At the 2025 Shanghai Auto Show, after experiencing the baptism brought by the chaos of capital car manufacturing and the "toxic traffic", the biggest feeling is the return of consumer value and rationality.
As a representative of American luxury brands, under the leadership of President Jia Mingdi, Lincoln China has demonstrated its strategic vision and determination. With the word "stability" as the core, it has made layout and adjustments in multiple dimensions such as products, channels, and services, striving to move forward steadily in the wave of the market.
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Stable foundation: Ensure the healthy development of the dealer system
In the current automobile market, the health of dealers is directly related to the survival and development of the brand. Once a problem occurs with a dealer, it will lead to a break in the price and service system.
Lincoln deeply understands this and uses a series of "unbreakable, no establishment" measures to ensure the healthy operation of dealers.
"Break" means adjusting the network scale based on the market environment and the actual operating conditions of the dealers; "Stand" means absorbing fresh blood, strengthening operational capabilities, and increasing network coverage.
At the beginning of 2025, some Lincoln dealers were implicated by their groups and had to choose to withdraw from the network. In order to make up for the sales losses caused by the reduction of networks as soon as
At the 2025 Shanghai Auto Show, after experiencing the baptism brought by the chaos of capital car manufacturing and the "toxic traffic", the biggest feeling is the return of consumer value and rationality.
As a representative of American luxury brands, under the leadership of President Jia Mingdi, Lincoln China has demonstrated its strategic vision and determination. With the word "stability" as the core, it has made layout and adjustments in multiple dimensions such as products, channels, and services, striving to move forward steadily in the wave of the market.
01
—
Stable foundation: Ensure the healthy development of the dealer system
In the current automobile market, the health of dealers is directly related to the survival and development of the brand. Once a problem occurs with a dealer, it will lead to a break in the price and service system.
Lincoln deeply understands this and uses a series of "unbreakable, no establishment" measures to ensure the healthy operation of dealers.
"Break" means adjusting the network scale based on the market environment and the actual operating conditions of the dealers; "Stand" means absorbing fresh blood, strengthening operational capabilities, and increasing network coverage.
At the beginning of 2025, some Lincoln dealers were implicated by their groups and had to choose to withdraw from the network. In order to make up for the sales losses caused by the reduction of networks as soon as possible, Lincoln must quickly replenish network channels and reshape the brand confidence of investors and users.
However, in the current market environment, 4S stores that used to invest tens of millions of yuan would be unsustainable. Therefore, Lincoln made drastic rectification of the original dealer system - allowing existing dealers to transform lightweight, and at the same time launched the "Spark Fire" plan to recruit lightweight dealers.
The "Spark Fire" plan reconstructs the distribution network from three dimensions: facilities, investment and personnel to achieve "light installation".
In terms of facilities, we will lighten the store area demand, break the "large and comprehensive" layout of traditional 4S stores, focus on core functions, and innovate the launch of five lightweight forms such as Lincoln Center, user center, and delivery center to match regional market demand.
Jia Mingdi introduced that the threshold for investment and franchise has been reduced to 1.5 million yuan, which is significantly lower than the traditional model, attracting more high-quality investors to join, especially helping small and medium-sized distributors to enter the market quickly.
In terms of personnel, most positions can be completed by one person in the smallest exhibition hall, and only 10 people can complete the daily operation of the store. At the same time, the exhibition hall has also introduced a smart passenger flow system to realize reports, reports, statistics and other work through digitalization, reduce the labor costs of dealers and improve the man-efficiency ratio.
In terms of Lincoln's proud service, Lincoln's Way PRO not only did not shrink in the lightweight showroom, but was improved.
In terms of staffing, Lincoln focuses on providing services with better people and quality assurance; in terms of service facilities, even a small exhibition hall with investment of 1.5 million yuan is equipped with facilities that are only available in high-end hotels such as negative ion cleaning of coats, ultrasonic glasses cleaners, and automatic shoe polishers. Dim sums and beverages are also customized and specially tuned, allowing users to feel meticulous care.
This lightweight operation model not only reduces the financial pressure of dealers, but also ensures efficient allocation of resources, ensures Lincoln's service quality, and forms a "healthy network ecosystem".
According to reports, the first store after the implementation of the "Spark Fire" plan opened on April 15, and 10 stores will be opened before May 31 to quickly complete Lincoln's layout of the dealer system and ensure the healthy operation of network channels.
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Advantages: Upgrade product positioning, identify labels and user groups
Channels are king, and product labels cannot be ignored, that is, every car must find its own label and user group.
Fitness is the starting point of everything. Taking the new generation of Lincoln Navigator as an example, most of its users like to "take the overall picture".
In the words of the famous big V Cao Cao, "They care about quality, life, family, Chinese culture, and they are very successful, and don't care what others think."
Therefore, on the first limited edition of the new generation of Lincoln Navigator, we saw the 2-2-3 Commander Cockpit, Song Jin, the upper and lower cross-opening world gate and the third space of the Sequoia Forest.
Therefore, only by identifying the right people and clarifying their psychological and scenario needs can we explore unique selling points for different models and make the product positioning more accurate.
It is more worth mentioning that at this auto show, Lincoln conducted a new round of reviews on the product capabilities of its products, bringing users a new understanding.
For the new generation of Lincoln Navigators, the all-aluminum body with eight horizontal and two vertical upper body aluminum alloy accounts for more than 97% of the proportion, the eight horizontal and two vertical beam chassis structure and the American Eagle electromagnetic cruise suspension, etc. These "all-road conditions" labels have been taken out to the same height as Lincoln's traditional comfort and quietness, so that everyone knows that from the city to the top of the mountain, this car is enough.
In addition, the Lincoln Aviator 7-seat version of the full-road condition luxury "special aircraft" with vertical rear-drive; the Lincoln Aviator Atlantis version of the full-road condition luxury "yacht" with exclusive coral red and blackened kit are also given the label of "full road condition".
It is reported that this product empowerment from Ford's parent company will be the biggest change in Lincoln in product labels in recent years.
As Jia Mingdi said, in Lincoln's new global strategy, one of the directions is Sanctuary, that is, adhere to the original holy land of the soul and the best place of the soul; the second is exploration, providing users with a spiritual harbor when exploring life and their own hearts.
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Keep your original intention: Focus on users and not be eager for quick success and instant benefits
In the hustle and impetuousness of the market, Lincoln has always focused on user needs, adhered to an attitude of not being eager for quick success and instant benefits, and steadily promoted the development of the brand through value marketing.
For example, what consumers care about the most is price. Both of them are "double prices", Lincoln's purpose is not to increase discounts and short-term impact, but to solve the transparency of price comparison when consumers buy cars, that is, to use "price transparency" to avoid price differences caused by regions and different stores.
After Lincoln launched a fixed price, the nationwide unified price allowed consumers to no longer have to worry about bargaining, and the car purchase process became simpler and more transparent. Although this strategy may affect sales data in the short term, it improves consumers' trust and satisfaction with the brand in the long run - Lincoln's persistence in brand value can be seen from the pricing strategy alone.
In terms of brand development, Lincoln also seeks to move forward steadily. Jia Mingdi said: The Lincoln brand has always been not eager for quick success and has its own determination.
In the next 2-3 years, Lincoln will innovate and expand its existing products, strengthen the "full road conditions" label, and expand horizontal usage scenarios with user needs as the starting point. In terms of new energy, in addition to existing fuel models and electric hybrid models, more model choices will be provided.
The tree is good at being deeply rooted. In the fiercely competitive Chinese luxury car market, Lincoln demonstrated its unique brand charm and development resilience by stabilizing its foundation, expanding its product advantages and strategies around users.
Only by deep roots can we grow leaves. Lincoln's "stability" is not "persistence" that remains unchanged, but a dynamic process of persistence and continuous innovation, optimization and change.
Go with the flow, and hope that Lincoln can go more steadily and better in the next decade.
