Automotive marketing

The Pressure Point of Fuel Prices
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/alan-long/2008/08/the_pressure_point_of_fuel_pri.html
Extract: The increasing price of fuel to run our vehicles puts continued pressure on the household budget and while I begrudge paying high prices at the pump, just how far can the price go before we start to look at alternate fuels and hybrid vehicles as a serious option?
According to CommSec equities economist Savanth Sebastian the average family is now paying $223.30 a month for petrol, well that makes me about average – but with only one car. The good news is that he is predicting that the cost of petrol is about to decrease to a national average of $1.40 per litre, and in the past week we have already seen some relief with prices sub $1.50.
So I started thinking of conspiracy theories about petrol retailers pushing the prices up to a pressure point where users are aggrieved and are close to taking action, and then lowering prices to take pressure off, all the while desensitizing the consumer to longer term increased fuel costs. I am not a conspiracy theorist, so I am just interested in what the online behaviour tells about users' reactions to fuel prices based on searches for auto-related hybrid searches.

To make this comparison we took the median average of monthly Metropolitan ULP prices (Source: www.fueltrac.com.au) and compared it against the 4 week rolling average of a custom search portfolio that contains 974 hybrid / alternate fuel auto related terms. (Click on image to enlarge).

The chart highlights a correlation between petrol prices and online searches for auto related hybrid /alternate fuel searches. The trend lines rise and fall in sequence until the price moves through the pressure point of $1.40, then the volume of searches surges as households are put under increasing pressure. If the price drops below $1.40 will the interest in alternate fuel decrease or does the demand now have a momentum of its own?

Porsche, Luxury Rivals Push Used Cars
http://industry.bnet.com/auto/2008/05/29/porsche-luxury-rivals-push-used-cars/
For a couple of reasons, used cars are a growing priority for luxury-brand automakers like Porsche. First, many people who buy high-end, expensive cars tend to graduate from a used car to a new one. Second, used cars are an important profit center for dealers, especially when new-car sales are slow. Finally, as leasing has become common, it’s important for car companies to protect used-car values.

In leasing, the customer effectively borrows the difference between the upfront cost of a vehicle and what it’s projected to be worth at the end of the lease. The more a used car is worth at the end of a lease, the less the leasing customer has to borrow, which in turn lowers monthly payments.

Luxury auto brands are also promoting the sale of off-lease cars and trade-ins as “certified pre-owned” cars, or CPO for short. Unlike most used cars, CPO cars are inspected and refurbished by the dealer, and come with a warranty. That can add $1,500 or more to the price of a luxury car, but many customers feel the additional comfort level is worth it.

In all, the luxury brands are trying to get their new-car dealers to sell more used, off-lease vehicles. That keeps them out of the hands of independent used-car dealers who can give the brand a bad name, and away from wholesale auctions where prices are rock-bottom. If the actual market price of a vehicle coming off lease is lower than the automaker and its finance company expected, the automaker can incur a loss.

But what would Dad say? How automotive brands are targeting twenty-somethings and their parents
http://www.warc.com/Tracking/ArticleLink.asp?ID=88073&M=WARC-Free-May08
Extracts: In markets such as the US or UK, Generation Y-ers who were born in the eighties and early 1990s are seen as less financially and temperamentally autonomous than their predecessors when it comes to expensive purchases. They are also notably less amenable to traditional big budget branding techniques. In response, some auto brands have increasingly been aiming their messages at both parents and their offspring in a bid to capture influencers at different points in the family spectrum.

Nagley also argues that with the right media channel choices auto brands can appeal both to the all-important first car market and purchasers of second car ‘run-arounds’. He says: “At a time when society is reassessing its whole view of age and ageing, it is perfectly acceptable for older people to buy into young peoples’ technology or fashion brands. But if a major purchase such as a car is seen as too overtly middle-aged, many twenty-somethings won’t want to touch it.

“The trick is to emphasise qualities such as safety and styling that appeal so heavily to both ages, while carefully choosing media to reflect the chief differences (between generations). Perhaps Radio Times and What Car? (the UK magazines) for the fifty-somethings and YouTube for their adult kids.”