Mercury hoping launch of new vehicles will help attract younger buyers
By JASON STEIN | Automotive News
This fall, Mercury will build a brand campaign around the new Montego sedan, above, and Mariner SUV.
DETROIT -- Mercury, which has attracted generations of older buyers to its flagship Grand Marquis sedan, now covets a much different target demographic: Gen X.
Starting this fall, Mercury will build a brand campaign around the launches of its Mariner SUV and Montego sedan.
The "New Doors Opened" campaign seeks to attract buyers between the ages of 35 and 45, customers who have not typically been on Mercury's radar screen.
"I think that's a realistic jump," says Tom Grill, marketing communications manager of Lincoln Mercury. "I think if you ask consumers what a Mercury is, the vast majority will mention Grand Marquis. That's not a bad thing. But we have to show people we can do other things."
After decades of marketing to older consumers - Mercury says the average Grand Marquis buyer is in the mid-60s - the automaker hopes vehicles and advertising aimed at younger customers will broaden its sales base.
The campaign will include Web and nontraditional advertising, "linking television, Internet and direct mail in a way we have never done at Mercury before," Grill says.
Lance Paull, executive creative director for the Detroit office of advertising agency Young & Rubicam, which is handling the account, adds: "I don't think it will be what most consider to be a typical Mercury campaign. We are really out to have a new conversation with a new person."
The campaign comes at a crucial time for Mercury. The automaker is launching six vehicles in the next four years, starting with the Mariner and Montego.
"We have to keep in mind we are attracting a new buyer and energizing the brand in a way we haven't before," Paull says.
Some dealers aren't convinced.
"They will never capture that (youth) market unless they do something drastic," says Joel Reina, a Mercury dealer at Nye Automotive Group in Oneida, N.Y. "If they try running into the mid-30s or 40-year-old range, they won't sell it. Those people are buying Lexus and BMW."
Mark Rush, a dealer at Rush Lincoln-Mercury in Columbus, Ohio, says that Mercury dealers will need to prepare carefully for the campaign.
"The part for the dealer is to ask: 'Do I have enough salespeople, and have I trained them right?' " Rush says. "Younger buyers will be more affluent and savvy. We have to meet the challenge."
Grill says the transformation to a more youthful Mercury buyer base won't happen overnight. "Six months out, we will see where we are," he says.
Internal research shows that customers are familiar with the notion that Mercury is prepared to offer buyers generous incentives, Grill says.
"But talking about the deal doesn't do much for desirability of the brand," he adds. "We have been doing the deal well. Now we have to start telling the other story."
The new Mercury ad campaign reflects the automaker's efforts to use humor, athletes and actors to push the brand. Recent campaigns have featured game show host Ben Stein and former professional basketball star Magic Johnson.
Now it's time for Mercury to shift that emphasis on personality to its new vehicles, Grill says.
"It's going to take time," he concedes. "It's not the most youthful market. But with product and messaging, I'm positive it will skew younger."
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