• Ad Age , Friday, August 1, 2008 11:15 AM

In a cost-cutting move, Ford is consolidating sales and marketing for its Lincoln Mercury arm with the rest of the Ford Division and will align the staff by product type rather than by brand, according to two executives close to the automaker. Ford traditionally had an executive overseeing all three brands for North America, but maintained separate sales and marketing groups for Ford along with Lincoln Mercury.

Ford reportedly announced new assignments and positions internally on Tuesday. The key moves are: Company veteran Brett Wheatley, who in February was named general marketing manager for Lincoln Mercury, moves to the customer incentives group; and Tom Grill, Lincoln brand manager, moves to the global marketing group under Anne Belec, director of Ford's global marketing.

Among the casualties is Mark Kaline, Ford's high-profile global media manager, who confirms he left this week after 11 years. Kaline, board chairman of ANA's TV Committee, says "none of the separations were performance-related" and that he has "never worked with more dedicated, hard-working people."

Read the whole story at Ad Age »