Ford’s marketing chief, Jim Farley, says that he expects the automaker’s core brand’s market share to stabilize in 2009 – and, thanks to a handful of new product introductions, Lincoln could see an uptick from its current 0.8 percent market share. Ford division’s market share has seen a steady decrease over the last two decades to its current 12.7 percent.
Just 15 years ago, Ford, Lincoln and Mercury sales made up 25.7 percent of overall vehicle sales in the United States. Last year, that figure was a mere 14.4 percent, down 0.4 percent from 2007.
“We think we have a really good chance this year,” Farley told industry publication Automotive News at the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. “We don’t know what the luxury market is going to look like, but the one thing we’re really focused on is making sure that people see our products as aspirational and they pay the price.”
Despite the automaker’s increased share of the place of traffic, both brands are looking at lower sales in 2009 than they saw in 2008. For better or worse, the market as a whole expects considerably lower sales this year, meaning that if Ford and Lincoln’s sales don’t drop as much as other automakers’ sales do, they’ll gain market share.
Ford
Ford saw a promising upward trend in market share late in 2008 – the brand saw its smallest share loss since 1998 by the end of the year. All three of the automaker’s domestic brands saw market portion gains in October, November and December 2008 and the automaker thinks that the redesigned 2010 Fusion and Mustang will give it a competitive advantage – especially thanks to the Fusion’s class-leading EPA fuel economy figures.
Lincoln
With 107,295 vehicles sold in 2008, Farley says that Lincoln’s sales could drop below 100,000 for the foremost time since 1982 – but the automaker’s market share is before that time up in the first brace weeks of 2009. Farley says that the MKS’ first full year on the market, as well as the introduction of the new MKT crossover later this year should help buoy the brand’s sales.
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Source: www.leftlanenews.com
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