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USA:Lincoln forms marketing alliance with New York's Time Warner Center

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Lincoln forms marketing alliance with New York's Time Warner Center

By John Porretto / Associated Press

DETROIT -- Lincoln, Ford Motor Co.’s luxury brand, is partnering with New York City’s new $1.7 billion Time Warner Center to create a different way to shop for a new car or truck.

Beginning in October, Lincoln will manage a display featuring two vehicles near the entrance to the 2.8-million-square-foot center on the city’s West Side. Time Warner Center opened in February.

An estimated 16 million people are expected to pass through the entrance each year, the automaker said. Terms of the multiyear alliance, announced Wednesday, were not disclosed.

Passers-by will be able to press a button at the Lincoln display and speak to an onsite concierge about the vehicles. The concierge will be able to arrange a test drive at any of Lincoln’s more than 1,300 U.S. dealerships.

“Lincoln’s alliance with Time Warner is a natural extension of our ’Travel Well’ theme,” said John Fitzpatrick, Lincoln Mercury’s general marketing manager.

Time Warner Center’s tenants include specialty shops, restaurants and markets.

Art Spinella, president of CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore., said displays such as the one Lincoln is planning are typically effective at first and when new vehicles are introduced, but they tend to become commonplace.

“They can talk about 16 million people, but often it’s the same 16 million people over and over,” Spinella said.

Lincoln, like cross-town rival Cadillac, is attempting to win back customers through an aggressive product offensive after years of losing business to foreign automakers’ premium brands such as Lexus, Infiniti and Acura.

Lifted largely by sales of its Navigator and Aviator sport utility vehicles, Lincoln’s sales rose 5.9 percent in 2003 -- the only one of Ford’s domestic brands to post a year-over-year increase, according to Autodata Corp.

But faced with increasing competition, Lincoln’s business through June was down 11.4 percent from last year.

Starting early next year, Lincoln will introduce five new products over four years, including the Mark LT full-size pickup and an entry-level sedan called the Zephyr.

In afternoon trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, Ford shares were up 3 cents to $15.18.
 
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