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This morning on the radio, our national broadcaster, CBC, carried an interview on very general auto-industry profiling of the car buyer. Industry has found we fall into a broad, 4-category profile, with overlap and yes, even conflict.
First Category: "Analyticals", who need copious amounts of information upon which to base a purchase decision and are into analysis. e.g. Volvo targetted these people early by featuring appeals to the kind of people who wanted/needed to know how e.g. the pieces of a Volvo were welded together. There are a lot of engineers in this category. In Canada, 15% of car buyers fit this category.
Second: "Amiables". Call these people sheep. They take a look around and determine that if the Jonses have bought (e.g. a Chrysler mini-van, the #1 selling vehicle in Canada), then this is good enough for them. In Canada, 40% of the car-buying population fits this category.
Third: "Directors". This is the high-end, professional buyer who is drawn to the price of the vehicle and what it will be worth on resale. Think Lincoln, Caddy, Lexus and think cool, calculating financial considerations only. In Canada, this is 25% of the car-buying population.
Fourth: "Expressives". An optimistic bunch, these buyers care more how they will look in a car than anything else and will oftwen overlook the household budget to get into the right car for them. Think Corvette and Porsche here. These people like high-contrast colors. The number here in Canada is 20% of car-buyers. This number was said to be higher in the US.
Conficts would be these: "Analyticals" are polar opposites of "Expressives". "Amicables" are polar opposites of "Directors".
So if you are an "Analytical" and you buy a red, white or black Saab, then this study seems to infer you are conflicted. And if you are an "Expressive" and you buy a beige or pastel-colored Saab, then you may be conflicted. A Director in his right mind, if completely true to form would not end up buying a 9-3 because he's got a firm eye on resale. Jury's still out on the 9-5.
It follows that GM must do everything it possibly can to boost resale if it wants a better share of the "Directors" market as I don't think the "Amicables" are going to be buying Saabs in any appreciable numbers unless they stumble into one. If we did get a lot of "Amicables" buying Saabs, then most of us would be on to something else.
posted by 207.181....
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