In a weak economy and an even weaker vehicle market, it really pays for dealers to scrutinize any fresh marketing data they encounter about consumer attitudes and preferences toward their brands and models. In today’s uncertain climate, the savvy dealer mines any consumer insights for useful intelligence that can lead to more sales.

Simply examine the invaluable wealth of consumer marketing wisdom contained in just one recent report of consumer attitudes. Acxiom Corporation’s “Mind of the Consumer Spotlight” on the hybrid vehicle consumer offers insights that can help any dealer identify those prospects most likely to drive a hybrid off the lot.

The key findings on hybrids are from Acxiom’s broader Automotive Consumer Dynamics Study. It is the industry’s first comprehensive, consumer-centric view of the U.S. automotive market. It was developed from the world’s largest repository of up-to-date U.S. consumer intelligence and applies sophisticated modeling and analyses to deliver insight that spans more than 200 million U.S. consumers, from 124 million households, and more than 50 million vehicle purchase/trade-in transactions.
Here are the hybrid study’s key findings:
•    While affluent consumers typically don’t buy a non-luxury vehicle, they do buy hybrid versions of those vehicles and those hybrids typically command a premium price averaging more than $6,000 per vehicle.
•    Hybrid models propel brand switching by as much as 10 percentage points higher than their non-hybrid counterparts. For example, three out of four Toyota Highlander hybrid buyers (77 percent) switch from other makes as opposed to 67 percent of Toyota Highlander non-hybrid buyers.
•    Reflecting this buying trend among affluent consumers, if dealers had captured just five percent of those consumers with a high propensity for hybrids, 2007 U.S. hybrid sales would have more than doubled.
•    Because of hybrids, mainstream auto brands are gaining favor with tech-savvy, affluent consumers.
•    Consumers who like hybrids live in strikingly different geographic locations from their non-hybrid counterparts. More than half of consumers with an interest in the hybrid, Ford Escape, for instance, are located along the East and West Coasts, while traditional Ford     Escape prospects are dispersed more evenly throughout the U.S. midsection.
•    Hybrid buyers also share certain lifestyle traits. For instance, when comparing buyers of mid-market gasoline-fueled models to hybrid buyers of those same models, the hybrid buyers are more interested in science and space, environmental issues, reading science fiction, music collection, and camping, than their non-hybrid counterparts.

Other consumer insights
The Acxiom report on hybrids furnishes other insights. Hybrids—and there are relatively few hybrid alternatives yet—appear to play to the tech-savvy “in-crowd” (think iPhone) who are environmentally conscious individuals as well as people of means, who tend to view a hybrid investment as “making a statement.” In addition, because hybrid versions of mainstream brands are pricier, they may not entice the traditional buyers of these non-hybrid brands. Hybrid consumers are about twice as likely as their regular-model counterparts to have annual household incomes of $125,000 or more. Further, the other vehicle that hybrid buyers have in their garage, their “garage mate,” differs from the other vehicle in the non-hybrid owner’s garage. For owners of the Toyota Prius and the Ford Escape hybrid, the garage mate is more likely to be a minivan or sports car, respectively. What do these consumer insights suggest to dealers?  They suggest that those who communicate with future hybrid buyers differently have the ability to make real inroads. Because they tend to be more affluent, dealers can offer these buyers the performance and options they’re used to and are willing to pay for. These “bells and whistles” include MP3 player jacks, global-positioning systems (GPS), infotainment, traction control, antilock brakes, heated seats, and the like. In addition, understanding what’s sharing the garage with a hybrid strengthens the type and timing of marketing communications targeted to prospective hybrid buyers. Because they’re more affluent, these prospective buyers aren’t going to feel the financial pressure of an economic slowdown as much.

Finally, dealers who understand the needs and behaviors of this generation of hybrid consumers will be more prepared for the next wave of alternative-fuel vehicles, which likely will encompass clean diesel, fuel cell, hydrogen, and ethanol alternatives.
All in all, for dealers, the most important conclusion of this study of the hybrid vehicle consumer boils down to four words: Know your consumer better!

Tim Longnecker is automotive industry executive at Acxiom Corporation and is a 22-year veteran of the automotive industry, with a recent focus on the consumer side of the business. Before joining Acxiom in 2006, Longnecker was CEO of Power Information Network (PIN), a unit of J.D. Power & Associates. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text63550 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .