Auto Shopping Brochures Hold Surprising Auto Purchase Influence According to a Foresight Research Study

ROCHESTER, Mich., March 29, 2016 -- In the bygone days of buying your vehicle to order, and looking to dealerships as the only information source for car purchasing, one of the rites of auto shopping was to pick up a catalog (also called a brochure) at the dealership, and bring it home to look at features, specs, colors and accessories for that vehicle or line of vehicles.  After all, it was the only source for that information.

Of course, now that you can get that information and so much more with the click of a keyboard, you might think that brochures just don’t have the power they did in the past, or that a majority of brochures are accessed online.  Well, you’d be wrong.

“Brochures are a surprising phenomenon in the digital age,” said Nancy Walter, a Vice President at Foresight Research, “the 2015 Foresight Research Brochures and Your Brand Report™, showed they influence purchase for one third of new auto buyers which is the same level as seen in 2008 when we first started measuring purchase influence.  And surprisingly, the same 70% of people who are influenced by a brochure picked them up at the dealership versus online or at an auto show.  The continuing power of brochures is also evident in their usage to influence and convert auto shoppers - over half of the new auto buyers that read a brochure are influenced by it in their purchase.”

Brochures are more popular among car-connected individuals who are particularly important to automakers because they tend to be influential (give advice to 6 or more people about shopping for a new car), they are likely to recommend their brand to a friend, and they spend the big bucks as luxury owners, particularly BMW purchasers.

“Brochures are powerful in other ways - they are among the top three marketing channels when it comes to communicating 15 of 27 message themes we measure,” Walter related, “and it’s not just about the expected specs and technical information (though brochures are the best at communicating that influentially).  For instance, brochures communicate messages about style and the brand’s reputation as well.”

Brochures and Your Brand™ is part of the single topic Automaker Laser Report™ and Dealer Action Report™ series published by Foresight starting in 2015, based on trends, insights, and inquiries important to automakers.

About Foresight Research – www.foresightresearch.com
Foresight Research specializes in syndicated and custom studies focusing on key influencers of purchase decisions in the automotive industry.  Since 2008, Foresight Research publishes syndicated reports each year that provide information, strategies and best practices to help auto companies, their partners, and auto dealers to build, position, and support marketing insights and actions.

Contact
Nancy Walter		
Foresight Research
248.608.1870 x 18
[email protected]