Naming Conventions

[plev72]

With all the talk about the new names for Ford products (Lincoln going to letters to make their vehicles seem more "premium" Ford names starting with F, etc), I think it would be a terrific idea to have a "Brand" vehicle - figure out what image "Ford" "Mercury" and "Lincoln" are supposed to convey - is "Ford" supposed to be sporty? "Mercury" more family oriented? "Lincoln" Premium? Once the archetypal "FORD" "MERCURY" and "LINCOLN" are determined, why not name a specific vehicle as a "FORD" - as opposed to the "Ford Mustang" "Ford Focus" etc etc - take a chance - have a top tier vehicle that most accurately identifies the brand. Instead of being a Lincoln - the vehicle would be "THE" Lincoln... and the other Lincoln products would round out the product line exemplified by "THE" Lincoln.

 

(Hope I managed to get the idea across in all of those words)

[NickF1011]

That would make for VERY confusing advertising and marketing though.

 

"What do you drive?"

 

"The Ford."

 

"The Ford what?"

 

"Just the Ford."

 

"Ummm...okaaaaaaay." :huh:

[2b2]

...(Hope I managed to get the idea across in all of those words)

 

Fascinating subject... Agree these things are hard to put into words but I see three topics in the idea -

brand identity,

the concept of 'signature' vehicles vs a 'flagship', and

badging nomenclature.

 

Re: identity - I think this has actually been GM's problem for a long time. Every car line needs good price (Chevy), performance (Pontiac), and amenities (Buick) - add being a viable alternative to the imports (Saturn). Their images are totally one dimensional while their products have had to offer as much of all these qualities as they could. But this meant they didn't live up to THE IMAGE. These images just don't work!

So I much prefer FML's more complex themes - I don't equate complexity with ambiguity!

 

The only signature vehicles I can see would be for Mercury and Lincoln - Ford is so large, they'd need several in different segments (truck/suv, sport, family, etc.) and then I don't see how it would be any/much different than it already is.

For Lincoln the coming E386/D472 large sedan/people-mover (make that LARGE) are going to 'set the tone' for the brand in a most significant way, so whether either is called a flagship or whatever may not matter much.

I'd love to see Mercury have a mid-large sedan that would trump both the 300 and CLS in style while retaining practicality/affordability AND long-term appeal... to bad the initial "M" is already being exploited by Infiniti... I hope Merc has preserved their rights to "XR#" !!!

 

The naming conventions - "F/E" names for Fords and "M's" for Mercury seem to be reaching their limit. Perhaps Merc could add "C" names for special vehicles (if they ever get them) along the lines of Cougar or Capri, and Ford could explore another initial for their coming 'suite' of small vehicles which may be grouped as a sort of sub-brand - perhaps "B" as in Bronco and B-class. I don't really have any other solution for this.

The semi-alphanumerics for Lincoln are just starting, I say give 'em a chance. They do afterall serve the same purpose as calling one vehicle 'The Lincoln', ie. putting the emphasis back on the brand. One good thing is that even though MKX and MKS (which I prefer to write MkX and MkS) may 'look' like alphabet soup, they are based on a real Lincoln name "Mark", and so can justly be used concurrently with names like Continental and Navigator imho. Just hope they save the rights to Aviator for future use and maybe someday call their flagship THE LINCOLN PANTHER (as has been mentioned in other threads).