Mao Jingbo steps down as a navigator, Lincoln continues to write her story

Mao Jingbo once said: "As long as there is light in the heart, all good things will come as scheduled." Now, with that beam of light, she rushed to the next sea of stars, leaving a warm Lincoln China, glowing with sparkling stars.

On September 27, Ford China announced that Zhu Meijun was appointed president of Lincoln China, reporting to Ford China President and CEO Chen Anning and Lincoln Global President Joy Falotico. The current president of Lincoln China, Mao Jingbo, has officially resigned from the company due to personal reasons.

Love to laugh, sweet voice, energetic, insightful, this is the impression many people have of Mao Jingbo.

The last time I saw Mao Jingbo was at the Lincoln booth of the Chengdu Auto Show in August this year, at the press conference of "New Era, New Navigator, New Peak". Mao Jingbo made an appearance with the Navigator One, a limited-edition model with an exclusive Supreme Purple and Fanhai Blue two-tone body. It is said that it is derived from the cultural association of ancient China’s "purple gas coming from the east".

Four years in office and three years of epidemic, Mao Jingbo and his team have promoted the localization of Lincoln. Focusing on the needs of young Chinese luxury car consumers, he successfully launched four domestic models within two years, making Lincoln one of the fastest growing luxury brands with annual sales of 100,000 vehicles, creating the "Lincoln phenomenon". At the same time, as Chen Anning summed up, during her tenure as President of Lincoln China, she accelerated the transformation of Lincoln’s brand, launched a new brand value proposition of "luxury has its own way", integrated Chinese and Western cultures, created a new American luxury style, and through continuous innovation, promoted the development of product intelligence, digitalization of experience and network modernization, and drove the "Lincoln Way" customer experience into the 2.0 era.

Lincoln has not yet succeeded, but he is already on the road to success. Because of this, public opinion has expressed consternation and concern about Mao Jingbo’s sudden departure.

Some people say that Mao Jingbo led Lincoln’s revival in the past few years, just China’s consumption upgrade, luxury car market growth dividend period, 100,000 cars will be more difficult to go up, Mao Jingbo chose to retire when he became famous, although the preservation of the personal brand, but may lead to Lincoln brand stall; some people say that when Mao Jingbo joined Lincoln China, it coincided with the stage that he had not yet formed a brand system and product labels in China, which is Mao Jingbo’s best work, now Lincoln brand in the face of new energy transformation needs a new comb, how to leave Mao Jingbo’s Lincoln to continue writing the American luxury story in the new automobile era?

For building the Lincoln brand, Mao Jingbo has always believed in the power of long-termism, and we believe that this power will accompany the subsequent development of the Lincoln brand.

For example, during her tenure, she constantly emphasized the "three principles" of reviving the Lincoln brand, namely adhering to the brand positioning of American luxury, adhering to the user experience of Lincoln Way, and adhering to value marketing to drive market operations. This has allowed the Lincoln brand to avoid the traps of some luxury car domestic production in China, and to achieve a real increase in volume and price. Even under the impact of the epidemic and the shortage of chips and other supply chain crises, Lincoln still maintained an impressive growth rate in the luxury brand team, and the average brand transaction price was around 400,000 yuan – a figure comparable to BBA. The "three principles" helped Lincoln stabilize the brand value, which laid a solid foundation for its long-term development in China.

In a way, the "Lincoln phenomenon" does not depend on how good the sales are and how lofty the marketing is, but on the uniqueness of Lincoln’s excellent product, service and brand power. As a senior media senior said before, it is more important for Lincoln to do his own thing in China than anything else. On this point, everyone from Mao Jingbo to global president Fan Zhaoyi has reached a consensus that "Lincoln is not the biggest, nor the first, but to be different." This will also be the tone of Lincoln China’s future development.

Lincoln continued to write the "she" path, and the baton has passed to Zhu Meijun.

As a veteran of Ford China, Zhu Meijun has been with Ford for 27 years. He has held management positions in Ford Motor Asia Pacific and Ford Liuhe Company, CEO of Mazda Motor Taiwan, and Vice President of Marketing for Changan Ford National Sales and Service Organization. Before taking over as President of Lincoln China, Zhu Meijun served as Executive Vice President of Lincoln China, mainly responsible for sales, after-sales services and network development of the Lincoln brand in China.

With the efforts of Zhu Meijun and his team, the sales of the Lincoln brand have achieved rapid growth. In 2021, the sales volume exceeded 90,000 units, achieving a year-on-year increase of nearly 50%; and the comprehensive renovation of the Lincoln brand’s dealer sales and service network has been promoted. In 2021, the Lincoln brand won the first place in the 2021 China Sales and Service Satisfaction Study released by an authoritative domestic consumer research agency. Chen Anning said that Ford hopes that Zhu Meijun can give full play to her deep understanding of the Chinese auto market, especially the luxury car market, closely focus on "consumer-centered", continue to subvert herself, continue to innovate, and bring the development of the Lincoln brand to a new height.

As Mao Jingbo put it in an interview with the media before, "Even though the luxury car market has been thriving after the epidemic, the changes are actually greater than ever, and there are countless uncertainties and countless new challenges." Today’s luxury car market is increasingly inward, Porsche, Lotus, Maserati ultra-luxury teams have pushed down the brand threshold, BBA is killing to death in the already fierce mainstream luxury market, Wei Xiaoli and other new car-making forces have entered the mainstream consumption range of luxury brands with their intelligent and accurate product positioning. Under the competition, not every second-tier luxury brand can continue to share the growth cake. However, with the acceleration of electrification and intelligence, Lincoln, together with other luxury brand leaders, will once again stand on a new starting line. This time, what kind of era story will the century-old American luxury continue to write? Undoubtedly full of expectations.

A true leader knows how to withstand the unchangeable with endurance, and refresh the changeable with courage. Not extreme, not rigid, stay correct and innovative, forge ahead in the direction and path you love, and finally reach the realm of excellence. For an individual, it takes a lifetime; for a brand, it has to go through a hundred years of wind and rain.

Lincoln has pulled into the overtaking lane, and it’s up to Zhu Meijun to make things better.