Yahoo!'s automotive category director looks at consumer research trends, and how to weave social media into your marketing campaign to tap into the power of brand advocates.

Jodi Harris: Recently, Yahoo! released the results of a survey on engaging automotive advocates through search and social media. What overall role do you feel online research plays in the decision to choose one automobile over another?

Lon Bollenbacher joined Yahoo! in January 2006 and currently serves as the automotive category director for Yahoo! Search Marketing. He is responsible for helping a broad range of automotive clients develop successful search marketing campaigns that raise the perception of the client's brand and efficiently drive sales.

Lon Bollenbacher: With 75 percent of all buyers using online resources prior to purchase, the internet is clearly one of the single most important factors in consumers' decisions as to which vehicle they ultimately purchase.

Our most recent study, "Engaging Brand Advocates through Search and Social Media," looked at a group called automotive brand advocates and how the internet has dramatically changed the nature of how they build and share expertise. These advocates are defined as consumer opinion leaders who are socially well-connected, express their opinions and viewpoints and continually discover new content online. For example, the informal "car expert" that people turn to for advice prior to purchasing a new vehicle would be considered an advocate. 

One of the key differentiators separating auto advocates from non-advocates is passion. The passion this group feels around autos takes their engagement to a whole new level. Not only do they discuss their purchases with others but their propensity to engage with specialized auto community websites greatly increases. 

Harris: What can you tell us about automotive advocates, specifically, and the role they play in consumers' decision making process?

Bollenbacher: Even though advocates represent a smaller percentage of automotive buyers (roughly 38 percent in the automotive category), they're far more influential. The advocates in our study not only recommended their vehicle to twice the number of consumers than non-advocates, but also convinced more people to actually purchase the same vehicle. 

In terms of building expertise, we found that advocates are much heavier researchers and utilize more sources to gather information prior to making a purchase. This gives marketers a greater opportunity to reach out to them throughout the research and purchase process.

Harris: How do portal sites like Yahoo connect with these advocates and give them the information they need to share their insight and opinions with other in-market auto shoppers? And how do you recommend that marketers should tap into this resource and promote the advocate's opinions-- without fostering the impression that these users are being influenced by the marketer?

Bollenbacher: One of the things that makes Yahoo Autos so successful is it has social media woven throughout the entire site. For instance, consumers can ask auto-related questions and receive answers from other members of the community using Yahoo Answers. They can also join one of over 30,000 auto enthusiast groups, bookmark favorite pages using del.icio.us or read and write reviews without leaving Y Autos. Speaking of, Yahoo has more than 60,000 new car reviews, which is pretty impressive.

All of these things cater to an advocates desire to express themselves while building and sharing expertise with like-minded people. Of course, this offers marketers the opportunity to interact with the advocates.

While there is always a risk that there will be detractors who speak negatively about your products and brands, most marketers are discovering the pros outweigh the cons. The reality is people are already talking about your brand whether you're involved or not. Marketers who embrace both positive and negative comments directly from the consumer are seen as more credible and trustworthy for providing a forum where users feel they're voices can be heard. In fact, in a recent study conducted by Yahoo Autos and JD Power, 71 percent of the people surveyed said they thought it was appropriate for OEM execs to communicate honestly and directly with consumers via social media. 

But advertisers have less to worry about than they think. The brand advocacy study we referenced earlier showed 90 percent of advocates speak positively about the brands they purchase. So, more likely than not, advocates who purchase your products will want others to hear about it, and will likely share something positive-- something that affirms their choice.

Harris: What role does search play in automotive brand advocacy, and how does this compare with the role search plays in the average user's research process?

Bollenbacher: Before any consumer spends tens of thousands of dollars on a purchase, they want to be absolutely sure they are making the best decision. We've found the length of time a consumer researches is highly correlated to the price point of a product. As you and I know, your car is usually one of your most expensive purchases, so the length of research time tends to also be long. Because most people buy a car from a dealer, and not a website, when they search it's about learning as much as they can to make the smartest buying decision.

Given this, it isn't surprising that our research shows search is the online activity that both advocates and non-advocates engage in most frequently online. That being said, advocates are far more likely to utilize search during the shopping process than are non-advocates (49 percent vs. 29 percent). The likely reason for this is that advocates are always looking for new information and see search is the ideal tool for this.

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