Lincoln reimagined as a 'luxury boutique'

NEW YORK — Lincoln Motor Co. has spent the better part of this decade transforming its lineup and rebooting its brand identity in a bid to shed its also-ran status.

With the final two of its core products arriving this year, culminating with the Corsair compact crossover introduced at the New York auto show last week, its next challenge is one that's far easier said than done in the cutthroat luxury market: not messing it up.

A series of false starts and would-be resets left Lincoln gasping for relevance after the Great Recession. But for the better part of a decade now, Lincoln has managed to stay the course and remain disciplined — while its chief U.S. rival, Cadillac, has flitted from one strategy to another — by focusing on giving its customers tailored experiences and repressing the instinct to obsess about climbing the sales chart.

"I think of us more as a luxury boutique than a luxury shopping mall," Joy Falotico, Lincoln's president, told Automotive News. "We certainly want to grow volume, especially in China. But it's all about doing it in a healthy way."

Along the way, Lincoln backed off a commitment made under former Ford Motor Co. CEO Mark Fields that its global sales would hit 300,000 by 2020, and a sales strategy that included reducing fleet deliveries and company cars to improve profitability last year contributed to its biggest U.S. sales decline since 2009. But in the first quarter of 2019, sales jumped 11 per cent thanks in large part to a wave of fresh product that includes the redesigned Navigator SUV and the Nautilus midsize crossover that replaced the MKX. The next wave comprises the Aviator large crossover arriving this summer and the Corsair in the fall. Canadian sales are 2.2 per cent through the first quarter of 2019.

Executives have been mum on plans for the MKZ and Continental sedans, although analysts expect those vehicles to be dropped in North America as Lincoln leans into utilities, much like the Ford brand has done.

"It appears they've accepted who they are," Jeff Schuster, president of global forecasting at LMC Automotive, said in an interview. "They're not a volume premium brand that's going to be everything for everyone. That's OK; you don't have to be everything to everyone to still be successful."

Executives say Lincoln is built around the idea of "quiet flight." While other brands focus on performance, Lincoln wants to stress tranquility and the idea of the vehicle as a sanctuary.

The Corsair, for example, features a dual-wall dashboard in the engine compartment to reduce vibrations and sound, and it has a brand-specific rear suspension to improve driving feel.

"It's more about seduction than attack," Lincoln's design director, David Woodhouse, told reporters.

With all four Lincoln utility vehicles sporting the brand's latest design language by year end, Falotico said the product strategy will turn to electrifying the lineup and keeping it fresh.

"We've had to redo our whole philosophy of the cycle plan and add in an experience and service cycle plan and smaller packages that give you something new to show the customer," Falotico said. "They're very sensitive to the freshness of the product."

She declined to offer specifics of how much the brand might speed up product development but said it would add more performance packages and special editions than in the past. The Corsair, for example, won't offer a swanky Black Label version or a plug-in hybrid variant at launch, though both are expected later.

Falotico also reiterated Lincoln's plans to add a battery-electric vehicle but said she's happy with the seven-vehicle lineup (which includes the low-volume MKT crossover being retained as a carryover fleet alternative to the Aviator).

"We have a vehicle in every segment, except the luxury performance segment, so we feel we have roughly the right number of vehicles," she said. "We're not like some other manufacturers who don't have mass-market brands, so you see them continue to extend their lineup. That's not us. Having said that, we're looking at derivatives that make sense."

Lincoln’s biggest challenges, Falotico said, were changing perceptions and raising awareness about the brand, and maintaining sales discipline. 

Robert Parker, Lincoln’s marketing manager, said customer service experiences have been at the center of its strategy.

“The experience is going to give us a much longer runway,” Parker said. “If we let the experience go in favor of the volume, it’s a very short leash. The next cycle, a customer might not come back for another one.”

Lincoln in recent years has added free pickup and delivery, as well as a personal driver service to chauffeur customers in their own vehicle and run errands when they’re busy. 

Parker said Lincoln is more concerned with customer-satisfaction metrics than overall sales figures, which aren't threatening to leap Infiniti, Acura or Cadillac anytime soon. 

“We’re going to sell more Lincolns, clearly, with Aviator, Nautilus, Navigator and Corsair, but we’re not looking to chase some lofty sales goal or give anybody a number," Park said. "Instead of having a trophy case for sales, we have a trophy case for experience. We’ve essentially disassembled those sales trophy cases and built the experience trophy case and said: ‘Fill that up.’ ”