By Mike Ramsey
DETROIT ? Ford Motor Co. got people to ?drive one,? and now they?ve been successful at convincing them to drive ?another one.?
Back in 2008, Ford launched a new tagline, Drive One, designed to get people who had been turned off by the brand to give them a chance. The evidence is that people did, and now are sticking with the brand in a greater percentage than any brand in the industry. It worked so well that Ford changed its marketing tag line to ?Go Further? in 2012.
According to Polk Automotive, which tracks registration data for vehicles, the Ford brand had the highest loyalty rate of any brand among consumers in 2012. Polk has been handing out a loyalty award for 17 years. The firm?s data is the best means of tracking consumer behavior because it can tell which households have vehicles from a certain brand and which ones continue to stay in the brand after a new vehicle is purchased.
The study tracks buyers who have at least one car at home but purchased a new vehicle in 2012. The buyer doesn?t have to turn in their existing vehicles, it only tracks whether the same brand is chosen as one the buyer already has.
Ford?s loyalty rate for the brand is 61%. For Ford Motor Co., which includes Lincoln, it is 62%. The industry average is 48%.
?You want to get that brand affiliation with customers. It costs more to conquest a customer than it does to retain a customer,? said David Smith, the director of loyalty management at Polk, which presented an award to Ford Tuesday. ?Fewer dollars spent on conquesting means higher profitability.?
From 2005 through 2009, Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp.?s namesake brands dominated the category for buyers coming back to the brand after owning a vehicle. During that period, Toyota and Honda also reached new heights in market share as Ford and other U.S. brands struggled financially.
In 2010 it flipped to Ford and the Dearborn, Mich.-based auto maker has kept the mantle since.
With millions of vehicles on the road from every manufacturers, keeping people in the brand at a higher percentage leads to higher sales.
Chrysler Group LLC, which went through a government orchestrated bankruptcy and is now controlled by Italy?s Fiat SpA, has been increasing its loyalty, but still is far behind Ford.
Just 29% of Chrysler buyers stayed in the brand in 2012. Dodge kept 37.5% and Jeep kept 37%.
The quality of the experience with a brand?s vehicles is important, but just as important is what new vehicles are being offered by a particular brand, Smith said.
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