Automotive consumers use newspapers…

Nearly 17 million new vehicles and 43 million used vehicles are sold each year. Understanding the thought process of consumers and what media they use to make decisions are important in building effective advertising strategies.

New and used vehicle buyers take anywhere from six to eight months to make a purchase decision. In the early stages buyers rely heavily on their previous vehicle ownership experiences, experiences of friends and relatives and what they see on television or read in the newspaper.

As consumers become more serious in their purchase, newspaper readership and internet viewership increase. Ninety-seven percent of all vehicle buyers cite newspaper advertisement an important source for purchase information. Newspaper websites take a close second place to the internet savvy buyers. The combination of print and online newspapers can not be beat by any single source for auto shoppers. Sixty-four percent of both new and used consumers visited a newspaper website at least one time in the past month.

In the last phase of the auto purchase cycle, both new and used vehicle buyers spend most of their time searching the newspaper ads for the best deals. Eighteen million adults plan to buy a used vehicle in the next year; 63% of those consumers read a daily or Sunday newspaper. And, 16 million adults plan to buy a new vehicle within the next year; 69% of them are newspaper readers.

While all forms of media are used in most advertising campaigns, newspaper are generally used throughout the entire campaign and soar above all others during the last month of consumer decision making. Fifty-seven percent of new and 68% of used shoppers chose newspaper as their primary source during the final two weeks before making their purchase. The second runner up was the Internet at 16% for new and 12% for used.

Newspapers continue to be the source that consumers rank number one as the source most used to check ads, most valuable in planning shopping, best for bring sales to “my attention”, easiest to compare prices and most believable.

Resources:
*Scarborough Research Top 50 Market Report, 2005
**CNW Marketing Research, NAA 2006/2007 Planbook
***NAA Online Newspaper Drive Vehicle Buyers, 2004

This monthly newsletter is a service provided by Customized Newspaper Advertising. For more information on the newspaper advertising industry, please contact Leslie Earp, CNA Marketing & Research Manager at learp@cnaads.com.

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