Looking back at the development of the automobile for a hundred years, the definition behind luxury has never been a single explanation, but luxury includes a comprehensive experience of brand, culture, history, products, services, etc. Choosing a model, first because of the product and pay attention to the brand, and then be loyal to the brand because of service.
The word "luxury" looks simple, but it contains a lot of content, and different brands have different definitions of luxury. For example, Mercedes-Benz believes that luxury is "professional endorsement and ingenuity", always emphasizing that they are the inventors of the car, hoping to inject the history of the brand into the way of luxury; or BMW has pulled the sports attribute to the full grid, attracting loyal fans with its luxurious sports style.
But when it comes to talking about which car brand's interpretation of luxury is the most impressive, I don't think there is any other brand besides Lincoln that can remind people of it and answer it in an instant.
Since entering China in 2014, the Lincoln brand has not only brought pure American products, but also created the industry's premier customer experience benchmark with excellent "Lincoln Way" customer experience. China has been a country of etiquette since ancient times, "Lincoln's Way" and Oriental etiquette culture coincide to some extent, both pay more attention to human experience, and now "Lincoln's Way" has been iteratively upgraded to "Lincoln's Way 2.0", once again refreshing the customer experience benchmark.
In order to "find luxury", I drove hundreds of kilometers to the new Lincoln Way Experience Center in Wanming, Shaoxing, to explore the "Lincoln Way".
American luxury Reveal delicate feelings everywhere in self-confidence
Kotler, the "father of marketing" in the United States, once gave a very classic example: Do people really need an electric drill? What people need is not an electric drill, but a hole in the wall; what people need is not a hole in the wall, but to hang a photo on the wall; what people need is not to hang a photo on the wall, but to remember the good life.
This example looks simple, but it clearly illustrates the relationship between demand and marketing. We are not marketing masters, only from a superficial level, people's understanding of luxury is mostly manifested in exquisite design, luxurious materials, thoughtful service and so on. For Lincoln, in this part of the people without me, people have me is naturally not too big a problem, but when all the brand experience centers began to pursue "shallow luxury", it is not only these that test a luxury brand.
Coming to the door of Shaoxing Wanming's new Lincoln Way Experience Center, I did not disclose the purpose of the trip, directly from the door to the inside, the two staff members took the initiative to open the glass door, like a housekeeper kind greeting: Welcome to Lincoln Center as a guest. This is fundamentally different from other luxury brands, and the opening words of most brand centers are: Hello, see the car? Just 5 words, has been the position of the two opposites, may not usually feel that there is anything abrupt, after all, to the store is indeed to see the car, but Lincoln is always his own way to make people feel different American luxury.
In other words, the new Lincoln Way Experience Center is not simply a place for customers to admire cars, test drive, and trade, but also a place to socialize, or even a place to co-create. Under such a premise, when the customer comes in, instead of asking what car to see and how much budget it has, it first asks what they want to drink and what to play.
Unlike other brands, in addition to the exclusive experience of double-door welcome, Lincoln Center also created its own star-mounted catwalk. The booth at the entrance is lined with Lincoln's most popular star model, and when customers enter the door, the star car will be slowly turned to the entrance with smart atmosphere lights to welcome with an elegant posture.
In fact, every customer who comes here should have a target model in their hearts, so for different people, it doesn't matter what model is on the catwalk, don't see it as a strong marketing, just feel the ritual of Lincoln's Way.
If entering the new Lincoln Way Experience Center has made the "Lincoln Way" show some special, then in the Lincoln Walk of Fame car appreciation, in the ingenuity of the custom space digital customized models, it is more and more revealing that the "Lincoln Way" has a deeper understanding of luxury and service.
In the service concept of Lincoln Way, the word "exclusive" is mentioned very frequently, and they believe that exclusive services, exclusive channels, and exclusive needs are meaningful. It is worth mentioning that any staff member of Lincoln Center pays attention to the sense of distance when accompanying, which is in a communication distance and does not deliberately disturb, so that customers are fully immersed in the process of car appreciation and relaxation.
Speaking of which, I must mention Classmate Z at lincoln experience centers! As a member of Gen Z, Z students can "mingle" with the young car owners who come to experience. Taking "interest socialization" as the starting point, Z students play lincoln Z with the owner, fully feel its high appearance, intelligent "black technology" and full of rituals, and watching the car is no longer a boring thing. Z students are not only the content sharing officers of in-store activities, but also can take customers to "cloud" to see cars through online methods such as live broadcasting, and personalized immersive experiences arouse customer interest and establish emotional resonance.
In addition to the exclusivity of services, the digital customization of online and offline boundless interconnection is also a detail emphasized by the "Lincoln Way". In Lincoln's newly created ingenious customization space, customers can not only slide on the IPAD to digitally configure their own models, but also generate personalized videos and share them with friends; next to them are placed a variety of interior fabrics, colors, paints, etc. If you want to customize the color and configuration of the exhibition car, in addition to looking at the printed manual, you can also see the effect of the physical object in different lights, so as to open up the luxurious customization experience online and offline.
Here is a separate mention of all the operable screens of Lincoln, which in addition to the function of the area itself, are built-in ordering system, that is to say, whether it is in the ingenious custom space to customize the interior materials of the car, or in the Lincoln brand time machine to feel the luxurious weight, you can order a cup of "Lincoln special" or dessert, all the system is open inside, so that the Lincoln Way Experience Center truly becomes a multi-functional place that takes into account leisure and entertainment, relaxation, car viewing and so on.
Co-creation experience in a luxury club
The "Lincoln Way" service concept has never been more than sales, or sales are the beginning of service. At the shaoxing wanming new Lincoln way experience center, I deeply understood this.
Therefore, Lincoln has left a lot of space for customers to co-create and share. This is very different from other luxury brands, including Mercedes-Benz and BMW, whose showroom layout is mostly based on cars, and the car is presented in the center of the entire showroom, while the new Lincoln Way Experience Center completely leaves the C position to the customer, trying to reflect the hardware design of the showroom to the vertical space, so as to leave a wider horizontal space blank, making people feel uninhibited subjectively.
For example, entering the new Lincoln Way Experience Center from the outside, there is a large area of water wall after pushing open the door, in traditional Chinese culture, water means beautiful and quiet; for example, the lincoln brand time machine mentioned earlier, the interior materials and paint color walls in the ingenious custom space have played a good role in the three-dimensional space.
On the other hand, the huge space behind the café is completely reserved for users, including participating in the co-creation process of Lincoln leather goods, co-working at Lincoln SOHO, and so on. There was even a piano, and although I couldn't hear the pleasant sound of the piano on the day of the visit, fortunately, I also had some skills, and I could show the longboard while experiencing the Lincoln way.
In fact, Lincoln Center's huge co-creation shared space design is inspired by the layout style of the American luxury club, this space is a social open place, people can take a coffee or special drink freely to talk, you can also in some of the surrounding independent areas to deal with private affairs or work, everything seems to be less related to the "car", here can appear not limited to any element of Lincoln.
Even in the fashion living space, Lincoln specially placed a workbench, so that customers can co-create some leather goods, in the process of experience, while adding personalized style, you can also feel Lincoln's elegance and rigor of leather selection.
Weakening the attributes of the "car" is one of the important components of the "Lincoln Way".
Of course, if you're looking forward to a quiet and comfortable private environment, there's a separate lounge space behind the Lincoln Experience Center, My Space, which has a multi-purpose massage chair, and even Herway Space, where ladies can do manicures, yoga, and more while resting. At this point, I am fully convinced that so many people choose Lincoln in large part because of the "Lincoln Way." The "Lincoln Way" is also an important differentiator between Lincoln and other luxury brands. I think that perhaps the "Lincoln Way" is also one of the important reasons why the Lincoln brand's customer stickiness is so high.
Master observation
After this visit, I sincerely believe that the "Lincoln Way" has become a unique differentiated competitive advantage of the Lincoln brand. As Anning Chen, President and CEO of Ford China, said, "The Lincoln Way is the way to support Lincoln's rapid growth and success. "Lincoln's service philosophy combines the philosophical expression of tranquility and far-reaching in Chinese culture, but also meets the needs of American clubs for social and individual expression. Oriental culture and American luxury complement each other, through different dimensions to let customers perceive the charm of the Lincoln brand, thereby enhancing the reputation of brand products, while attracting more and more potential customers to pay attention, to help Lincoln maintain a unique style in the fierce market competition.