Alright! We had some great participation in our “Dream Scooter Survey”. The purpose was to discover the ingredients for the “perfect scooter”, and all-in-all we had over 600 participants offer their opinions.
So, are you ready to see the results? Let’s start with question one. For the first question we asked for you to rate nine different qualities in order of importance. The question wasn’t designed very well and a few people wrote that they were frustrated to find they could only check one box per column. Sorry about the confusion. Overall we had 638 people answer this question… what qualities came out on top? (click the image to see a bigger version)
So, out of Price, Performance, Handling, Comfort, Appearance, Build Quality, Brand Reputation, Reliability and Storage capabilities, “Reliability” came out on top, followed closely by “Build Quality“, then “Handling” and “Performance (speed)“. Most found Storage and Brand Reputation to be of least importance.
So, what does that mean? It means that people want a solid product. Something that is tight and right… something that they can rely on. Was that a surprise? It was to me! Observing the market (what gets imported and sold) over the last few years, I would have guessed the top three to be “Price”, “Performance” and “Storage”. Price actually tuned out to be middle-of-the-road as for as importance goes. I’d say that with the results we’ve been given, this is pretty promising. Maybe we are ready to move away from the disposable scooter? Only demand will dictate… money talks and its a language that manufacturers hear and respond to. If you buy more mail order scooters, you will get more mail order scooters… Supply meets demand.
Now, on to question number two. What design style turns you on? It’s no surprise that the “Classic Italian” look took top honors. Americans especially love the look of the old Vespa, and that’s why we see so many “classic” (As Bryan B. says, “Retro” is probably a better choice of words here) designs on the showroom floors here like the Honda Metropolitan, the Yamaha Vino, etc. Strange as it may seem, this design style is not nearly as popular in Europe. Nope, most other nations consider this look to be tired.
19.7% of the 628 votes for this question went with “Modern Japanese” as the style of choice. Yep, nearly 20% experienced shortness of breath and increased pulse over the swoopy lines of the scooters like Burgman and Silverwing. Ringing in at #3 was the “Modern Italian” look with 16.4% of the vote. Poor little “Moped” came in with just 1.1% of the vote. Maybe ‘ped riders don’t visit The Scooter Scoop. The results may have been different if we were The Moped Scoop, eh?
Well, on to question #3… This was pretty easy, the preferred wheel size was “Medium (13-15 inch)” garnering nearly 40% of the vote… So what is this survey saying? The Honda Silverwing is the perfect scooter? Strange, lets read some more.
Question #4 asked for your prefered engine size or displacement. Answers ranged from the petite little 50cc all the way up to the monstrous 400+cc class. Looking at the answers it was a pretty close call with “Large (200-300cc) just edging out “Medium (150-180cc)” at second place and “Extra Large (400cc+)” taking third. Again, if you want a closer look, just click on the image. 50cc came in last with just 4.8% of the vote.
Here’s another easy one… For preferred seat height, more than half of the population said “Medium (29′-30′) was the way to go. Scooters in that category were the Zuma, Vino, C3, Ruckus and Silverwing. I’m watching you Silverwing!
Here’s another surprising one. Price point! We had nearly a three-way tie here with “Medium ($2800-$3200)” coming in first with 26.8% of the vote, followed by “Luxury ($5000-$9999)” at 2nd place with 25.4% of the vote and “High ($3400 – $4999)“. Really? Strange… and only 2.4% expected to pay rock-bottom pricing on their next scooter.
All of that leads us to question number 7 in the survey dealing with fuel. As you can see, most people thought that good fuel economy was “Damed important!”. Alternative fuel raised a few eyebrows, as did Electric Hybrid. Full Electrics register almost no impact with 55% of the interviewed population finding them rather useless.
Still tallying up the remaining answers. Stay tuned for the results in the morning.
10. March 2008 at 12:47 pm
This probably says more about your readers, who are establish riders or people who have done a good deal of research, than it does about the market in general. I would hazard a guess that there are more people who want to buy a scooter than there are people who are educated about what they really want in a scooter.
Keep in mind that all of my marketing advice is probably worth about what it cost you, and considerably less than my MBA.
10. March 2008 at 2:01 pm
I liked the survey in general. A couple questions threw me a bit but I tried my best to answer them. The seat height question was a bit deceiving. You put low as 25-28 inches and then described the bikes like Helix and Morphous. However you could include the Reflex and Burgman 400 in that group as well. The bikes are very different than the low boys and even though you asked for seat height the description of the Helix paints an image of the long and low scooter.
All and all it was a good survey and I hope you got decent feedback.
10. March 2008 at 2:54 pm
Good point David. I’d like to back up your “guess” with the responses received on the final answer in the survey “How often do you ride on 2 wheels?”. I saw plenty of daily riders and riders that are on the roads at least 2 or 3 times a week. These would definitely be people who have a lot more road-time under their belts than a new rider. Thanks for the input!
10. March 2008 at 2:57 pm
Oh, and Thanks to you Anon for the feedback. Maybe we’ll do this again in a year… that’ll give me enough time to craft some even better questions… maybe theres a way to get some participation from new or soon-to-be scooterists. Survey invites at the dealerships?
10. March 2008 at 4:31 pm
Seat height is tough one. Angles of seats change everything (in the case of the Zuma being no where near the other listed in the category). Also, manufacturers specs of seat heights are often misleading. And seat width, shape and floorboard angles have significant impacts of the relevance of the actual seat height. It’s a bad metric. And no one will admit to being cheap. But most people are.
10. March 2008 at 5:09 pm
Interesting results, it seems like the participants were primarily a maxi-scooter crowd so I’m not sure how wise it would be to apply these results to scooters outside that (i.e .50′s). I think it would be risky to conclude that most 50cc buyers are looking for 13-17inch rims just because 70% of respondents said that…when really these respondents were picturing a 250cc scooter.
Another example, handling was the #3 most important feature, yet I really doubt most 50cc owners are worried about how well their scoot handles as they putt along at 35mph. Accordingly, it may be a good idea to make a maxi-scooter a great handler but similar efforts may be less important when designing a 50cc.
Perhaps something cool to do with the results would be to divide the surveys into the same 5 categories used in question 4 (preferred engine size) and then look at the results for each group separately. I would imagine you’d find the people who prefer ‘tiny’ scooters will also favor smaller wheels, different styles and different features….don’t favour handling etc.
Cheers,
Dan
10. March 2008 at 6:21 pm
Wonder what Homer would think?
http://girtby.net/images/homer-car.gif
11. March 2008 at 1:03 am
Actually, it sounds like you may have a bimodal distribution. There’s one clear maxiscooter camp, and one camp which is looking for something like a Genuine Buddy.
I’m surprised the Cub style didn’t get more love.
11. March 2008 at 2:56 am
Being another Dan responding to this post it’s odd I was thinking the same thing. If there was 9 different “types” or “styles” of bikes to choose from the rest of the responses would reflect that primary choice. Once you choose a Maxi the seat height, cost, performance, etc would only relate to a maxi. Some darn good food for thought.
12. March 2008 at 1:16 am
The last Q on gas mileage was interestingly strange. They said they highly value burning less gasoline, yet rated an electric scooter, which burns none, very low ! This is absurd.
They obviously know nothing about E-scooters. Or electric anything. Yet, they will proudly pollute all the air around them w their gasoline scooters !
If they want to go fast and far, buy a motorcycle.
12. March 2008 at 4:50 am
Once I figured out I couldn’t rate things equally (duh) I thought the survey was fine. I didn’t feel like I was being “pointed” in any direction.
My quandry is that the “scoot of the day” varies with conditions. Sometimes the Zuma is the better choice than the Swing. But when I need the Swing, I need it.
In a way, I agree with “Electric.”
I’ll be real interested when they come up with a Vectrix that’ll take me and my honey from Reno to Tahoe, get us around the lake, charge up during lunch and get us home.