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Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup? UPDATE post#136

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#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup?
Autonews


DETROIT -- Does the Lincoln Continental mark the beginning of the end of the brand’s confusing “MK” naming scheme?

Joe Hinrichs, Ford Motor Co.’s president of the Americas, today gave the strongest hint yet that the company is ready to bring back real words, possibly by reviving iconic names such as the Town Car.

“Without divulging the future,” Hinrichs said, “we’re very excited about the Continental name and the attention it’s gotten.”

Lincoln’s announcement last month that the Continental will replace the MKS next year signaled that the automaker might be rethinking its decision to drop actual names nearly a decade ago. Asked about that at an auto industry breakfast hosted by the Dawda Mann law firm, Hinrichs acknowledged that the MK monikers can be hard for anyone who’s not a Ford executive to keep straight.

“I get it,” Hinrichs said. “I know MKX and C and Z and T. I’ve studied them very well. I know them well, but we also understand the issue. It’s, frankly, where the auto industry -- the premium industry -- has gone, if you look at all the nameplates. But another way Lincoln could distinguish itself is to leverage its heritage. So I’ll leave it at that.”

The alphabetic approach was originally conceived as a nod to Lincoln’s past, with the MK pronounced “Mark,” a reference to the Continental Mark series. (For example, the Lincoln Zephyr, on the market for only one model year, would henceforth be the “Mark Z,” executives proclaimed in 2006, earning a spot on Automotive News’ list of the year’s 10 biggest blunders.)

Alan Mulally, who became CEO shortly after that happened, candidly told reporters he didn’t like the change, but eventually said he came to terms with the new scheme.

Now his successor, MK Fields, is pouring money into Lincoln’s revitalization effort and trying to zig while other luxury brands zag. Fields and then-marketing chief Jim Farley announced internally about 18 months ago that Lincoln’s next full-size sedan would be called the Continental.

That name is a big reason for the buzz surrounding the Continental Concept since its unveiling at the New York auto show. Motor Trend put it on the front of its June issue, with the headline “Continental is back.” Hinrichs proudly said that’s the first time in 15 years that a Lincoln made the magazine’s cover.

Ford also has been thrilled with the recent performance of the one Lincoln that still has a pronounceable name: the Navigator, whose sales are up 84 percent this year. Meanwhile, all of Lincoln’s MK-named vehicles are down 7.2 percent.

In 2006, Lincoln justified the name changes as a way to get people to focus on the brand as a whole rather than individual models. Instead, most people just ignored the brand entirely.

Now that Lincoln might finally be on the comeback trail, executives sound like they’ve realized there’s one thing still missing: vowels.
 
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#3 ·
Re: Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup?

Yes! I want the names back. If you need some help, Lincoln, i can do it:

Zephyr
Premier
Capri
Mark (of course for a coupe!)
Town Car
Versailles
Aviator
Navigator
Futura (remember the concept car from Lincoln that became in the Batman car?)


Come On Lincoln, make us happy....
 
#4 ·
Re: Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup?

It's a tricky proposition because they've already established MKZ, MKX, and MKC which are well known. They'll have to invent new names to replace those and the transition wouldn't be logical or cheap to advertise, and Lincoln really only has a couple of iconic/appealing names to pick from, many of which have little relation to Lincoln's modern vehicles. Lincoln's heritage is also very old and largely forgotten, resurrecting many of those forgotten names now becomes a history lesson which I don't think younger shoppers can relate to. Continental, Navigator, and Town Car are iconic; Versailles, Zephyr, and Cosmopolitan are not. Lincoln, like Buick, will end up finding nonsense names that mean very little anyway. It's okay to resurrect Continental and keep Navigator, the rest is a wash. Lincoln has to be careful about it's retro tendencies which have not worked for them in recent history. They might be more motivated to do this because of China, but it'll be interesting to see if American consumers respond in the same way.
 
#92 ·
Re: Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup?

^ :thumb:-except
imho "TownCar" is NOT a name.............



I really REALLY hope FLincMoCo milks the
-- Continental NAME
-- the idea of a Continental Flagship
-- the IDEA of a NAME
for ALL they're worth...

...don't give a NAME to anything whose base price is under $50k!!

at LEAST!!
"2b2" I would like to address all of the issues you raised please. I'm not sure exactly what you mean when you say "imho Town Car is not a name...."?

But more important (IMHO) is your idea of the Continental name as a flagship. If I remember correctly didn't Lincoln use the Continental name on more than one model, and some at the same time? What I'm thinking are "Lincoln Continental Sedan Convertible", "Lincoln Continental Town Car", "Lincoln Continental Mark V", "Lincoln Continental Town Coupe" and even going back to the "1939 Lincoln Zephyr Continental Cabriolet". I'm sure there are more that can be revisited. My point is that I agree with "2b2" in making the Continental Lincoln's flagship but I would take it a step further and spreading it over several models. Continental Sedan, Continental Town Car, Continental Mark V (rwd coupe) and Continental Versailles or Premiere (rwd 4 door coupe).

However "2b2" I respectfully disagree with not giving names to models below $50k as this could be confusing to customers and the $50k threshold would be a moving target. (IMHO)
 
#7 ·
Re: Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup?

Aviator is the only name worth bringing back that's somewhat relevant. Lincoln kind of has a travel-themed nomenclature: Continental, Navigator, and Aviator. They're going to have to hire a focus group to come up with new names for the rest of the line-up.

Bad or irrelevant names like Town Car, Blackwood, Versailles, Premiere, Capri, and Cosmopolitan should be kept in the coffin.
 
#10 ·
Re: Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup?

I think Lincoln is just stuck, they are desperate to do whatever works even if it seems like a hodgepodge of ideas right now with no clear overall vision. The Continental name has essentially been brought back for marketing purposes on a car that was originally called MKS in development, visually it has very little relation to any Continental in the past and is really a totally original look for Lincoln that is launching a complete identity change for the brand. Which is ironic since the Continental name brings it back to the future and turns it into something more authentic/retro even if the original purpose was to start a new future. It's a brilliant marketing move and hard to pass up, but it only works if the name is "Continental". This is a good way to launch a major new visual identity since everybody is now paying attention. It's one of those moments in history where everything falls into place through smart decision making, which gives me some hope that these people know what they are doing.

Lincoln is still very much figuring this out and experimenting which will take a long time and I'm sure we'll see allot more of that to come, lets just hope for some progress. In the meantime it's going to look a little messy, but that chaos is a good thing since something will come out of it.
 
#11 ·
Re: Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup?

I think separating cars & utilities into two collections/sub-brands might be a good idea. Luxury brands in other industries use a strategy like that (Rolex). So, why not take advantage of Lincoln's two most iconic nameplates (Continental and Navigator) for the names of the sub-brands?

For Example:

Continental Collection
Continental Metro - compact sedan and coupé
Continental Cosmopolitan - midsize sedan and coupé
Continental Town Car - full-size sedan
Continental Mark IX - full-size coupé

Navigator Collection
Navigator Submariner - sub-compact utility
Navigator Atlas - compact utility
Navigator Aviator - midsize utility
Navigator Yacht-Master - full-size utility
 
#13 ·
Re: Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup?

I think separating cars & utilities into two collections/sub-brands might be a good idea. Luxury brands in other industries use a strategy like that (Rolex). So, why not take advantage of Lincoln's two most iconic nameplates (Continental and Navigator) for the names of the sub-brands?

For Example:

Continental Collection
Continental Metro - compact sedan and coupé
Continental Cosmopolitan - midsize sedan and coupé
Continental Town Car - full-size sedan
Continental Mark IX - full-size coupé

Navigator Collection
Navigator Submariner - sub-compact utility
Navigator Atlas - compact utility
Navigator Aviator - midsize utility
Navigator Yacht-Master - full-size utility
So you have two brands, why bother calling it Lincoln at all? And do you really want to call any Lincoln a 'yacht'? And what about cars that blur the lines between car and crossover/SUV?
 
#16 ·
Re: Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup?

I don't see how those relate, Range Rover and Land Rover is a strange twist in their LONG history, not an intentional branding act.

We can say the same about Lincoln, there was:

Lincoln Continental
Continental (in its own brand)
Lincoln Continental Mark
Lincoln Continental Town Car
Lincoln Town Car
Lincoln Mark

So, the sub brand Continental si not a crazy idea...
 
#17 ·
Re: Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup?

So you have two brands, why bother calling it Lincoln at all? And do you really want to call any Lincoln a 'yacht'? And what about cars that blur the lines between car and crossover/SUV?
LOL It's just an example I stole from Rolex to make my point. I'm not suggesting they should use that.

I don't see how that would be a problem. It would be a problem if they made wagons, but that's not going to happen.
I don't see how those relate, Range Rover and Land Rover is a strange twist in their LONG history, not an intentional branding act.
Land Rover has been heading into sub-branding for quite some time. Defender, Discovery, and Range Rover are all sub-brands.

Lincoln needs radical thinking in order to get out of the mud they've been in. Like Land Rover, Lincoln is a perfect candidate for sub-branding.

Lincoln has 4 options:
1. Keep the current MK- nomenclature and iconic nameplates
2. Ditch the MK- nomenclature for iconic and new, mediocre "real" names
3. Ditch the MK- nomenclature for a new, derivative alpha-numeric system while keeping the iconic names
4. Resort to sub-branding using Lincoln's two most iconic nameplates
 
#20 ·
Re: Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup?

I really wish Lincoln would bring back real names to it's lineup.

I personally would love to see it like this....

Zephyr (MKZ)
Continental
Town Car
Mark - Series Coupe

Cosmopolitan (MKC)
Aviator (MKX)
Navigator

Just my opinion on things.
 
#21 ·
Re: Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup?

Where are the Ford 'fanbois' who were beating their chest saying MK was the be all end all for naming schemes?

I have been saying this from day one I am so glad they are (hopefully) ditching the MK names.

These brands have names:
Porsche
Alfa Romeo
Maserati
Aston Martin
Rolls Royce
Bentley

These brands don't:
BMW
Mercedes-Benz
Audi
Jaguar
Cadillac
Volvo
Acura
Lexus
Infiniti

The higher end brands have names or as JDN says "Romantic" names. Nice to see Lincoln taking the "high" road and returning to names.
 
#22 ·
Re: Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup?

New question: Will the MKZ be renamed "Zephyr" in the refresh, or will it soldier on as the MKZ until a totally redesigned car comes along?

Because the MKZ will have Lincoln's new face, which will surely be associated with the Continental, it may not be a bad idea to go with the Zephyr name early!
 
#24 ·
Re: Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup?

I think separating cars & utilities into two collections/sub-brands might be a good idea. Luxury brands in other industries use a strategy like that (Rolex). So, why not take advantage of Lincoln's two most iconic nameplates (Continental and Navigator) for the names of the sub-brands?

For Example:

Continental Collection
Continental Metro - compact sedan and coupé
Continental Cosmopolitan - midsize sedan and coupé
Continental Town Car - full-size sedan
Continental Mark IX - full-size coupé

Navigator Collection
Navigator Submariner - sub-compact utility
Navigator Atlas - compact utility
Navigator Aviator - midsize utility
Navigator Yacht-Master - full-size utility
:thumb: for the thoughtfulness & originality & inspiration...

now (+ partly due to the StarShadow™ grille design) I'm thinking of 3 (THREE) 'lines' of vehicles
über cars = Conti(s) & LincStangs (StarShadow™ grille)
über Cuv/Suvs = Navigator, Aviator (, & Aviator-Sport) (something else)
MK-Series = X, (X-Sport,) Z, & MARK375 (Max's horizontal slats w-or-w/o split)
 
#25 ·
Re: Is Lincoln is Ready to Toss the Alphabet Soup?

Zephyr name sucks. Leave that one out of whatever decision they make.
And I am on the fence. Never had a problem with letters, but it seems to be quite the lightening rod, so, why not.
Zephyr would be a great fit because it's unique, and there is already a bit of recognition with the "Z" in "MKZ".
 
#26 ·
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