyke-marketing communications director, tells Ward’s at a recent media event here.
“To think we could flip over and get young 20-somethings into a luxury product at this point and consider Lincoln is something that I think is too much of a stretch,” he says.
Lincoln brass spent considerable time determining the unique makeup of Gen Xers, which VanDyke defines as being in their mid-30s to mid-40s. Unlike traditional luxury buyers, these consumers don’t want to appear “ostentatious.” Rather, they are “folks that are time-starved and look at luxury as something that makes their life simple and easier.”
How are they approaching this? One is an emphasis on technology. The design of the cars evokes a high-tech feeling that bears little resemblance to older Lincolns, yet it’s not as edgy as the recent Cadillac designs so boomer buyers should feel comfortable as well. The other part of the strategy involves music. The campaign’s TV spots feature music that the Gen X group finds nostalgic. The ad for the Lincoln MKS features a remake of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” while the ad for the Lincoln MKT uses a version of the 1980s classic “Under the Milky Way,” by Australian alternative rock band The Church. Check out a clip of the video below.
The strategy makes sense. I remember the Cadillac ad several years ago featuring the Led Zeppelin song. Music can help to reposition a brand, so Lincoln seems to be on the right track.
The Cadillac CTS-V held the record for the fastest lap by a sedan at Nürburgring since May 9, 2008, but now that time has been beaten by the Porsche Panamera Turbo. Of course, as pointed out by AutoGuide.com, the Caddy costs about half of what you’ll pay for the Porsche.
That said, Porsche has to be pleased by the performance of this beautiful sedan.
The GM restructuring raises the stakes for Cadillac, one of the four brands that will survive the GM bankruptcy. The Detroit News explains that while the brand still has some challenges, quality has improved and the brand has other factors going for it as well.
Under bankruptcy, Cadillac will be able to cut its dealers from 1,500 to 500, enabling the survivors to reduce discounts and become more profitable.
Cadillac is revamping its lineup, too. It is developing a large sedan, the XTS, to replace the STS and aging DTS cars. It will build a small car to compete in the segment dominated by BMW’s 3 Series.
It is now launching the SRX crossover with taillights that evoke glamorous fins of the past.
Next month, Cadillac will roll out a CTS wagon and a coupe next year. “You’ll see us playing in all those segments,” Hill said.
By many measures, Cadillac holds its own against the top-tier luxury brands. “They’re there in quality,” Csere said. “Some models are absolutely there in styling.” The CTS-V, the performance version, “is perfectly capable of running with a BMW M5 or a Mercedes E63 AMG.”
Alexander Edwards, a partner at the San Diego consulting firm Strategic Vision, said Cadillac scores well in surveys measuring “things gone right” — features that appeal to customers, as opposed to the absence of flaws. In the latest survey, it beat out Lexus and BMW, he said.
In this year’s J.D. Power and Associates’ Initial Quality Study surveying new car owners, Cadillac came in third place, behind only Porsche and Lexus.
With its new vehicles, Cadillac is picking off import buyers like Oscar Cabrera, a salesman at Credit Suisse’s fixed-income trading desk in Boston. He and his wife went for Japanese models until three months ago, when they bought an SRX for $36,000. “It came down to the features and price. I like the car,” Cabrera said. “The interior is very nice. It feels very high end.”
Still, while Cadillac has improved its vehicles, analysts say the brand is not clearly defined.
Compared with the German carmakers, it has a lineup of models that bear little relation to one another, from the cushy DTS sedan favored by an older crowd, to the Escalade SUV that attracts superstar athletes and the crisp-handling, rear-wheel-drive CTS.
“You know what BMW stands for, and what Mercedes stands for. Cadillac is all over the lot,” said Art Spinella, president of CNW Research in Bandon, Ore. “They have to decide how to make that lineup cohesive.”
It’s easier to market vehicles when the brand is well defined, he said, and it costs less.
Cadillac also lags in showcasing advanced technology. It rolled out a plug-in hybrid concept at this year’s Detroit auto show, the Converj, with a drivetrain similar to that of the Chevrolet Volt. But, says Howell, “that’s not a project you’ll see in the next couple of years.”
Similar considerations led GM to drop the $80,000-plus XLR sportscar. “Part of that’s driven by the economic situation GM’s in,” Howell said.
The article goes on to explain how Cadillac will not be a major player in Europe, where competition is very tough, and will instead focus on emerging markets like China and Russia. That makes sense for the long term.
