Mail in the automotive sector

The car market is a barometer of the UK economy, with car sales traditionally one of the first market sectors to decline as a recession takes hold. The data in this MMC report from 2010 reflects the downturn in the sector last year – automotive advertising spend has gone down 30% from 2005 – 2009, but it's not all bad news.

The Government's scrappage scheme, introduced in 2009, gave the new car market a much-needed shot in the arm, although it did come at the expense of the used car market.

This report uses the latest Mintel, Nielsen, TGI and Billetts data to offer a snapshot of the UK's automotive sector, including its advertising spend, as well as summarising the sector's key strengths and weaknesses.

Key findings include:

• New car sales are predicted to fall in volume by 5% from 2009 to 2010 before recovering from 2011 onwards to reach 2.1 million cars in 2014. Sales of used cars will begin to recover in 2010 as the car scrappage scheme comes to a close and demand switches back to used cars from new cars.

• Manufacturers are responding to consumer concerns about the environment with greener vehicles. Smaller cars are now selling better than SUVs. Sales of alternatively fuelled cars including hybrid and fully electric cars rose in 2009 to 20,000 from 16,000.

• Growth in the 25-34 family formation age groups and 45-54 mature family and empty nester age groups will benefit the automotive market as families upgrade to larger cars and buy additional vehicles. 

• Marketers spent over £51m on automotive direct mail from April 2008 to Nov 2009.

• 53% of adults who are car buyers have done something in the past 12 months as a result of the direct mail they’ve received. 

• ABC1s were targeted by 54% of automotive mailings and more men were targeted than women.