Luxury Car Brands Not Taking Full Advantage of Social Media
Porsche had the highest community rating in the Community Index with a score of 5,448, followed by BMW at 3,681 and Audi at 3,612
MH Group Communications and Forum Strategies & Communications have released a new study called “Luxury Auto Brands and their Presence in Social Media” that is a comprehensive analysis of luxury auto brands and their presence within social networks. According to the results of the study, German automakers dominate the luxury auto business category, while Japanese and American brands are largely absent and unimpressive within social media.
The study used the MH Group Communications Community Index and Conversation Index measurement methodologies to determine the size and activity level of communities around specific auto brands across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr.
What’s interesting is that the study shows 9 luxury car brands: These rankings are based on their engagement in social networks:
1. BMW
2. Porsche
3. Audi
4. Mercedes
5. Cadillac
6. Lexus
7. Acura
8. Infiniti
9. Lincoln
MH Group Communications says that “Porsche had the highest community rating in the Community Index with a score of 5,448, followed by BMW at 3,681 and Audi at 3,612. In the Conversation Index measurement, BMW held a sizeable lead over competitors with a conversation rating of 6,164 for the period studied.
However, the study also concluded that the industry has yet to tap the full potential of social media by utilizing an integrated and holistic approach, and are focusing their efforts on YouTube and Facebook rather than the full spectrum of social media platforms where benefits could be gained.”
The study revealed that social media conversations around luxury auto brands focused on four key topics, each of which offer specific challenges/opportunities:
Here are some other interesting facts brought out in the study:
Admiration: The luxury auto sector enjoys a privileged admiration consumers express for most luxury brands. Being part of an “exclusive” club, these owners and fans err on the side of adoration when discussing their vehicles. Challenge: Where is the tipping point, when the club no longer feels so exclusive because of the social media involvement of everyday consumers?
Sales and Deals: The auto industry’s huge investments into e-commerce and the dealer-based, decentralized sales network make deal talk the dominant topic of social media conversation. Challenge: Brand management in this environment is a challenge, given that the community drives the conversation, rather than the brand, in contrast to pre-social media days, when sales messaging was focused around brand web sites.
Questions about Features, Service, Availability: Social media are a powerful tool for brands to monitor questions about their vehicles and address them directly and immediately. Opportunity: This should be viewed as an opportunity to extend a brand’s customer service commitment, rather than just treat social media as a marketing tool.
News and Vehicle Announcements: There is a virtuous cycle of amplification among these brands, auto bloggers and social media networks, in which news is shared by the brands with influential bloggers, reposted or tweeted within social networks by readers of those blogs, and further echoed within smaller SM groups. Opportunity: Links to blog posts, rather than traditional media, are shared most often by consumers.
MH Group Communications and Forum Strategies & Communications partnered to perform this study because of their shared extensive experience and interest in the auto industry and social media. The top-selling luxury auto brands and luxury brands owned by major global automakers, including Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Infiniti, Lincoln, Lexus, Mercedes and Porsche were studied to assess their level of involvement and success in using social media. Researchers examined social media activity during August 2009 by the brands, as well as activity about the brands initiated by consumers, dealers or others. More information about the study is available at http://mhgroupcom.com/ or http://www.forumstrategies.com/.
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Oct 12th 2009
Interesting post. They probably don’t take full adavtange of social media because they simply don’t need too. Luxury cars are bought mostly by rich people. And rich people have a habit of buying from the same company. So I believe that these companies already have enough clients….
Oct 14th 2009
A study shows that about 1% of the bigger US brands us the advantage of social media actually!
Oct 16th 2009
I disagree.. Every car company should be using social media.. Especially in this economy, companies could really benefit for the buzz and increased promotion that social media offers. There is no excuse.. These car companies need to get on the band wagon.
Oct 20th 2009
My theory on this subject is as follows. Social media is almost uncontrollable. Just imagine a forum on the Porsche website where an unsatisfied customer spills his bag. That would be bad publicity. And yet it would not be honest not to permit customers to reveal their opinion. So to be preventive those luxury car companies simply do not operate social media.
Just a thought
Oct 20th 2009
I believe it depends on the age of the target audience. Most luxury car brands are targeting older clients with loads of money to spend, and that audience is not the ones that are online and using facebook and myspace. So in this case, they probably aren’t missing out on much.
Oct 21st 2009
I agree there are some who are not taking the advantage of social media.
Oct 21st 2009
well!!! I think……they don’t need that even. They are already making huge profits without doing such things.
Oct 21st 2009
Social media is the best portal in business advertisement. If a company is visible in social media group and keeps on promoting their products, they’ll reach a lot of people. Those people will eventually be interested in their products.
Oct 22nd 2009
Luxury car company has a clear market, they’ve established, social media does not affect significantly
Oct 22nd 2009
Ha, BMW is number one, doesn’t surprise me with all the Young Urbanites on Facebook, Youtube, etc. Reminds me of the 80’s when every polo wearing hipster wanted the latest Beemer convertible.
That being said, it is interesting to see so few with an online presence especially with America’s obsession with Automobiles and love of luxury, it seems like most guys would love to add their favorite car to their profile, I’d love to become a fan of Lamborghini, in fact I think I’ll do that right now, lol.
Oct 24th 2009
Hey…
very interesting post..
and I agree with u.
big companies shoud take adv of social media.. b’coz it works fine for even SMEs than there is no question about big brands. Social Media can bring very valuable inquiry and business..
Oct 24th 2009
I would think that social media would still be a benefit even to luxury car manufacturers. I can see why the German brands are taking advantage of it. I am surprised that the American and Japanese brands are not so much. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
Oct 26th 2009
Makes no difference if you’re small or big -all companies should be using social media- losing sales if they don’t
Oct 26th 2009
well!!! I think……they don’t need that even. They are already making huge profits without doing such things.
Oct 27th 2009
I think that social media right now is a big hit mainly because it has proven that it can reach out a number of audience. This is actually a good marketing strategy. Information can be channeled in different ways and this is just one of them.
Oct 27th 2009
I think social media should only be used if it can genuinely add something to a brand of communications strategy. Just hopping on the bang wagon to climb a league table or because everyone else seems to be doing it doesn’t seem sensible.
Oct 28th 2009
Luxury car company has a clear market, they’ve established, social media does not affect significantly
Oct 28th 2009
it is interesting to see so few with an online presence especially with America’s obsession with Automobiles and love of luxury, it seems like most guys would love to add their favorite car to their profile, I’d love to become a fan of Lamborghini, in fact I think I’ll do that right now, lol.
Oct 29th 2009
Social media marketing is one of the prominent ways to improve business as the audience is large. News can really move fast inside Social Media Networks.
Oct 29th 2009
I think that all companies should be using social media not only the big ones.
Nov 1st 2009
If they used social media, would they be accused of spam in the profile pages?
Nov 4th 2009
You are right, the amount of people out there using social media sites are tremendous. If these car companies could somehow integrate those users with their products, they would sell a whole lot more cars.
Nov 19th 2009
For me yes its true luxury cars are not taking advantage on social media,they only use socal media for advertising purposes.
Nov 19th 2009
I think, Social Media is the best way for marketing advertisement. Many luxury car companies do not make use of these because they probably don’t know what the social media can give to them.
Nov 26th 2009
It is true that social media have been very successful in the marketing advertisement section.
Jan 18th 2010
I believe it depends on the age of the target audience. Most luxury car brands are targeting older clients with loads of money to spend, and that audience is not the ones that are online and using facebook and myspace. So in this case, they probably aren’t missing out on much.