On October 21, 2009
Frequent Styling Changes Increase Market Share, Study Says
Earlier today, I reported on a CNW Market Research study claiming that today’s auto buyers are fickle, with only 20 percent choosing to stick with the brand they’d most recently bought. But now a Virginia Commonwealth University study says that the most important reason consumers switch brands is a failure to freshen up styling. This phenomenon favors Japanese companies, says George Hoffer, a VCU economics professor and frequent auto industry consultant. Hoffer said that American models tend to go two years without a cosmetic update, compared to just one year for Japanese cars. VCU’s analysis indicates that a “restyling bump” carries an uptick in sales into the second year without a change, but “there’s no impact at all by the third…
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