Radio ideal for stimulating domestic auto sales
A tip for Detroit automotive planners and buyers: Domestic auto manufacturers may be more effective in stimulating sales if they increased their investment in radio - that's the finding of a study by The Media Audit, which along with its research partner, Ipsos. The telephone study of 17,395 adults planning to purchase a vehicle in the next year showed that better than 1 in 5 planned purchasers are heavy radio listeners. Of all the major media, radio had the highest proportion of planned vehicle purchasers.
"Radio stations and the amount of time consumers spend with each of the other media are a reflection of a person's lifestyle" explained Jim Higginbotham, head of research and Chairman of The Media Audit. "So too, automotive preference is a reflection of a lifestyle. Thus it is not surprising that there is a correlation between media consumption and product consumption. There's a definite media skew for advertisers to consider. In the auto category, heavy radio listeners are skewed towards domestic vehicle purchases while heavy internet users are skewed towards foreign vehicles purchases."
We asked Media Audit EVP Phil Beswick why heavy radio listeners skew domestic and internet users foreign. As the chart shows, outdoor skewed only slightly more in the same direction. For all other media, it was the opposite. He says there's a couple reasons-Internet skews younger and more upper-income. These folks are probably thinking more about BMWs and Lexus. Radio is much more of a mass medium from an income perspective - more reflective of the norms of the population.
Nevertheless, radio was the number one media choice for those in the market for domestic cars, and remember, as Bill Burton, Detroit Radio Ad Group President says, "The automobile is just a radio with four wheels."
