Surprising Facts about Automotive WOM
by John Moore TalkTrack Conversationalist, November 15, 2010Tags: Automotive, Brands, Conversation Catalysts, Influencers, Keller Fay Group, offline, online, Social media, TalkTrack®, WOM, word of mouth
This is the second in a series of posts sharing Keller Fay TalkTrack® analysis on word of mouth in the automotive industry. The information shared below is from a comprehensive two-year study of nearly 100,000 brand-related conversations Americans have had offline and online about cars.
Did you know . . . 35% of Americans have at least one brand-related conversation about cars every day.
Of course you did, you read the first post in this series. Seriously, according to Keller Fay research, Americans have over 42 BILLION conversations about the automotive industry every year.
Did you know . . . almost 50% of all conversations Americans have about the automotive category involve four specific brands: Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, and Honda. There is definitely a long tail distribution effect with these conversations. Brands like Jaguar, Suzuki, and Volvo are at the other end of the long tail with, comparatively speaking, fewer mentions in conversations.
Because there are 42 BILLION brand-related conversations about cars, even the least mentioned car brands get talked about a lot. For example, Keller Fay data reveals Suzuki is mentioned 0.35% of the time when Americans talk about cars. That small percentage actually equates to about 150,000 yearly mentions in word of mouth conversations. (Of course, Suzuki pales in comparison to the 7.8 billion yearly mentions Ford receives in yearly word of mouth conversations about cars.)
Did you know . . . BMW, Mercedes Benz, and Lexus are the car brands influencers are most likely to talk about.
Conversation Catalysts™, those who disproportionately share advice within their large social circle, are more likely to talk about upscale brands than domestic brands. Upscale imports are sexy cars to talk about because they are about delivering cool style and fast performance. In other words, upscale import brands bring something unique to the automotive category and that uniqueness sparks conversations from influencers such as the Conversation Catalysts™ Keller Fay tracks in its research.
Did you know . . . Nearly 50% of all conversations Americans have about cars take place in someone’s home. Furthermore, 72% of these conversations involve just two people. This data tells marketers discussions about cars are, for the most part, intimate and informational. When Americans talk about cars it’s with personal passion/pride and the conversation can get deep into the details. For marketers, it’s important to tailor messaging used in traditional advertising and non-traditional advertising to give people reasons to share why they are passionate about cars and give them detailed information so they can tell others what makes a car truly unique.
Did you know . . . Women find car-buying advice from Men to be more credible than advice from other Women. According to Keller Fay data, 72% of all advice about cars comes from Men. More interestingly, as the chart below shares, the car advice Women receive from Men is viewed as not only credible/believable but also leads to greater purchase intent. The implication from this statistic is while marketers are positioning more advertising messages to appeal to Women car buyers, Men still play an important role in the decision-making process Women have in buying a car.
Did you know . . . Keller Fay has much more data on the conversations Americans have about cars. In the next post, we will discuss the impact the recent Auto Crisis, Industry Bailout, and Well-Publicized Recalls have had on word of mouth conversations.
Feed
