Snippets of a Study on the Future of Mobility

Snippets of a Study on the Future of Mobility

According to a recent Auto Study on the future of mobility conducted by New York based company MRY, via Whitman Insight Strategies, owning a car is still an important part of our day-to-day life.

This study surveyed 1,000 smartphone owners – 500 Millennials, 500 35+) and cover everything from consumers’ thoughts on the “connected car,” to which automakers are perceived to be the most innovative (and how that translates to sales).

The findings reveals that unsurprisingly that mobile phones matter a lot more to people, slightly less than cars. Among adults 35+: 94% say their cars are important vs 82% phones. But for Millennials, it’s 87% cars, 86% phones. Overall, SMS comes in at 72%, high def TV 55%, Facebook 47%, newspaper subscription 32%, and Twitter and Instagram around 20%.

Across ages, access to a car (90%) trumps helping others (77%), raising a family (73%), voting (68%), and being wealthy (43%). However, the youth just want to get rich as being wealthy is a FAR bigger deal for Millennials (53%) vs adults 35+ (33%) - one of the biggest value gaps MRY found in the study.

As for car ownership, 96% of surveyed individuals own or lease a vehicle, and 91% think that owning a car is still an important part of their day-to-day. Even 87% of the Millennial population, which is more aware of car-sharing services and other transportation options, agrees that owning a car is essential. This means that auto manufacturers need to keep people happy, because at least 40% of surveyed individuals are likely to use car-sharing services if offered in their communities.

To put things into perspective: new vehicle sales are around the 16 million mark, with the average sticker price north of $30,000 (See link). That’s $480 billion. A shift in attitude leads to changes in purchase behavior and even a 1% change could mean a $5 billion impact on sales.

However, car-sharing still has a long way to go. Even though Uber ranks above all of the major auto brands when measured against the intersection of innovation and personal connection, it is still a relatively unknown entity. Only 22% of surveyed individuals were familiar with Uber, falling behind Zip Car (33% familiar) and just ahead of Lyft (18% familiar).
Lesser impact of automotive sponsored events

Lesser impact of automotive sponsored events

According to newly released results of the 2012 Automotive Marketing Communications
Study, carried out by Foresight Research, the automotive research specialists, it was found that:

  • Overall, 10% of new vehicle buyers in 2011 attended an automotive sponsored event in the 12 months prior to vehicle purchase (down from 13% in 2010).
  • Overall, 5% of all new vehicle buyers were highly influenced in their purchase decision by an auto sponsored event, down significantly from 12% in 2010 and 10% in 2009. Among event attendees, however, 24% were highly influenced by the event they attended.
  • Purchase incentives, previously the most influential element of events were less available or less enticing resulting in lower event influence on purchases.
  • Buyers who participated in a ride and drive were influenced by the event at a 42% higher rate than those who did not participate in a ride and drive.
  • Interestingly, Mitsubishi, Audi, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Cadillac and Jeep buyers reported the highest purchase influence from events.

The study was based on interviews of 7,851 new vehicle buyers in the U.S.