Lincoln Mark Series - Historical Background and Branding

Historical Background and Branding

Before there were series of "Continental Mark", "Lincoln Continental Mark", "Lincoln Mark", or "Lincoln MK" models, there were various models built by the Ford organization employing the name "Continental". These began in the 1930s with a one-off car, a custom personal car that ended up serving the function of a concept car, which Edsel Ford directed his designers to create. It began with the existing design of the Lincoln-Zephyr and was modified extensively. It was called the "Continental" because it was meant to capture an essence of Continental European luxury. This first car led to a production model, the first of the "Lincoln Continental" series, which was built from 1939 to 1948.

When the "Continental" name was revived in 1955, it was branded as a separate division brand (absent of Lincoln branding), and the new model was called the Continental Mark II, where the "Mark II" was simply an instance of the naming convention of "mark number", meaning "version number" or "model number", also seen earlier in other series of machinery models, including artillery, tanks, naval vessels, and aircraft. In such series, the word "Mark" is often abbreviated as "Mk" or "MK". The name was thus equivalent in original meaning to simply "Continental, version 2" or "Continental, model B", although the name "Mark" later took on a brand-like feel of its own in the minds of many customers, which Lincoln's branding efforts then expanded upon. The new Continental, the Mark II, was one of the most exclusive and expensive automobiles made at the time.

When the Continental brand was merged back into the Lincoln brand in 1958, the Lincoln Continental became the flagship model, while the Mark continued to be sold as the Continental Mark. The Mark kept the Continental prefix until the introduction of a smaller Continental for 1982, becoming simply the Mark VII for 1984. The Mark VIII (1993–1998) was the last generation of the Mark and Lincoln's last personal luxury car.

Except for the 1958–1960 Continental Mark models and the 1980–1983 Mark VI 4-door sedan, the Marks were exclusively 2-door coupes.

The branding of the various models was never clear-cut by today's brand management standards. For much of the series' lifespan, the Mark models were a coupe-only subset of the Continental 2- and 4-door (coupe and sedan) models. Despite the Continental division's merging back into Lincoln, the Marks (until Mark VII) were not identified as Lincolns except with the four-pointed star logo, which was known as the "Continental Star", actually originating from the Continental brand itself. The badges, identification plates, and factory paperwork do not bear the name "Lincoln", but the Lincoln-Mercury dealership is where customers went to buy one or have it serviced. To Ford senior management, the various models were all under the umbrella of the Lincoln-Mercury Division, although in the theatrics of branding, the association was alternately downplayed and reemphasized over the years.