PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Market Insight Corporation today announced that increasing fuel prices in the US and China have impacted the preferences of consumers differently in these two nations. In the US, sharply increasing fuel prices over the first two months of 2012 resulted in a 24% increase in consumers’ importance of fuel economy as measured by the preferences of over 10,000 new auto shoppers visiting MyProductAdvisor.com.
Although the reaction to price increases was swift in the US, it was more measured than during a time period of similar rapid price increase in 2008. During that time, consumers’ importance of fuel economy spiked 38%. Furthermore, the 2008 fuel price increases yielded a 25% higher consumer preference for hybrid engine types. In contrast, during early 2012 the hybrid preference increased by only 14% to merely half of its peak value in 2008.
In contrast to the US, China’s rise in fuel prices in the first two months of 2012 has been smaller and more gradual as expected. Over this time period there was no significant change in the consumers’ importance of fuel economy as measured by the preferences of over 9,600 Chinese new auto shoppers visiting MyProductAdvisor.cn. Chinese consumer preferences for hybrid technologies also remained unchanged and at a level more than 5 times lower than in the US.
About Market Insight Corp. (MyProductAdvisor.com)
MyProductAdvisor.com is a consumer facing website that provides a real-time portal into the minds of consumers. This service continuously gathers shopper preferences for specific product attributes. MyProductAdvisor.com delivers unbiased buying recommendations to shoppers, and the preferences it collects fuel a powerful, on-demand consumer research intelligence system. Enterprise companies utilize the intelligence as a product planning decision engine. Market Insight Corp., the company behind MyProductAdvisor.com, was established in 2003, and is based in Palo Alto, CA, USA.