To lead the Lincoln brand into a new design, sales, and powertrain era, Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley didn't tap a young upstart who is eager to combine their tech industry-heavy resume with a passion for cars. Instead, he leaned into an industry (and Lincoln Motor Company) veteran who has been an expert in dealing with the company's buyers, dealers, sales and product for the better part of five decades, Dianne Craig.
She started at Lincoln in October 1986 as a distribution analyst, fresh out of college where she had gotten a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the State University of New York at Fredonia.
That was only the beginning. Becoming president of the brand is her 20th position in the company. The common thread through every role has been the learning experiences Craig has been able to take from customers and apply along her pathway to the top office.
"I needed a job when I came out of college, and Ford was hiring. And I accidentally found my passion, because I love this business. I love this industry. I love the Ford Motor Company," Craig told Newsweek during a sit down in New York City ahead of the reveal of the brand's new Nautilus sport utility vehicle (SUV).
"The first place you start as a Ford college graduate in marketing and sales is calling on dealers. So, very early on my career ... I started calling on Lincoln dealers," she said. Craig held roles in the Memphis and Atlanta areas working directly with dealers in the late 80s and early 90s.
After a series of marketing and advertising roles, she became the general zone manager of the Great Lakes region for the company. That area includes the coveted Detroit metro. Those zone experiences taught her things that Craig has held onto throughout her career and into her time as Lincoln's brand head. She ran dealer relations from 2005 to 2009.
"I've always said that I've learned so much about this business calling on our retailers, I mean, they truly have taught me so much about this business," Craig explained. "I've been a marketing sales professional throughout most of my career, but I've had some really unique assignments that really have certainly helped me get to the point that I am today to really contribute specially in the role I'm in."
In Craig's tenure, she's expanded her reach beyond North America, working to run Lincoln's operations at nearly every point on the globe, learning along the way. "The last two years running our international markets group and serving over 100 countries for Ford was such an incredible opportunity for me. [I learned] from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, all our ASEAN markets, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam ... I went to Cambodia and covered our Middle East business. And certainly the India restructuring, I learned so much about customers."
Craig's career at Lincoln has spanned some of the auto industry and brand's highest highs and lowest lows. Her work started in an age where paper, pencil, corded push button phones and fax machines were the norm and has moved into the era of digital conferencing, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and online ordering.
During her tenure, Lincoln has morphed into a desirable premium brand thanks to the introduction of the current generation Navigator, and is on the cusp of a fresh generation of vehicles set to redefine the brand again.
"Over the past four decades, Lincoln has continued to innovate and experiment showcasing the intersection of luxury and design through its lineup," Ted Ryan, heritage brand manager and archivist at Ford Motor Company told Newsweek.
"With the introduction of the Lincoln Navigator in 1997 as a 1998 model year vehicle, Lincoln created the luxury SUV market with a vehicle that was as luxurious as it was stylish. Building off of this success, in the intervening decades, Lincoln has completely overhauled its portfolio with the addition of the Corsair, Nautilus, and Aviator for a perfect mix of luxury SUVs that continue to push the brand forward."
The motivation for pushing forward, for Craig, leans heavily on her years of experience with dealers, "One of the things I learned really early on is that the answers are in the marketplace, and our dealers are the closest to our customers. So whenever we work together on go-to-market strategies, whether that be product packaging, how we go to market on a launch ... everything [comes] down to our assets and what we provide to the dealers," she said.
In an era where boutique experience centers are sexier to talk about than dealerships, Craig believes that dealers are on the front lines and their experiences can be key to the brand's success, hand-in-hand with product.
"We have marketing dealer subcommittees, we have a dealer product committee... Ultimately, they are the face of the customer, right? And we need not only their support, but their buy-in early to the process," Craig said.
With digital lean-in from so many new automakers like Lucid, Tesla and Rivian, it's easy for customers to think that Ford and Lincoln may not be as in-tune with the online customer experience as they are.
"I think when you think about just digital tools and services... this is where I think our dealers are really such a strategic weapon for us," Craig said. "Whether or not you want that human interface, which many people still want that human interface... they want to do as much of their shopping online, from the comfort of their couch, if that's where they want to shop. And they want ease and convenience in the entire experience. So whether it's... [from] an ownership standpoint, from a service standpoint, it's like, just make it easy for me, make it effortless for me, make it transparent, meet me on my terms."
Those customers, whether Detroit-adjacent, or beyond, share commonalities, Craig has discovered during her years at the company.
"What I learned from my time running the international markets is that there is a common thread with customers. Wherever you may reside, they just want to be respected. That is not unique for a Chinese customer, versus a customer in North America, or the Middle East or South Korea, where we sell Lincolns today," she said.
I think there's a lot that we can learn from each of the markets. We learn from the China customer and some of the things that they've done - they they have what's called the Lincoln Way... that's become table stakes."
The Lincoln Way was established in 2014, the same year that the company enlisted Matthew McConaughey as the brand's spokesperson, when the automaker opened its first China showroom. Designed to cater to younger customers, the Lincoln Way is a combination of environment innovation (complete with a tea room), personalized technology (including a Personalization Studio) and an increased level of sales and service transparency.
Craig points out that many of the things about the Lincoln Way experience that work in China can be transferred into U.S. showrooms. And, the company is looking to create new test drive experiences based around shoppers' schedules, something Craig believes will give them a competitive advantage. She characterizes this as "test drive the lifestyle".
"How do you curate your own experience for that test drive? [It] can be a competitive advantage for us that [makes] customers say, 'Wow, I love this, right? I want to buy Lincoln.' So, I think there's a lot we can learn and leverage globally to best serve our customers."
Craig plans to service customers' needs by offering them products with a variety of powertrain options that are on par with, or even ahead of, the company's key competitors, like Infiniti and Lexus, as well as giving them new versions of the models that they're already familiar with, complete with fresh technology and design, like the Nautilus.
"I certainly have the incredible support of Jim Farley and the leadership team to making the next 100 years of Lincoln successful. I feel that support every day, which I'm grateful for. We've got our retailers that love the brand, really, truly just love the brand. They inspire me every day because of their passion. And that really does, you know, again, just make me so proud to be part of this brand," Craig said.
But, Craig recognizes that there's plenty of work to do as the landscape gets even more competitive coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and as powertrain electrification takes hold in mass quantities.
"Ultimately we've we've got to get our mojo back, as I say, because Lincoln's lost some volume in both markets over the last couple of years. I mean, there's been reasons for that, including certainly the COVID challenges we had in China... semiconductor constraints we had in the U.S., but you know, we got to get our mojo back, we got to grow.
We got to get our Lincoln swagger back and and we've got just the lineup to do that with all new Corsair and all new Nautilus and of course, we'll have more to say about the rest of our lineup. And, and that's exciting to me, that's exciting to me. So it's about growth for the brand. Absolutely. And it's about bringing compelling products to market that our customers love and experiences that no one else is offering."
Lincoln's portfolio evolution is underway, a move that will help it keep up with the competition set, which is rapidly moving toward electrification. "Lincoln is overhauling its core internal combustion engine portfolio, which should be completely refreshed or redesigned within the next 12-18 months," Paul Waatti, manager of industry insights at AutoPacifc, told Newsweek.
"The recently revealed Nautilus shows the brand is focusing on luxury and working toward moving upmarket.
"Lincoln has a big opportunity as it's revitalizing its portfolio to redefine its brand image and realign its portfolio. Nailing these near-term product executions is critical before dipping toes in the electric vehicle waters in the next few years."
