I have noticed a trend in TV advertising where the story, acting, special effects dominate. Where the name of what is being advertised is subordinate and on one very expensive prime time ad I counted three seconds of exposure to the name of the product. It happened to be The Lincoln Motor Company. I watched it carefully again and the well known actor was mumbling something about life and that made no sense. The mumbling was off putting and having produced over 80 commercials I was wondering what had gone wrong.
- Unless I was a professional I would have no idea what car company was being advertised
- I had no idea how the mumbling actor was telling the story of the positioning of the car company.
- It looked like the creative team went nuts thinking they could wins some award with this esoteric advertisement.
- We are talking about millions of dollars down the drain!!!!! Yes smart marketing folks and Lincoln blew it.
The next advertisement in the series had the same actor but you could understand him. But the message did not fit the image of the car. The message was I drive this car (lincoln) not because of status, not because I have the money but because I like to. A very weak positioning statement and benefit to potential buyers.
- I am lead to the conclusion that there is no real point of difference model by model between a Lincoln and a Ford. There are not bettter features on the Lincoln. So I checked the prices. A 2014 MKS Lincoln with eco boost (turbo charger) with standard options was 35,000 brand new. A 2014 Ford Taurus SHO (high performance) with standard equipment, the same as the Lincoln.
- It is obvious that the Lincoln Division is being killed by the Ford division and in fact not only does not have a point of positive difference but in fact are negatively positioned.
Here is what the advertising should have done.
- Clearly highlight the point of difference of Lincoln over Ford and it should be snob appeal. It should show features not available on the Ford Taurus that are quite appealing, like Cadillac does with Chevy. But what I just outlined is not true.
- So what is left, a creative advertisement that hopes the acting and the part of the famous actor sell car.
- This is not going to happen and I predict that Lincoln sales are going to take a dive. Ford is very strong and in fact their Ford Focus is outselling Toyota Camry
fredheldpalosverdes 