Since CNW Marketing's nonsense, I've grown used to seeing marketing companies as hybrid-skeptics. As recently as this year, a California marketing company again announced that hybrid owners are 'making a statement' and 'following Hollywood.' So while looking for age and hybrid ownership reports, I was surprised to find this hybrid vehicle, marketing report released just before the 2008 fuel price doubling: Acxiom: February 2008 ? Mind of the Consumer Spotlight: The Hybrid Vehicle Consumer Now of course it is flattering to think of ourselves as "Luxury Consumers" so it is a fun read. Published in February 2008, the gas gouge started in March. Enjoy. Bob Wilson
Interesting that Axciom publishes the report (I haven't read it yet). The first time I'd heard of this company was on Big Brother, Big Business - CNBC.com on TV about them being a huge data mining company. It was a great documentary and if you don't have a PVR, it might be on Hulu.
One aspect of the report may explain the sudden 'change of heart' about hybrids seen in the European car companies: What this means is hybrids tend to take customers away from ordinary vehicle companies. Some have called it a 'Halo effect' and some called it 'marketing' but in truth, hybrid owners who appear to be very desirable due to their income levels, are switching. It also goes a long way to explaining the repeated marketing attempts aimed at hybrid owners (aka., "varoom varoom" commercial and other stunts.) The report covers two aspects of full hybrids, the Prius and Insight, versus the 'look alike hybrids.' They noted the 'look alike hybrids' are not as effective as the Prius in consumer capture. What they didn't look at are the effects of 'mild' versus 'full' hybrid architecture ... or at least I didn't see it. But GM has already done that experiment and the recent Insight sales vs Prius don't bold well for 'mild' hybrids. There is a lot in this report I've not covered ... even if 'Big Brother' and your public and private records were mined to compile it. Bob Wilson
