Now here’s something special…..
I posted earlier this evening about some possibilities for the Saab Pride submissions I’ve received. Shortly after writing that article, I received an email from an academic in Germany – a Dr. Rüdiger Hossiep, attached to the Psychology Dept at the Ruhr University in Bochum.
Dr Hosseip and a team of students set out on an ambitious mission to study the level of attachment that various people have to particular brands of cars. Their study involved over 1 million people and was focused on a German automotive forum called Motor Talk.
Here’s a Googletrans about the study:
They developed a procedure which allows the over three million records of more than 1.2 million users of the largest German car forum on the internet “motor-talk” to each other in relation to.
Their results bring all the existing brand rankings shaken: for example, identify themselves the followers of the cult-quirky brand SAAB 40 times more closely with their car as a Nissan driver.
Researchers have published the results of the evaluations of the last three years, for the first time. Parallel to this is launching an online survey, which will show what is behind the large or small is love. All motorists are invited to participate!
I’ve tried to complete the survey, but it’s in German and it doesn’t want to co-operate with the Googletrans software. I’ve put a link to the survey, below.
But back to the initial findings. There are tables for the last three years: 2007 to 2009. These measure something the team calls an ‘involvement index’ – which is basically a measure of the number of users, their level of engagement, with the number of registrations for that marque factored in as well.
Here are the results for 2009 and you can see the prior years’ rankings on the left:
Those numbers actually reflect a fall for Saab. They’re still on top of the index, but not by nearly as clear a margin as what they were in 2007, when they had nearly twice the index figure of the second place brand (Volvo, at that time).
Still, it’s a very interesting outcome and confirms hat many of us have believed for some time – that Saab has a very passionate following, and one that’s pretty web-savvy as well.
Saab pride, indeed!
You can read the findings page and see the prior years charts at the following links: the original in German, or in English via the Googletrans.
If you read German and would like to participate in their latest survey, asking what’s important to you about your car, then click here.
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{ 20 comments }
This remains impressive data. So…the few Saab owners there are are extremely loyal? With or without K-Segg, the brand is strong. As CJ said last week, Saab needs MORE true and retained believers!
Audi has made good progress here, and grown volume to boot.
Just reflecting about myself:
Maybe german Saab owners are very dedicated exactly because the german car manufacturers are so big & successful.
Saab = different, nice, subtle, underdog image? Hmm…
I just cannot imagine myself in a BMW, Mercedes or Audi. I considered an Audi some time ago but the dealer was horribly high nosed and seemingly did not really want to sell a car to us…
Germans for some reason tend to have a very positive, romantic view on everything Swedish – from moose roadsigns and little red cottages in the forest to classic children’s TV programmes and crime fiction. With SAAB and Volvo topping the list, it seems this attitude extends to cars as well. So maybe this survey says more about Germans than it does about SAAB.
Kamelen +1
There’s a youtube Top Gear review of the 9-3 when it came out in 1998 (I think) which said that 80% of Saab owners bought another Saab. It’s a fantastic level of loyalty, something which GM has really tested.
If by “tested” you mean “flushed down the toilet with little hope of recovery” then yeah, they sure did.
Well yes, if GM wanted to cater to repeat Saab customers they would have come out with a hatch.
That said, Mini was able to attract many new buyers with a cult add campaign, good reviews and a unique design. Its quite amazing how many people they were able to move into a smaller vehicle in the U.S.
Didn’t require 20 different car models either.
I would think that Alfa would be higher. Alfa is another group of very enthusiastic owners, myself included.
Chris
Nice statistic, I think we all know SAABisti are often on-line !!
And on 2007 SAABisty were 7 times more often online than average.
2009 only 5.31 which also means other brand drivers found the internet in the last 2 Years.
I¨ve gone through the survey and it is quite standard with lots of double question tocheck if you are faking the answers, but also lots of questions which I would call “SAAB-specific”. It was quite strange.
What I see here an opportuntiy for (re)conquest sales for the new SAAB:
Subaru is week and we can get the utilitarian and sport crowd back.
Smart is week and we can get the enviromentalist back.
Mitubishi is week and we can get the racer back with a halo 9-1 and 9-3. This can also pertain to the Subaru STI crowd.
This is encouraging. Momentum can be in SAAB’s favor if we capitalize on it with GREAT PRODUCT!
I keep saying that Saab should build the top-notch 9-3 into a sports car powerhouse and when I say this, I think most people assume I want Saab to build an M3 clone.
I don’t, I want to see Saab draw on it’s rally heritage and build something akin to an STI with Audi luxury. The Evo X and STI both produce M3-level performance with turbo 4-pots and AWD. Just as the 900 turbo once set the standard for luxurious 4-banger performance, Saab needs to release a 300+hp 4-cylinder, XWD car that produces M3-level performance with WRC-inspired mechanicals. It will attract attention from the journalists, and it will be the kind of halo car that Saab needs to show that it’s back in a big way.
Alex,
I don’t think anyone disagrees with you on this, but I’m not sure that there’s merit in making this a priority.
BMW can make the M3 and improve it every other year because 3-series sales have been so strong.
Saab’s priority is to learn to walk again.
And personally, I think the 9-3 is too big and heavy for WRC purposes. Maybe the next (smaller) 9-3 but not this one.
I hope they do what you suggest, but I hope they get their mass market stuff sorted first.
Alex,
Swade is right…but I am SO WITH YOU on this. Especially if/when the 9-3 goes smaller!
Yeah, I generally have differences of opinion with Alex, but today I read at Autoblog of BMW’s improved twin-turbo diesel V6, now producing 306 bhp and 442 (!) lb. ft. of torque and make me realize how GM has let Saab slip behind in engine technology.
Alex etc: while i absolutely concur that saab needs some kind of “impressive statement” i am not sure if the time is right to do so by repeating yesterday’s approach of offering ever more powerful cars. Maybe, such statement could also be quietest car, or largest interior at a given overall length, etc. To focus on the engine all the time is getting a bit long in the teeth.
I agree with the positive romantic view on all that is Swedish (or scandinavian in general). I guess I’m a complete scandia-freak myself.
That survey should be used by the saab-marketeers more in orde to crick up saabs selling volumes, that could be better in Germany as everywhere else.
I guess only specialist marques like lotus or caterham do better, but they are not included.
(Why is porsche so relatively low in the ranking ? Or indeed, mamamia cuoro sportivo alfa romeo, que passa ?)
@ elbobo, nice snake, with a lion’s/griffin-head.
And what’s more, in this survey the passion was there even with gm-involvement on the saab-products (with so called flush-down-techniques).
So, twin-turbo’s on all future saabs please ……..
Just took part in the survey, a lot of funny questions, and left Swade’s blog as a reference how I got there.
… and added a bit of scandinavian-passion.
I am not surprised by the results of the survey. I haven’t met a Saab owner who bought the car “by mistake”. We simply love our Saabs even if they give us hard time sometimes. We are crazy…that’s all!!!
The study looks biased. especially being a German automotive forum…
Ive worked for Subaru for the past 10 years and we found with the marketing that when someone buys a Subaru, it is for a reason and a purpose. Our competition has never been with Toyota or other Japanese Brands because we have a Niche market, similar to Saab. If someone buys a Subaru or a Saab, it is because they want a Subaru or a Saab. I would like to see this study done else where though. Again, seeing how this is from a German website, in German, you can understand why Most of the vehicles are German and European. Even the Opel!
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