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Starting this month, Polk customers that license this data will see data enhancements that provide increased African American representation, supporting continued growth of that consumer segment. African Americans account for nearly seven percent of all vehicle purchases annually.
In addition, Polk customers will have access to more detailed sub-culture identification within its Hispanic American consumer data, an industry-first, including the opportunity to evaluate auto purchasing behaviors among 21 Hispanic sub-cultures, including Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban and Dominican Republic. The addition of these sub-cultures provides automotive marketers strategic opportunities to confidently develop more definitive campaigns for specific Hispanic audiences to drive business within these communities.
Combined growth of the volume of vehicles purchased by the ethnic community in the U.S. increased 22 percent from 2011 to 2012, according to Polk, while the overall market grew just 14 percent. Overall, ethnic buyers represented one in five (21 percent) new vehicle purchases in the U.S. in 2012, and automakers are placing increased emphasis on marketing initiatives with different ethnic groups nationwide.
Polk partners regularly with marketing and advertising decision makers who work to help manufacturers, dealers and media agencies create strategies to reach the growing diversity markets in the U.S., including Hispanic American, African American, and Asian American.
Ethnic share is as high as 30 percent for several automotive brands. The expansion of Polk’s ethnic solutions will enable these OEMs and others to continue growing market share with this important segment of consumers, while building on their current activities.
“Based on Polk’s ethnic forecast, we’re projecting increased market share among ethnic buyers of 2.5 percentage points between now and 2016,” says Marc Bland, head of diversity and inclusion at Polk. “Based on the current and expected growth, we’re working with our customers to provide the most comprehensive data and insight to enable them to maximize retail advertising and marketing investments.”
Polk has provided sub-culture data for African American, Asian, Eastern European, Eurasian, Middle Eastern, Pacific Islander and Western European audiences for a number of years. This insight enables users to discover areas of opportunity for new and used vehicle sales, including the top performing markets and underperforming markets for any make, model or vehicle segment by one or more ethnic group. In addition, Polk’s solutions incorporate a number of insightful options, including:
· DMA Share Comparison, to help OEMs and dealers evaluate their performance in core markets;
· Multicultural Loyalty, which identifies the most popular vehicles among ethnic groups returning to market;
· Conquest and Defection Analysis, allowing discovery of top conquest and defections by model and/or demographic group based on make or model level, nationally or by DMA, or multicultural customers compared to the general market;
· Share of Garage Analysis, which can be reported on a make or model level, nationally or by DMA or comparing ethnic or gender-specific groups to the general market; and
· Gender Analysis, a simple, yet discerning, analysis of what men and women are buying, including new and used vehicles, along with other analyses.
For additional details on these and other solutions from Polk, visit Polk's Automotive Retail Solutions and Commercial Vehicle teams at the NADA/ATD Convention & Expo at the Orange County Convention Center, booth #242, in Orlando Feb. 9-11.
About Polk
Polk is the premier provider of automotive information and marketing solutions. The organization collects and interprets global data, and provides extensive automotive business expertise to help customers understand their market position, identify trends, build brand loyalty, conquest new business and gain a competitive advantage. Polk helps automotive manufacturers and dealers, automotive aftermarket companies, finance and insurance companies, advertising agencies, media companies, consulting organizations, government agencies and market research firms make good business decisions. A privately held global firm, Polk is based in Southfield, Michigan, with operations in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. For more information, please visit www.polk.com.
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