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,Ford keeps lead in Brand Loyalty but Porsche, GM Brands are big improvers


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Ford defended its top position in automotive brand loyalty for the first quarter of 2013, according to an analysis by Polk, a suburban Detroit research firm.

 

Polk reports that, on average, 52 percent of new-vehicle owners were repeat brand customers in the first quarter, up 2 percentage points from the first quarter of 2012. Ford brand held its top position, with 65 percent of customers returning to buy a new vehicle. Toyota (59 percent) and Honda (57 percent) brands followed.

Thirteen brands’ loyalty increased at higher rates than the industry average of 3 percentage points, with Porsche increasing the most -- by 10 percentage points -- followed by Cadillac and Mazda.

Notably, all General Motors marques made the list of brands with the highest increases, with Cadillac showing the largest improvement, 9 percentage points. Chevrolet had the most loyal customers of the four brands, putting it among the top five brands at 56 percent.

Lonnie Miller, vice president of Polk’s loyalty management practice, said brands such as Chevrolet, Toyota and Ford are excelling because they have a wide range of models from which customers can choose. Especially among lessees, customers who may no longer be interested in their current model will stay with a brand if they have a wider variety of vehicles to choose from, Miller said.

“Product rules when it comes to driving immediate short-term transaction loyalty,” Miller said.

Miller also pointed to affordability, availability and reward programs as reasons why customers come back. He said that even if a brand runs into problems, loyalty can increase if the situation is handled properly.

“If you overcome a failure, typically what happens is that that kind of relationship is even strengthened between you and the customer, because you overcame a bad experience and hopefully they’ve got the trust that you’ve got their back,” Miller said.

Dealers play a big part in building customer loyalty, Miller said. Not only do salespeople have to provide good customer service, but F&I managers -- who work with the customers at the end of the deal -- must be quick and efficient, he said.

“The dealership plays such a huge role because they’re not only presenting the product, presenting how they’ll treat the customer when they drive away, but they’re also presenting it from a competitive standpoint as well,” Miller said.

Polk’s data are based on new-vehicle registrations from all U.S. states and Washington, D.C. The firm released statistics only for brands that exceeded industry growth.

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Chrysler was 29.4% for 2012, no dta in article for first quarter of 2013

but here's infl from 2012 and 2011, Chrysler has a lot of making up to do...

 

 

LINK

The majority of domestic brands displayed a decrease in owner loyalty when compared to 2011. Chrysler Group is having greater success in conquest of owners from competitive brands rather than in the retention of their existing customers (there is also high migration between inner manufacturer brands, e.g., Chrysler, Dodge). General Motors is seeing heavy losses of its brand owners to Hyundai, Volkswagen and Subaru.

Even though Ford saw its brand loyalty rate decrease by 1 percentage point vs. 2011; it still continues to be the industry leader at 61.3%. Mercedes-Benz leads the industry from the luxury brand standpoint with loyalty of 58.6%.

The final brand loyalty rankings for 2012 are listed below:

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Edited by jpd80
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