IndiaAuto Social Index - Report on Indian Automobile Industry, June 2013

The automobile industry is one of the most impacted by social media conversations, which have a significant effect on opinion and purchase. Also, given the capital intensive nature of the business, and the criticality of new launches, brand owners are increasingly looking at the social web for marketing and deeper analysis to understand brand and sales impact.

Moving away from the vanity indices, the 'Blogworks IndiaAuto Social Index' aims to correlate social metrics, consumer sentiment and sales data to provide marketers and brand owners with actionable insights.

Through leaderboards that they have created, the report will help auto brands to monitor their performance vis-à-vis their competitors over a period of time. To be updated every month from here on, the report will show monthly online movements in brand conversations and impact.

Speaking about the report, Rajesh Lalwani, CEO, Blogworks: “Moving away from the vanity indices, the 'Blogworks IndiaAuto Social Index' aims to correlate social metrics, consumer sentiment and sales data to provide marketers and brand owners with actionable insights”

Here are some of the key insights from the study:

• Tata Motors, Ford and Audi are the Top 3 most mentioned auto brands online in June 2013
• Porshe, Audi and BMW are top scorers on the Brand Vibrancy Index, a social sentiment score
• Launch of the Ford EcoSport resulted in Ford Motors’ jump in rank, from the 4th position in May to the 2nd position in June 2013, in terms of volume of mentions

*Brand Vibrancy Index is a social sentiment score inspired by the net promoter score. BVI = (% of
positive mentions) – (% of negative mentions)

Most Mentioned Brand:

• Tata Motors was the most mentioned brand online, in the month of June 2013, overtaking Audi which was the most mentioned brand online in the month of May 2013.
• The top gainer by volume of mentions in June was Nissan. Lamborghini was the top gainer by rank as it gained 7 positions to reach the 17th position in June, from the 25th position in May 2013.

Monthly Sentiment by Brand:

• Nissan's hatchback Micra's facelift contributed to the share of positive sentiment for Nissan.
• Negative feedback for Toyota Etios contributed to a dip in positive sentiment for Toyota overall.

Brand Vibrancy Index (BVI)

• Porsche, Audi and BMW are June’s most vibrant brands, displacing Lamborghini and Jaguar from the last month. Audi has been consistent at the 2nd position.

Buzz V/s Sales:

• For Tata Motors, Nissan, Renault, Honda, Hyundai and Skoda - it appears that there is a correlation between mentions, sentiment and sales. An increase or decrease in volume and sentiment led to a corresponding increase or decrease in sales. A longer term study would reveal a more accurate correlation.

Conversation Maker of the Month - Ford Ecosport

• The launch of the Ford EcoSport resulted in Ford Motors’ jump in rank, from the 4th position in May to the 2nd position in June 2013, in terms of volume of mentions.
• In the month of June 2013, at the time of the launch, the mentions around the vehicle grew by 162%.
• The high mentions around the vehicle were due to public anticipation towards the launch and comparisons with the Renault Duster.

Top Category

• By total mentions – In both May and June, SUVs emerged as the most talked-about category.
• By Brand Vibrancy Index – Luxury sedans were the most vibrant category in the month of June, 2013, overtaking sports cars in May, 2013.

Channel Behavior by Category:

• An in-depth look into which channels the conversations are taking place on, and how we can categorize the participants according to whether they are Spectators, Owners, Experts, Prospects, Media, Online Influencers or Bloggers.