Try asking a few people if it's a good idea to buy a new car, instead of a used one. It's likely that one of them will say, almost with religious zeal, "Never! As soon you as you drive the car off the lot, it has already depreciated." Or something recognizably similar.
So why do people buy new cars? It seems like most people think it's a terrible idea. I was in the theater the other day watching Toy Story 3 and a pre-movie commercial for a Kia SUV (featuring a group of humanoid hamsters rapping about the car) came on-screen1. Daniel Bell, who is my cousin, turned and said, "I've noticed a lot of advertising for cars lately."
If it's worth a lot of advertising, it must be profitable. Maybe the wealthy are the people who buy new cars? Do wealthy people like to watch human-sized rapping rodents? Just a guess, but I'd say no. I'll bet the target demographic of the commercial is young, and probably male. So are young males the most likely people to buy new cars, or is the commercial poorly aimed?
A study from 2003 done in Salt Lake City by The Newspaper Agency Corporation provides some illuminating info about new car sales.1
Judging from the results, I'd say the most likely people to buy new cars are working professional males with a college degree who are married, and between the ages of 25-44. They probably make 100K a year or more.
So, I think the KIA commercial is either attempting to advertise to a non-saturated market, or they have made a mistake. Actually, both may be true; the commercial is a mistake under any circumstances in my opinion.
The study I referred to is found at the url by footnote 1. There are some interesting results in that study, for an example, check out which brand of car was the most purchased by the participants of the survey in 2002. Mercury!
1. http://www.nacorp.com/NAC2/pdf/Vehicles.pdf
2. Here is the commercial.
A study from 2003 done in Salt Lake City by The Newspaper Agency Corporation provides some illuminating info about new car sales.1
Judging from the results, I'd say the most likely people to buy new cars are working professional males with a college degree who are married, and between the ages of 25-44. They probably make 100K a year or more.
So, I think the KIA commercial is either attempting to advertise to a non-saturated market, or they have made a mistake. Actually, both may be true; the commercial is a mistake under any circumstances in my opinion.
The study I referred to is found at the url by footnote 1. There are some interesting results in that study, for an example, check out which brand of car was the most purchased by the participants of the survey in 2002. Mercury!
1. http://www.nacorp.com/NAC2/pdf/Vehicles.pdf
2. Here is the commercial.
I think that commercial is ridiculous and very poorly targeted. First of all, who wants a KIA? Second, who in that target audience is buying new cars? Are they attempting to branch out from the typical "new car buying" audience and reach audiences that cannot actually afford cars? Then the question arises...what does "afford" mean? I'm no expert in this area, but to go in debt for a new car....questionable.
ReplyDelete"Who wants a KIA?" sums it up for me.
ReplyDelete