Lincoln dealership personnel making house calls bring more than just smiles and sales brochures.
They also tote an assortment of visuals and tactile samples from Lincoln’s Black Label collection, a series of upmarket interior packages offered by Ford’s premium auto brand.
The “portable showroom” case allows sales consultants to show as well as tell, says Melissa Centra, CEO of Eview 360, a design firm that created the carry-along that resembles a metallic brief case.
In addition to holding colorful metal tubes containing the tactile samples of high-end materials, such as Alcantara suede and Eagle Ottawa leather, the demonstration case also comes with a computer tablet so consultants’ presentations can go deep digitally.
Centra calls it “a lovely portfolio case that reflects the quality of the brand.”
The firm also designed a showroom within a showroom featuring the Black Label packages (“Center Stage,” “Indulgence,” “Modern Heritage” and “Oasis”) at Lincoln dealerships.
“We collaborated with our customer to introduce an experience that fully differentiated Black Label,” Centra says.
The design initiative for Black Label “studios” in Lincoln dealerships extended to furniture and fixture selections that are intended “to complement the vehicles,” she says.
Eview 360’s work includes exhibit design. In one such project, the firm created the Geneva auto-show exhibit for the debut of the Maserati Levante, the luxury Italian automaker’s first CUV.
A good auto-show exhibit is striking “but doesn’t compete with the vehicle on display,” Centra says.
Her firm also offered design services for Lincoln’s 57 dealerships in China, a country in which Lincoln has high sales expectations, as do several other automotive luxury brands.
Dealership appearances in China are “very different” than in the U.S., Centra says. For example, cars in Lincoln’s Chinese showrooms are highly visible to people outside. That’s accomplished by large windows and strong lighting.
In China, “the focus is on hospitality, service and a luxury experience the moment the customer enters or drives by a Lincoln dealership,” says Centra.
She notes her company is not an architectural firm, but rather works closely with architects at the front end of projects.
