Ford Motor Company''s leadership in the U.S. full-size pickup market for nearly 30 years can be traced primarily to one thing, according to auto analyst David Cole. Ford knows the people who drive them.

Over the decades Ford has delivered on the top needs and wants of truck customers, including capability, power, durability and dependability. And as truckers demanded more from their pickups, Ford responded.

For example, keen consumer insight helped Ford lead the personal-use trend among truck buyers when it emerged a few years ago with such offerings as the popular Harley-Davidson and King Ranch F-150 models while assuring the trucks were still "Built Ford Tough." Both models were later expanded to the Super Duty lineup. This year, the company expects the upscale King Ranch to exceed total sales of more than 25,000.

Ford continues to lead the full-size pickup segment, selling 725,459 F-Series trucks through November, about 142,000 more than the runner-up Chevy Silverado.

Now, the company is leveraging key alliances to gain even deeper knowledge of the growing demands of pickup truck customers. NASCAR, college and pro football, country music star Toby Keith, the Professional Bull Riders, Cabela''s and the American Quarter Horse Association are among those with which Ford has marketing and sponsorship ties.

Typically, Ford product displays, activities and product specialists are peppered throughout alliance events. The company uses these venues, teeming with true truckers, to glean valuable information.

"The key is going out and living, breathing, working and playing with your customers, so you understand their true unmet needs and put those into the product," explained Todd Eckert, Ford Truck marketing manager.

Ford Truck Group Marketing Manager Ben Poore says his recent trip to a convention of the National FFA Organization -- formerly the Future Farmers of America -- proved particularly invaluable. While demonstrating the industry''s first integrated Tailgate Step on the new 2008 F-Series Super Duty, a handful off the 58,000 youths attending the convention told Poore how they customized their pickup truck beds.

"Their comments gave me some ideas for how I might be able to work with engineers on ways to put more features in the back of our truck beds," he said. "By getting out and mingling with truck buyers, you get a deep understanding of what they need in a truck. You can''t buy that in a focus group."

The Ford dealers'' customer insight is a significant competitive advantage, and the automaker regularly taps their local market expertise. The F-150 FX2 model, new for 2007, is a good example, says Doug Scott, Ford Truck Group, product planning and marketing manager.

"Our dealers in the Sun Belt said they really liked the look and refinement of the FX4 model when it debuted with the current F-150 in late 2003. However, they didn''t have many buyers for four-wheel-drive trucks, but thought there was a good market for a two-wheel-drive version," Scott said. "Now, we offer it." Dealer feedback from many markets, including Texas, led to another change to F-150 for 2007. The pickup box on SuperCrew (four-door) models is now available in a 6-1/2 feet length, as well as the standard 5-1/2 feet box.

Scott says the key was dealers telling the company that many of their SuperCrew customers didn''t want to compromise box length for "garageability". For these customers, the capability advantage for both personal and work use is too important to trade off. Dealers in markets such as Texas, Southern California, and the Southeast are ordering 30 percent of their SuperCrews with the longer box option. Ford initially built boxes a foot shorter on four-door models to address potential concerns.

Despite new full-size pickup entries from Toyota and GM in the coming months and added competition from Nissan, Ford has no intentions of losing customers to competitive models in this 2.3 million-unit segment.

In late September, Ford revealed its next-generation Super Duty lineup that includes a F-450 pickup, a new clean-diesel engine and a host of innovative features, such as the Integrated Tailgate step and the industry''s first power-fold and power-telescoping side mirrors.

Sometime in mid-2008, Ford will introduce a new F-150, the highest-volume truck in Ford''s F-Series lineup. The company has yet to release details of the new pickup, but Scott says a continuing focus on power, package and presence, along with capability, will be evident in the new truck.

"We have more innovative features on the way to meet the needs of full-size truck customers, in addition to building on the equity of ''Built Ford Tough,'' " said Scott.

"Every day our customers are testing the maximum capability of F-Series trucks, and we have to continue to deliver," said Eckert. "If you stop improving the product or make compromises, word will quickly spread. We have done neither -- and we won''t."