BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Crimson Hexagon, a leading provider of business insights from social data analysis to inform strategic enterprise decision-making, today released its “Roads of the Future: Eco-friendly autos, self-driving cars, ridesharing and other trends affecting the US auto industry” report. Drawing on its data repository of more than 1 trillion social media posts, Crimson Hexagon’s analysis shows consumer sentiment, emotions and reactions to the latest transformations in the automotive industry, including negative sentiment and emotions toward ridesharing and autonomous vehicles.
With automakers already relying on social media analytics to measure the strength of their brands, gauge consumer reactions to new vehicle launches and prepare for special events, the industry is now coming to realize the value of social insights in broader use cases. From managing customer service issues and product planning and development, to identifying emerging trends and opportunities in the industry, social media insights can help automakers sell more vehicles and improve customer experiences. Crimson Hexagon’s report illustrates these capabilities, with findings about which cars consumers discuss most, why there’s growing social media conversation about Tesla (and why it’s negative), and more.
The Crimson Hexagon automotive industry report reflects consumers’ commentary, preferences and opinions from social media to address questions automakers are struggling to answer, such as, “Which features are most important to drivers?” and, “How do consumers feel about self-driving cars?” Key findings include the following:
- Top five U.S. car brands: While Chevrolet and Honda are the most discussed of the top five U.S. car brands, Toyota leads in conversations about fuel efficiency and reliability, and Ford leads in conversations about design and performance.
- The rise of Tesla: Conversation about Tesla has increased tenfold since 2010, with its self-driving autopilot feature as the leading topic. However, anger is the top emotion in the Tesla conversation, due to its high prices and self-driving technology.
- Ridesharing: Conversation about ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft overtook taxi conversation in 2014 and continues to grow. However, sentiment about ridesharing has increased in negativity annually since 2010.
- Eco-friendly cars: Conversations about eco-friendly cars peaked in 2015, dominated by discussions about the expense and potential battery and charging issues of the vehicles.
- Self-driving cars: Self-driving car conversations took off in 2014, but fear and anger are the most dominant emotions in the conversation, driven by doubts of the technology’s trustworthiness.
- The ideal car: When looking for a new car, consumers care most about comprehensive safety features, Bluetooth or USB connectivity, and space.
“The insights social media data can provide automakers enable them to not only respond to consumer wants and needs quicker, but also help them be more innovative and more competitive,” said Errol Apostolopolous, senior vice president of product at Crimson Hexagon. “The ‘Roads of the Future’ report gives a taste of the rich insights available in social media data, and as we advance our platform capabilities, many automotive brands will find even more uses of social insights, limited only by their creativity.”
Crimson Hexagon’s automotive report is available for free download at www.crimsonhexagon.com/automotive-trends.
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About Crimson Hexagon
Crimson Hexagon is the global leader in consumer insights from social media data. Powered by patented technology and an in-house data library of more than 1 trillion posts, Crimson Hexagon's platform helps hundreds of brands and agencies answer critical business questions through the insights derived from social data. Clients include leading global organizations such as General Mills, Starbucks, Paramount Pictures, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Adidas and Twitter, and leading agencies such as TBWA, VML, BBDO, Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy, Edelman and Digitas. Find us on Twitter and on Tumblr.
