People Love Car Brands

Brands that resonate with consumers are Jeep, BMW, Honda, Harley-Davidson and Chevrolet.

GLOBAL–The automotive industry ranked second on the MBLM Brand Intimacy 2018 Report, a study of brands based on emotion.

The top 10 brands in the automotive industry category included Jeep, BMW, Honda, Harley-Davidson, Chevrolet, Ford, Mercedes, Chrysler and GMC.

Brand intimacy is a qualitative term that averages the strengths and emotional bonds between a consumer and a brand.

“While slipping slightly, the automotive industry still performed strongly due to the bonds it creates with consumers,” says Mario Natarelli, managing partner, MBLM. “The Jeep brand has risen in our 2018 Brand Intimacy Report. We just released an analysis of Jeep and found that its recent marketing efforts have been focusing on powerful emotional themes at the core of its brand, leveraging nostalgia well and utilizing today’s marketing channels to build dialogue and strong bonds.”

The study also found that the Jeep brand ranked first among women; BMW ranked first among men; the industry as a whole had a brand intimacy quotient score of 44.9, higher than the average of 27.1; BMW ranked third and Jeep brand ranked fourth in the overall study; Harley-Davidson fell the furthest, from the fourth overall brand in 2017 to 18th and from first in the automotive industry to fifth in 2018; The Jeep brand moved up from 15th overall in 2017 to fourth in 2018.

For the first time, media and entertainment nabbed the top spot with contributing factors including the trend toward escapism, relaxation and distraction.

The report was conducted across 15 industries in the U.S., Mexico and UAE.