Ford Motor Co. took top honors for the second year in a row during the 16th annual Polk Automotive Loyalty Awards, presented last week at the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit.
Ford was a repeat winner in several categories, including: Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer; Overall Loyalty to Make; African-American Market Loyalty to Make; and Mid/Full-Size Pickup for its F-Series truck lineup, which has been honored in that category 14 out of the past 16 years.
Loyalty is determined when a household that owns a new vehicle returns to market and purchases or leases another new vehicle of the same model or make. Polk tracks owner loyalty throughout the year and regularly works with customers to effectively manage owner loyalty through in-depth analysis of automotive shopping behaviors, related market influencers and development of retention strategies.
The 2011 awards are based on an analysis of 5.5 million return-to-market events during the 2011 model year. The model year ran from Oct. 1, 2010 through Sept. 30, 2011.
This year’s awards also recognized several OEMs as repeat winners across a variety of categories.
“OEMs are paying increasingly close attention to loyalty as the industry begins to rebound,” said Stephen Polk, chairman, president and CEO of Polk. “Together with some of the retention programs manufacturers have put in place, and several new product launches in the past few years, there are a lot of exciting options in showrooms for consumers who are in the market for new vehicles.”
Even though industry volumes have been down the past few years, loyalty rates have continued to increase.
“It’s clear that keeping customers is an integral part of the business strategy at the OEM and dealer levels,” said Smith. “In addition, a renewed emphasis on ethnic marketing has improved loyalty to the brand and manufacturer.”
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