We know that loyal customers are recommending our brands to others; that they are requesting and repurchasing our brands over those of competitors; and that they are beginning to upgrade their appliances because they trust the innovation and value that our brands deliver.

Initiatives that lead to higher levels of customer loyalty, such as our innovation process, result in improved revenue growth, margin expansion and trade support for our brands. Because innovation is such an important driver of customer loyalty, we are expanding our efforts to transfer innovation capabilities and skills to employees everywhere. Innovation is ingrained in the Whirlpool culture, with employees from around the world trained and actively involved in innovation initiatives.

Another key aspect of customer loyalty involves the experiences that touch customers before, during and long after the initial purchase. Each of our brands is putting in place a complete set of experiences – including brand advertising, the in-store purchase, call center interactions and ongoing customer communications – that will help forge lifelong relationships with our customers.

Within our operations, every person and function has a role to play in building customer loyalty. For example, each operation is taking the company's Six-Sigma quality improvement process to a higher level by first placing the needs of the customer at the center of every function – such as manufacturing, technology, marketing and administrative support – and then driving down all unnecessary costs. Resources that become available through this enterprise-wide effort are reinvested in new initiatives that are focused squarely on improving the brand experiences of our customers.