Mercury Brand Status Dwindles Further as Ford Cuts Television Advertising
December 19, 2007
By Dale Buss
Ford Motor Co. seems to be nudging its Mercury brand closer to oblivion with its 
latest decision: to remove it from national television ads and some other spending on traditional media, instead shifting more resources online and into dealership advertising efforts.
The decision to reallocate marketing resources for Mercury comes as the brand continues to struggle in the marketplace (sales are down about 7 percent for the year) and as Ford reportedly plans no new products for Mercury after the introduction of an overhauled Milan midsize sedan in the 2009 model year.
Ford has been indicating its intention to focus more on buttressing the Lincoln brand than on Mercury for some time. Spokesman Mark Schirmer characterized the latest move as “a directional thing that we’ve been working on for awhile, reshaping how we use the same pot” of marketing money. He said Ford believes that it will “get more traction” for Mercury sales by reallocating more advertising money to online efforts and to dealers.
“It’s just not a big enough pot of money to do traditional TV for Mercury and make it effective,” Schirmer said. “It’s not a significant enough chunk to break through. We have to be smarter with those resources.”
Given that Mercury sales are only a fraction of those by the Ford brand, he said, “We’ve got to reach a small group of consumers. And we’re more successfully reaching those people online.” Ford also will redirect some advertising funds to dealer groups and expect Mercury dealers to pony up more of their own resources to support the brand.
Among other things, Ford’s move will undercut the brand-building progress that Mercury had made over the last few years via its TV spokeswoman, Jill Wagner, whom Schirmer said has “really resonated with consumers” since her debut in 2005. But he said that Wagner will continue in an online-advertising role with Mercury.
Posted by at 6:37 AM under Ford , News | Comments (4) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
Mercury is a great brand with an exciting lineup of neat cars! Ford cannot afford to retrench further in Major advertising,and must do a better job in getting the word out about ALL it fine products! Ford must be PROACTIVE in ALL areas especially Marketing. You can't be very successful in today's auto business unless you do a great job getting out the message about your products. INCREASE the ADVERTISING BUDGET and PUSH the MERCURY BRAND!!
Posted by: Harry C. Risher | December 20, 2007 at 3:51 PM
If mercury would just come out with the Cougar and base it off of the mustang platform, kinda do a retro to like the 69 bodystyle, mercury would take off. I also think that mercury needs some of there own products not just dressed up fords, because if fords aren't selling then dressed up fords won't sell either.
Posted by: Jake | December 26, 2007 at 1:17 PM
The people at FOMOCO never cease to amaxe me. I have watched with interest the advrtising the have been doing with Mercury Division. With out a doubt, it has been directed to Women. I believe this to be very clever. Women DO make the car buying decision. Make no mistake. Will they do the same for Ford Division? Who knows. I am quite sure that the powers that be don't know. Perhaps they should actually listen to their dealers. The dealer body would tell them that the marketing strategy was correct. I have had many women come in and ask about the Mercury line, and I worked for a Ford dealer! HELLO ALAN... Pay Attention!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Ed Bennett | December 27, 2007 at 1:42 PM
Laugh if you must, but my 2002 5-speed Cougar was the best car I ever owned (compared to: Saturn, Mazda, Toyota, Honda). It was sleek, practical, great gas mileage, fast (enough), fully functional. Most importantly--fun to drive.
When they discontinued that model because it had no sister-platforms in Ford or Lincoln, I knew Mercury was only headed down. It's a real shame--Mercury products are excellent based on my experience.
Posted by: Jed | March 21, 2008 at 12:15 PM