Audi drivers like to shop? Personas of non-Japanese luxury car drivers

The "myAudi" car app that can be used by registering your car with Audi connect Safety & Service. What are the main functions available?

On the official "myAudi" website, it appears that a variety of vehicle features are offered.
Some excerpts from them are the following:

・Lock/Unlock your car remotely from your smartphone
・Locate parked vehicles using Car Finder
・Access vehicle status report
(allows the user to check the vehicle's mileage, door locks, the windows' open/closed status, gasoline level, etc. from your smartphone)

It is convenient to be able to remotely manage the security of your car, such as locking the doors and opening the windows.

Next, let's take a look at the number of users that has installed the "myAudi" app.

The number of users has steadily increased from 44,500 in July 2020 to 85,400 in June 2022, a 1.9-fold increase.

In terms of gender, males make up the majority at 86%.
In terms of age, the majority of respondents are in their 40s and 50s.
This result is easy to imagine, given the fact that the price of a vehicle is not cheap at all, and that the younger generation has been a shift away from car ownership.

Next, we follow up on marital status and family structure (with or without children).
The number of married respondents is approximately 2.7 times more than those who have never been married, but there is no significant difference between the two groups in terms of the presence or absence of children.
Looking at the ratio of unmarried people, the Audi appears to be a car that is used to enjoy outings with their families or as a means of transportation, rather than a car that single persons enjoy as a hobby.

The results show that more married couples drive an Audi than singles.
The annual household income is a point of interest.
The most common annual household income range for Audi owners is between 8 and 10 million yen, which is consistent with the impression of people who drive foreign cars.

When is the "myAudi" app frequently opened?

Looking at the days of the week, we see more activity on weekends, when people have more time for outings and maintenance, but we can also see activity on weekdays.
On weekdays, Monday and Friday are have the most activity, with Wednesday having the fewest.
This is a good indication that Audi owners are
∙ looking at the condition of the car at the beginning of the week
∙ are checking the condition of their car before a weekend trip or to prepare for the following week
This may be due to the following reasons.

A closer look at the time of day reveals that there is more activity during the commuting hours of 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., lunchtime at 12:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., and 8:00 p.m., when people are returning home or picking up their children.
The activity at 8:00 p.m. may be due to people checking the condition of their cars in preparation for the following day.

We have a rough idea of the personas and lifestyles through the user attributes and app activity.
So, let's dig deeper to see the interests of Audi owners.

The data below shows the ranking of apps activated by Audi owners in June 2022 (*ranked by reach).
The usage of smartphone payments, such as d-Pay and PayPay, suggest a high level of IT literacy in their daily life. In terms of social media, the use of Instagram can be said to be a distinctive characteristic.
With a high number of users with the Rakuten and Amazon app, it can be inferred that many users are highly-motivated to make purchases and are interested in convenient, easy online shopping.

For reference here, we will also compare the characteristics of users of the "Mercedes me" and "My BMW" apps released by other well-known foreign car manufacturers. What kind of apps are they both interested in?
With the differences in interests, we may also infer differences in the characteristics of the owner.

First, it can be said that "Mercedes me" users are characterized by the fact that social media apps are at the top of the list. The difference with Audi is that they Mercedes Benz drivers use Facebook instead of Instagram.
In addition, food services such as "Tabelog," which did not rank high in "myAudi" users' apps of interest, are at the top of the list, and for shopping, the "Mitsui Shopping Park" app is in third place. This suggests that more "Mercedes me" users enjoy shopping at brick-and-mortar stores, such as major commercial facilities, rather than online shopping like the "myAudi" users.

Next, "My BMW" users, like "Mercedes me" users, social media apps (also Facebook) are at the top of the list, but music apps such as Amazon Music and business newspaper app from The Nikkei newspapers are very distinctive.
"My BMW" users can be seen as someone who enjoys music as a hobby, but is also highly interested in business.

Both are use Facebook and the Tabelog apps, and they seem to share similarities, but differ from "myAudi" users.

When we delved deeper into the "myAudi" app users provided by Audi and followed the personas of Audi owners, we found that most of them are men in their 40s and 50s, the highest annual household income of 8 to 10 million yen, and many of them are married.

Analysis of the activity also revealed high IT literacy with the daily use and online shopping.
At the same time, users of the "Mercedes me" and "My BMW" apps frequently used Tabelog and Facebook, which also exhibited differences with the interests of Audi owners.

The evolution of technology in the automotive industry and its influence into our daily lives will continue to grow in the future.
We will continue to follow and study how new technologies and automotives are connected to consumer behavior using various perspectives.

・Analysis based on online behavior analytics and user attribute information, with the cooperation of our nationwide research participants
・Period of online behavior monitoring: July 2020 to June 2022
*Volume is estimated based on the domestic online population, based on the rate of respondents among participants owned by VALUES.
*Target devices: Both PC and smartphone

The data in this investigation is from Dockpit, an analytics tool with online behavior log data and user demographic information under the permission of panelists in Japan presented by VALUES, Inc.

※The numbers of users are estimated by the data in the monitor and the internet population in Japan.