The Impact Of Blogs On The Automotive Shopping Process
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The document discusses how blogs impact the automotive shopping process. It finds that while new vehicle prospects visit personal blogs significantly less than portals, the reach of personal blogs in aggregate is similar to major sites. It also finds that prospects' blog activities vary by vehicle segment. The document concludes automakers must find ways to participate in the blogosphere and engage with prospects there through listening and discussion rather than one-way advertising messages.
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The Impact Of Blogs On The Automotive Shopping Process
- 1. The Impact of Blogs on the Automotive Shopping Process Gene Cameron Vice President, Marketing/Media Solutions Chance Parker Vice President, Web Intelligence February 12, 2009 © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 2. 1. The increasing AND changing role of the internet among automotive shoppers. Gene Cameron 2. It looks like a blog, it sounds like a blog, and it says it’s a blog…is it a blog? -Chevy Volt Case Study- Chance Parker © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 2 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 3. The winds of change are blowing • Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger told analysts Tuesday that some of the entertainment empire's businesses, like its broadcast television network, are feeling "signs of secular change as competition for people's time is increasing and the abundance of choice is allowing consumers to be more selective." WSJ, 2/10/09 © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 3 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 4. The New Vehicle Buyer has made the Internet their primary shopping medium Automotive Internet Usage Trends Used – Vs. New – Vehicle Buyers 10-Year Trend Used New 80% 75% 70% 67% 67% 64% 64% 60% 60% 61% 59% 62% 60% 54% 54% 53% 47% 47% 43% 40% 40% 34% 26% 20% 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Based to new and used-vehicle buyers Source: J.D. Power and Associates 1999-2008 New/Used Vehicle Studies © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 4 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 5. Why this matters to the Auto Industry • For the industry to recover, qualified prospects must be brought back to purchase • Changing media habits of these prospects make it increasingly difficult or expensive for auto marketers to reach them • A new technology is needed to understand how prospects are using the Internet • With the new technology, we can identify the importance of different web sites, and, in particular, blogs © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 5 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 6. New Research from J.D. Power and Compete offers a clearer view of online activity of buyers and prospects Compete Panel Power Information Network 2 Million Households Dealers with 25% of Sales Third party Surname & Address Internet Match Vehicle Activity Purchase Information July, 2008 data today Matched New Vehicle Database: Prospects January 2009 data March 3 ~ 203,000 Monthly thereafter New Vehicle Buyers © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 6 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 7. New Vehicle prospects are on blogs, less than portals, but in the range of other major sites 1500 1400 upromise.com 1300 1200 1100 nutrisystem.com 1000 servicemagic.com dubinterviewer.com 900 Index 800 columbiahouse.com iwon.com 700 everydayhealth.com shermanstravel.com 600 eprize.net coupons.com 500 money.aol.com 400 classmates.com 300 msnbc.msn.com blogger.com 200 amazon.com ebay.com www.google.com yahoo.com 100 msn.com blogspot.com MySpace google.com 0 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% 55% 60% 65% 70% 75% 80% 85% Craig’sList Reach Source: 2008 OMB - July © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 7 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 8. There is a big gap between personal blogs and professional blogs, and the OEM blogs are not apparent 600 550 crave.cnet.com 500 450 luxist.com 400 tmz.com sixapart.com 350 Index gadling.com 300 vox.com 250 blogger.com huffingtonpost.com 200 blogspot.com 150 typepad.com wordpress.com 100 50 0 0% 3% 6% 9% 12% 15% 18% 21% 24% 27% 30% 33% 36% Reach Source: 2008 OMB - July © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 8 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 9. Visiting blogs varies by vehicle segment, Mid-Size prospects blog the most, except Sporty the least, and only TMZ registers blogspot.com blogger.com wordpress.com typepad.com tripod.com associatedcontent.com tmz.com Compact Basic 37% 38% 17% 13% 5% 6% 12% Compact Conventional 28% 29% 15% 7% 6% 4% 7% Compact CUV 29% 29% 12% 7% 5% 3% 9% Compact Premium Conv. 22% 22% 4% 8% 9% 3% 8% Compact Sporty 32% 32% 9% 8% Compact Utility 35% 33% 14% 7% 10% 9% 11% Midsize Conventional 26% 26% 11% 5% 5% 4% 9% Midsize CUV 32% 31% 11% 5% 2% 5% Midsize Pickup 37% 40% 18% 8% 4% 7% Midsize Premium Conv. 38% 41% 13% 8% Midsize Premium CUV 35% 41% 10% 11% 4% 10% 4% Midsize Sporty 9% 19% 5% 9% 9% Midsize Utility 37% 35% 11% 4% 12% 2% 10% Midsize Van 36% 36% 9% 7% 8% 6% 9% Large Conventional 17% 23% 4% 4% 4% 13% 11% Large Pickup 30% 32% 11% 8% 5% 3% 6% Large Utility 29% 30% 31% 12% 5% Source: 2008 OMB - July © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 9 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 10. With all that visitation, the main activity is lurking Blog Activity of New Vehicle Buyers Commented on someone elses blog or contributed to 12.80% an online forum Posted comment on blog, past month 11.05% Published a blog(s) 4.36% 0.00% 2.00% 4.00% 6.00% 8.00% 10.00% 12.00% 14.00% Source: 2008 OMS - Winter © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 10 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 11. The time spent varies widely by specific blog Market traffic minutes site (weighted) per user deadspin.com 1,814 82 corner.nationalreview.com 1,338 71 myfamily.com 3,007 54 perezhilton.com 15,443 36 network54.com 1,670 36 dlisted.com 3,249 33 blogthings.com 3,775 32 xanga.com 10,398 30 townhall.com 1,685 27 bloglines.com 2,894 26 Source: 2008 OMB - July © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 11 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 12. Summary Observations • The Internet is the primary tool for auto shopping • New Vehicle Prospects are visiting blogs significantly less than portals, but the aggregation of personal blogs reaches about 35%, about the same level as leading social sites and other media brands • Professional blogs reach less than the aggregated personals, but some have higher composition of New Vehicle Prospects • Prospects for different vehicle segments visit blogs differently • High proportion are lurking, not interacting • Engagement with specific blogs varies widely © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 12 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 13. Implications • Auto marketers must find a way to participate in the blogosphere – their prospects are hanging out there • The old advertising model of pushing out dominating messages will not work in this space • The new approach must be listen, engage, attract © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 13 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 14. Some thoughts about the future of blogs for automotive marketers • Look for a blurring of the demarcation between blogs and social sites • Twitter may become the way to provide deeper information for “followers” - but it is only visited by 1% of New Vehicle Prospects • Twitter offers a palliative for our ADD culture – Check out what GM and Toyota are doing on Twitter – How did GM do on Twitter for the Volt last night? © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 14 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 15. 1. The increasing AND changing role of the internet among automotive shoppers. Gene Cameron 2. It looks like a blog, it sounds like a blog, and it says it’s a blog…is it a blog? -Chevy Volt Case Study- Chance Parker © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 15 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 16. There are blogs and then there are blogs… © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 16 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 17. In fact, the vast majority of all blogs are personal blogs, not professional blogs Composition of the Blogosphere 100% 90% 79% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 21% 20% 10% 0% Personal Professional Source: Technorati “State of the Blogosphere”, Dec 2008 © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 17 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 18. In addition to blogs, message boards also represent another huge source of conversations Composition of the Blogosphere 100% 90% 79% 80% 70% 60% Probably 50% larger than all blogs put 40% together 30% 21% 20% 10% 0% Personal Professional Message Boards Source: Technorati “State of the Blogosphere”, Dec 2008 © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 18 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 19. Consumers trust each other more than they trust professionals Consumer Generated Media Links to Behavior © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 19 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 20. There is a lot of buzz about the Volt on both blogs and boards Online Chevy Volt Discussions A resource for Blogs information in general 34% Highly influenced by professional authors More discussion No Volt owners (yet) & opinion sharing Boards Consumer-driven 66% Over 17,000 Online Discussions © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 20 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 21. Pros vs. Joes: Important differences in perception Professional Blogs: Professional Blogs • Very focused on the design of the new Volt • Very positive about the Volt concept car • Pretty negative about the production photos Personal Blogs and Boards Personal Blogs • Much more focused on price and day-to-day functionality • Concerned about the price and the pay-off – “The Volt's pricing hasn't been announced, but it won't be cheap - probably $35-40k. And the car only seats 4…so it’s not ideal for young families like mine.” – “I applaud GM for making the Volt, but like the Prius, I would expect the payoff to be long term.” • Much more positive about the production photos – “From what I've seen, the design on the Chevy Volt is being raped by critics. Heck, there was a headline on yahoo about how much people hate the design. Well, I for one love the design of the Volt.” – “Personally I love the new design... much better than the concept IMO. If I were to buy a Volt I wouldn't want some wacky design that shouts GREEN! I want a normal car that has good looks, which is exactly what they have delivered.” – Yes, the production Volt looks more pedestrian but I have to say I don't agree an ounce with the writer. It's not ugly by any stretch. It's blends well with the family of Chevy vehicles, IMO. Hopefully, since it's not like the Prius it won't be associated as much with the douchenozzlery that surrounds the Prius.” © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 21 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 22. Summary Observations • Not all blogs are created equal • Engaging on or with professional blogs is only part of the challenge • Personal blogs (and boards) also wield a lot of influence • The buzz from the “Pros” doesn’t always equal the buzz from the “Joes” • Don’t make the mistake of listening to only the “Pros” • Don’t try to control the “Joes” © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 22 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- 23. Thank You! News and Updates: www.onlineautomotivereview.com Follow us on Twitter at JDPowerInternet © 2008 J.D. Power and Associates, 23 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.