Automotive Industry Celebrates Polk Automotive Loyalty Winners

DETROIT--Jan. 18, 2014: Thirty-three winners were recognized for automotive loyalty and conquest during the Polk Automotive Loyalty Awards presented by IHS Automotive. The winners were honored during the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit this evening in conjunction with the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS).

“OEM marketing teams are increasingly focused on discrete audience targeting directed towards loyalists vs. conquests for each vehicle line, and our loyalty awards program provides fact-based recognition for these efforts.”

Winners were named in eight featured categories during the event. Included were recognition for ethnic loyalty to make among various audiences; overall manufacturer and make; most improved; and two awards recognizing conquest in the auto industry, including highest percentage of conquest registrations and most improved conquest percentage of registrations. In addition, 25 segment-level loyalty winners were announced, many of which are repeat winners from previous years.

“Conquesting is being closely followed by OEMs and dealers alike as they seek to improve market share and win customers from competing brands,” said Jeffrey Anderson, director of loyalty and source of sales solutions at Southfield, Mich.-based IHS Automotive, a division of research and analytics firm IHS. “In addition, the auto industry is focusing marketing efforts on improving consumer loyalty at the dealer and OEM level as the rebound from the recent industry recession continues.”

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. The Polk Automotive Loyalty Awards are presented annually to OEMs and brands that demonstrate a manufacturer’s ability to retain owners over repeat buying cycles.

IHS Automotive tracks owner loyalty throughout the year and regularly works with its customers to effectively manage owner loyalty and conquest efforts through in-depth analysis of automotive shopping behaviors, related market influencers and development of retention and conquest strategies. This year’s awards are based on an analysis of more than 7.4 million new vehicle registrations during the 2013 model year, which ran from Oct. 1, 2012 through Sept. 30, 2013.

“It is truly exciting to see OEMs leveraging performance analytics not only for automotive Loyalty, but for all sources of sales at both the market and dealer levels,” said Edouard Tavernier, senior vice president at IHS Automotive. “OEM marketing teams are increasingly focused on discrete audience targeting directed towards loyalists vs. conquests for each vehicle line, and our loyalty awards program provides fact-based recognition for these efforts.”

A complete list of 2013 Model Year Loyalty Awards by category is as follows:

* Vehicle Segment winners are listed based on segment share of the market from highest to lowest.