A new study found out that across the board, brand loyalty is declining. In a research, it suggested that shoppers today prefer multimedia technology for their cars over brand.
The study found out that over the last years, car buyers prefer to purchase cars with the latest multimedia features and modern car entertainment system than choosing for a particular car brand.
The research firm GfK Automotive’s Automotive Intentions and Purchase study, a monthly survey way back to the early 1980s discovered that only 48 percent of respondents in 2011 plan to buy the same brand of car that they already have. That’s actually 7 percent lower than the previous decade.
Said research firm split the responses among different age groups from baby boomers and pre-boomer, Generation X and Generation Y. The last two which are approximately at the age of 15 to 45 had the least loyalty intentions while the first two still prefer for car brands. Unfortunately, it still drives the over-all loyalty down in the market according to the senior vice-president of GfK, Dough Scott.
Scott further said that technology in car is replacing its brand. He cited another GfK study which found that the youngest portion of Gen Y (teenagers and early twenties) put gadgets over cars among must-have needs. Scott was surprised since it was the first time ever that car came as a second choice.
Recently, every vehicle of the previous month’s top 15 sellers offers USB or iPod integration and Bluetooth phone connectivity. The same makes up for almost one third of all cars sold. For the 2012 model year, only 11 out of the top 15 offer Bluetooth audio streaming for applications like Pandora internet radio and only 4 feature smartphone app platform such as Chevrolet’s MyLink, Ford’s Sync AppLink and Toyota’s Entune.
Now, since the automakers finally found out that people of today most prefer to choose cars with the latest car entertainment system than a car’s brand, some automakers are already attempting to go out on a nutshell. In fact, Ford Sync has had Bluetooth streaming audio since 2007. Such innovation boosts Ford’s loyalty rates among Gen Y much higher than most Detroit and Japanese competitors.
However, Ford missed to take note that accomplishment matters following initiative. Ford has had its share of strikes with buggy electronics giving said automaker with low impression in the J.D. Power and Associates’ Initial Quality Study and in the latest Consumer reliability ratings.
Though Ford didn’t able to make a good hit in staying ahead with technology, it still showed an example that automakers can bring back the weakening brand loyalty into life.
Meanwhile, Brands like Hyundai are currently on track in generating more staying power not only for the generation y but as well as with the other generations of car buyers.
People may now expect the best car entertainment system and modern technology without sacrificing their car loyalty brands.
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