In our new regular feature for Driving Interactive, BIGresearch presents insight into market share for consumers planning to buy a new vehicle in the next six months. We also are providing a brand media analysis, which will show which media, by day part, are most appropriate to reach that target customer. This month we focus on the BMW brand.
The following information is derived from BIGresearch Simultaneous Media Survey, which is done twice per year with a sample of N=15,000 per survey. The survey is conducted online and is a representative sample. BIGresearch surveys have a four-year history in making accurate predictions. BIGresearch data has been established by independent third parties to be predictive of automotive sales at the national level (R2. 95) three months in advance.
First, a bit of background on us: Every month BIGresearch tracks -- in our syndicated survey, Consumer Intentions and Actions 8000 -- automobile purchase intenders. We determine automobile market share each month by comparing the percentage of people who own a car (for example, BMW, which came in at 2.2 percent this month), and people who selected that vehicle as a first choice (BMW was 3.8 percent) and second choice (2.5 percent).
The first and second choices are averaged and compared to present ownership of a BMW (2.2 percent). Therefore, for BMW, there was an increase of .98 percent for April.
Locating customers for your brand
The SIMM, or simultaneous media usage, study tracks automobile purchase intentions over the next six months and ties the intenders' brand purchase intentions to their styles of media consumption by daypart. This allows media planners to reach (in this case) BMW purchase intenders, by their various media in use, by the media most influential on their brand decision and by which media synergies (working together) are the best to reach the BMW purchase intender.
Engaging the customer
BMW prospective buyers, as with most car brands, have a distinct profile regarding which media are most influential on their purchase decision. Our research shows that the following media affect the prospective BMW buyer most:
The right media options
Once the contribution of each medium has been established, we can look at the percentage of prospective customers who plan to buy, as well as examine the make of a car that is driven most often across eight media consumption clusters, developed by BIGresearch. These eight clusters each reflect a style of media consumption, based on three key metrics: experiential time spent with the media, simultaneous media in use and the influential media used on purchase decisions.
- Old school: High mass media (TV, magazines, newspaper) influence and low search media (online). Average overall media consumption and simultaneous usage.
- Active explorers: High promotion (inserts, coupons, direct) and search media influence. Average media consumption.
- New mediacs: Low mass media and promotional media influence. High electronics media consumption. Low print consumption.
- Simultaneous readers: Average overall media influence. High network simultaneous usage. High print consumption.
- Independents: Average search media influence. Low media consumption.
- Ravenous: High overall media influence. High network, print and electronic consumption.
- Persuadables: High mass and search media influence. Average promotional media influence.
- Opportunity minded: High promotional influence. Average to low media consumption.
For BMW, our analysis shows the largest number of prospects are the Active Explorers (7.2 percent), Independents (4.7 percent) and the Ravenous (4.4 percent). These groups would be the most likely prospects.
The following is a description of the clusters by their media consumption, giving us a general profile of our target prospect's media habits.
The media plan
Our recommended media plan is based on dayparts, which means that during each period of time, there are particular formats that dominate prospective customer media usage. For instance, during the 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. time period, prospective customers are engaged with iPods/PDAs, which means these two media are typically used simultaneously, with iPod as the primary medium and PDA as the secondary. The same is true with newspaper / radio and newspaper / cell phone.
BMW prospects are very much involved in new media across the whole day. Reaching them can actually be very low cost to the media budget. For example, TV is the most expensive type of advertising, but our research indicates that it is used simultaneously with email, which provides for a synergistic relationship. Therefore a TV ad can be utilized as 15 second driver to online, and email can reinforce the TV advertising.
Source: BIGresearch
