Kiss Insight

BEHIND THE WHEEL WITH KISS 12 May 2011

Here at Kiss Confidential we like to get to the bottom of things. Throughout the year we've been working on a project called ‘The Inside’ in which we delve into important issues, finding out important answers from both Kiss listeners and the wider UK world of Bauer. Across the year we'll be exploring numerous topics that are relevant in order to reveal crucial insight. 

Our first insight from this year has been quite revealing. With the recession still lurking over our heads, the cost of petrol escalating and the ever increasing desire to be green a guilty burden, we thought it was time to see how all these factors affect those lucky Kiss listeners who have their own set of wheels in the ever evolving world of motors.

Before we think about Kiss' habits and trends, let's get a context of how the car industry is holding up. Across the UK car sales increased by 1.8% over 2010, a great result for the industry in difficult times especially as the VAT increase in January failed to boost car sales in December. However 2011 is looking to be a great struggle as new car sales are set to fall by 5% in 2011.

With this downward trend in mind, what’s the story for Kiss?

It would seem Kiss listeners are planning to spend a little bit more than the rest of the UK with 19% of them planning to buy a new car in the next 12 months (compared to a UK Avg of 17%) and on average they expect to spend £10,357.54, £514 more than the Avg UK spend.

So we know there's a desire to buy and they have the cash to do so but what brands excite Kiss? It would seem the most enticing brands for our listeners are both Ford and Volkswagen who are a close first choice with 36% and 35% of our listeners votes, Audi follows behind in third place with just 24%.

When choosing a car model the small Hatch-Back is the most popular option with over 50% of listeners preferring their next purchase to be one over any other model.

To find out why Ford and Volkswagen were so popular, we asked our listeners to tell us which of the following statements each car brand represents...

• Value for money – 52% agreed Ford represented Value, who were by far the winners scoring 25% more than any other brand
• Trustworthy – 35% agreed Volvo are safe and trustworthy with Ford behind at 33%, BMW next up scoring 32% and Volkswagen just behind at 31%
• Family Friendly – 47% agreed that Ford are the most family friendly, as with value they were by far the winners scoring 20% more than any other brand
• Innovative – 37% agreed Audi and BMW were the most, as well as equally as, innovative as each other.
• Cool/Stylish – 41% agreed Audi are cool, closely followed by BMW who got 40% of listeners appreciation and Porsche with 36%
• Young – 42% agreed that the Mini is the brand for the youth, a top choice beating every other brand by 20%
• Luxurious – with 63% it seems Mercedes and Porsche are synonymous with luxury, closely followed by BMW at 62%.
• Green motoring - Toyota are the car manufacturers who are most closely linked with green motoring cars as agreed by 35% of Kiss listeners which is followed by Honda with 21%

From this we can see that Ford and Volkswagen have Kiss' trust and with Ford giving the added benefit of value, it would seem that Kiss are quite practical when it comes to driving. However with Audi representing innovation and style, a quarter of Kiss think there's more to driving then just getting from A to B

When it comes to thoughts for motoring on the green side of the road, there seems to be awareness but not willing. Most people understand the various options for going green but when it comes to making the commitment themselves, the high price and limited availability of alternative fuel stations makes them very reluctant. However safety, space and style rank low in this decision process so it really is the practical side of going green that’s holding them back. Kiss listeners are still going green where they can though, although this is predominately driven by petrol prices rather than a guilty conscience. 49% of Kiss listeners are contemplating reducing the amount of driving they currently do with 5% having stopped driving altogether.

Finally, and moving away from the serious side of the motoring world, we asked Kiss listeners which celebrity they would like to go on a long car journey with?

With Kiss we know they're committed to music so we thought they'd be more than a few divas topping the poles in order to serenade our listeners whilst driving. However it seems the Kiss audience want to be entertained and educated on those long journeys. The top choice was twitter loving Stephen Fry, followed by comedian Alan Carr. It's not until third place we get to the musical side of things with Cheryl Cole. Surprisingly Jeremy Clarkson snuck into the top five above funnyman Lee Evans, maybe a few listeners felt he would not only entertain them but help them if their car broke down. 

Have a look at the word cloud below to see who else appealed to our listeners to brighten up a long, boring car journey. The bigger font of each name, the more listeners who named them as the ideal passenger.