Family and Friends Still Most Trusted for Vehicle Shopping and Car Buying Decisions

American Automotive Consumers still look first to their friends and family for advice regarding their major purchase decisions, according to a WSL/Strategic Retail survey.

69% of the Wall Street Journal’s respondents said that family and friends help them choose what to buy, up 13% from 61% last year.

Next on the list, manufacturer (OEM) and retailer (Dealership) websites, each used by 55% of the survey’s respondents.

The study notes that retailer websites (including car dealers), are a growing influence on consumers, having played second fiddle to manufacturer websites in prior surveys.

Traditional media such as TV and magazines are an information source for 42%, ahead of sales associates and e-mail messages from manufacturers and retailers, each at 32%.

It’s interesting to note that this study shows traditional offline media ranking behind digital and online resources as a trusted information source. This may be partly due to the increasing influence of online reviews and dealership ratings by automotive consumers… Considering the study’s bias from being funded by a TV advertising based consortium, revealing that digital media is more trusted than others is most notable. While that may be the case, the authors of this study point out that several other studies point to TV advertising in particular as most effective in influencing consumer purchase decisions.

Despite recent finding by other scientifically validated surveys that almost half of Americans engage with brands on social networks, just 26% of respondents to the WSL/Strategic Retail survey said they use social networks to find information about an item they’re considering purchasing.

If Millennials (16-34) can be used as a leading indicator for automotive marketing professionals, social networks may prove a more influential automotive consumer research and information source in the future: Millennials were 54% more likely than the average respondent to say they turn to social media for product information.

About the Data: The data is based on a survey of 1500 adults and 200 teens aged 16-65+.

Source: www.marketingcharts.com/family-and-friends-still-most-trusted-for-s…