Roy Morgan Research is pleased to announce the release of the December quarter Automotive Currency Report, covering key consumer marketing metrics of New Car Buying Intention, Brand Awareness, Consideration, Advertising Recall, Brand Rejection, Brand Loyalty and Satisfaction, which each serve as Key Performance Indicators of New Car Buying Intention.

Market Overview

o The Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Rating remains at a comparable level to prior to the ‘Global Financial Crisis’. Interest rate movement has the potential to dampen Consumer Confidence and restrain growth in new car sales volume among consumers with mortgages (who represent around 37% of the private new car market*).

o At VFACTS Segment level, the Small Passenger Segment and SUV Segment are the two segments to have gained share of total intention, with Medium Passenger Segment declining (refer chart below).

o Brand Awareness, Consideration, Advertising Recall, Brand Rejection, Brand Loyalty and Satisfaction each serve as Key Performance Indicators of New Car Buying Intention.

VFACTS Segment Share of New Car Buying Intention, among those intending to buy a new car in the next four years

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In early March support for the ALP is 55.5% (down 1%) maintaining a strong two-party preferred lead over the L-NP (44.5%, up 1%) according to the latest Face-to-Face Morgan Poll conducted over the last two weekends (February 27/28 & March 6/7, 2010).

If a Federal Election were held today the ALP would still win easily, according to the Morgan Poll.

The ALP primary vote is 45% (unchanged), ahead of the L-NP (38.5%, up 1%), while looking at the minor parties shows support for the Greens (8.5%, down 0.5%), Family First (2%, down 0.5%) and Independents/ Others (6%, unchanged).

The Roy Morgan Government Confidence Rating is now at 131 (down 1 point) with 57% (down 1.5%) of Australians confident that Australia is ‘heading in the right direction,’ compared to 26% (down 0.5%) that say Australia is ‘heading in the wrong direction.’

Consumer Confidence is now 128.1 (down 1.4 points in a week), according to the weekly Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Rating conducted on the weekend of March 6/7, 2010. The Consumer Confidence rating is now 30.8pts higher than a year ago, March 7/8, 2009 (97.3).

The fall has been driven by a decrease in confidence amongst Australians about economic conditions over the next 12 months and five years.

Of Australia generally 47% (down 2%) say that Australia as a whole will have ‘good times’ financially during the next 12 months compared to 17% (up 1%) that say we’ll have ‘bad times’ financially in the next 12 months.

In terms of personal finances 46% (down 2%) of Australians expect their family to be ‘better off financially’ this time next year compared to 14% (unchanged) of Australians that expect their family to be ‘worse off financially.’

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Of 31 automotive attitudes asked of more than 15,000 Australian drivers in the latest Roy Morgan Research survey, the largest majority of Australian drivers agree ‘fuel efficiency is more important than high performance’ (79.9% agree). The second highest ranking attitudinal statement was ‘I will only buy a car with a proven track record’ which recorded 74.2% agreement, followed by ‘I want a car that has all the extras as standard’ with 72.4% agreement.

The vast majority also agreed ‘a long warranty is essential to me when buying my new car’ (71% agree), ‘I spend a lot of time researching my options before deciding which car to buy’ (69.9% agree) and ‘safety is my number one concern when choosing a vehicle’ (69.8% agree), during the twelve months ending December 2009.

Automotive Attitudes Top 10 – All Drivers Agree





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The latest Roy Morgan Supermarket Satisfaction Report reveals Aldi, despite a small decline in customer satisfaction in January is still in first place for customer satisfaction. Coles was the only Supermarket to show improvement in customer satisfaction in the January result. With a 1.7% point drop in satisfaction, IGA is now placed only marginally ahead of Woolworths (by 0.4% points).

Among Aldi customers, 91.4% were satisfied, followed by Coles (85.5%), IGA (85.0%) and Woolworths (84.6%) for the 6 month’s average to January 2010.

Percentage of each Supermarket's Customers who are Satisfied





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• In the month of February Australia’s total unemployment as measured by Roy Morgan was 907,000 (7.9%), up 32,000 (0.4%) since January, and up 23,000 since February 2009.

• In February 2010 there were 7,238,000 (down 254,000 on January 2010 but up 110,000 on February 2009) Australians working full-time and 3,310,000 (down 22,000 on January 2010, but up a large 230,000 on February 2009) working part-time.

• The latest Roy Morgan February 2010 unemployment estimate is 2.6% above the 5.3% currently quoted by the ABS for January 2010.

• The Roy Morgan February 2010 ‘under-employed’* estimate is 716,000 (6.3%), down 129,000 (0.9%) on January 2010, but up 17,000 on a year ago, February 2009.

• In total in February 2010 an estimated 1,622,000 (14.2%) Australians were unemployed or ‘under-employed, down 98,000 (down 0.5%) on January 2010.

The latest Roy Morgan NZ Poll shows support for John Key’s National-led Government is up 1% to 57.5% comprising National Party 53.5% (up 1.5%), Maori Party 2.5% (unchanged) and ACT NZ 1.5% (unchanged).

Support for Opposition Parties is 42.5% (down 1%); Labour Party 31.5% (down 1.5%), Greens 8% (unchanged), NZ First 2% (unchanged), The Progressive Party 0.5% (up 0.5%) and Others 0.5% (unchanged).

If a National Election were held today the National Party would win easily.

The Roy Morgan Government Confidence Rating is 140.5 (up 1.5 points) with 65% (up 1%) of New Zealanders saying New Zealand is ‘heading in the right direction’ compared to 24.5% (down 0.5%) that say New Zealand is ‘heading in the wrong direction.’

The latest Roy Morgan New Zealand Banking Customer Satisfaction Survey shows that TSB Bank continues to stretch its lead over other rivals>

The latest survey of New Zealand banking customer satisfaction shows TSB Bank with a 90.5% customer satisfaction level. These results, for the six months to December 2009 show that TSB Bank remains well ahead of closest rival Kiwibank (82.1%). Compared against the same period in the previous year, TSB Bank were up 3.0% points and 4.0% points higher than the previous quarter (September 2009). In addition, TSB Bank was the only bank to grow its customer satisfaction year-on-year, while the six other banks had declined.

The New Zealand-owned TSB Bank and Kiwibank are regularly the two highest in terms of customer satisfaction, however in recent months the TSB Bank has pulled ahead of Kiwibank. Comparing December 2009 against June 2009, TSB grew by 3.1% points, while Kiwibank fell by 2.2% points.

Customer Satisfaction with New Zealand's Major Banks





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