January 15th, 2024, Bhavika Bansal
Recent data from YouGov Global Profiles reveals that more than a quarter of international consumers intend to buy a new car in the next 12 months (28%). And with the global auto industry set to recover with an estimated 88.3 million new vehicle sales in 2024, it can be extremely insightful for automakers, brand strategists and marketers to understand the impact of brand reputation on a consumer's decision-making process when purchasing a vehicle.
As per results from a recent YouGov Surveys: Serviced poll of 16 international markets nearly two out of three respondents say that a brand’s reputation is important to them while purchasing a vehicle (64%).
Consumers in our polled APAC markets appear to be more inclined to rely on an auto brand’s reputation when in the market for a new vehicle- four out five respondents in Indonesia (83%) and India (80%), and three-fourths of respondents in Hong Kong (76%) say brand reputation is ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ important to them when making such purchase decisions. Singapore (63%) is the only market in the region to be outpaced by the international average.
41% of consumers in the UAE say that brand reputation is ‘very important’ to them in the decision-making process to buy a new vehicle, while 34% say it is ‘somewhat important’ to them.
On the other hand, two-thirds of consumers in the US and Canada say brand reputation is important to them while buying a vehicle (64% and 63% respectively) with nearly a fifth who are neutral towards an auto brand’s reputation (18% and 19% respectively).
Consumers in the polled European markets share more scattered views. While a majority of respondents in Italy (70%), Poland (65%), Great Britain (60%), and France (57%) are likely to be influenced by an auto brand’s reputation, this proportion is substantially smaller among consumers in Denmark (49%) and Germany (35%).
A look at the aggregate data for all 16 markets by age and gender reveals that, internationally, men place more importance on brand reputation while purchasing a vehicle than women (66% vs. 62%).
While two-thirds of our 35-to-44-year-old and 25-to-34-year-old respondents say the brand reputation of automakers is important to them (67% and 66% respectively), 61% of adults aged 55 and above say the same.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 16 markets with sample sizes varying between 501 and 2004 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in November 2023. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced