You are what you drive

Education level, tech smarts and wealth are just a few traits your ride can convey

Porsches smack of success. Hondas preach practicality. And, according to a recent report, Chevys proudly proclaim of their owners, "I don't use the Internet."

Your car implies more about your life than you might think. While 13% of Chevy owners don't use the Web, by contrast, less than 3% of Honda owners remain in the technological Stone Age. The antithesis of flashy, Honda owners are usually pragmatic and well educated; 70% boast a college degree or higher, compared with 35% of Chevy owners and 45% of Ford owners.

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The data was released in the spring as part of this year's New Vehicle Experience Study by San Diego-based market research outfit Strategic Vision.

"Honda buyers buy primarily for the trust and dependability they find in our vehicles," says Honda spokesman Chris Naughton. "Typically, highly functional vehicles deliver less image because customers didn't purchase for image."

Education level and computer savvy are just a couple of the things your car says about you. We collected demographic data on 10 prominent auto brands from the manufacturers themselves, as well as from neutral sources like Strategic Vision. It turns out, your wheels also give clues to your age, gender, income level and marital status--even your political leanings.

Mini Mindset

If you'd like to cultivate an image of sophistication, try buying a Mini Cooper. The line of Lilliputian hatchbacks appeals to urbane buyers with median incomes of around $125,000. But aside from wealth, Mini owners are a tough bunch to pin down, demographically speaking, since the car has broad appeal.

"It's a certain mindset," says Nathalie Bauers, spokeswoman for Mini USA. "People who relate to the brand, there's no age to that."

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Bauers says Mini owners fall into four categories: brand enthusiasts, who relish the car's British racing roots; design aficionados, who like the car's simple elegance; social butterflies, who want to be part of the Mini community; and gas misers, who crave the Mini's fuel efficiency.

Some of the latter group trade down from trucks and SUVs not because they feel financially crunched by high gas prices, but because they want to be conscientious and reduce their impact on the environment. These "right-sizers" like the Mini's eco-friendly image; all Mini models get at least 34 miles per gallon on the highway. Says Bauers: "Many of our customers are people who get a smaller car because it's the right thing to do."

Gray Area

While Minis appeal to several different types of people, owners of the classic English luxury vehicle Rolls-Royce can't be pigeonholed beyond the fact that they're rich.

"As you can imagine, our customers do not really take surveys," says Rolls-Royce spokeswoman Karen Vonder Meulen. "The one common thread that all our customers share is a passion for life and most truly love cars."

Indeed, well-known Rolls owners range from royal families to rappers. Recording artist T-Pain, who ranks No. 9 on Forbes' Hip-Hop Cash Kings list, owns North America's first Rolls-Royce Drophead. The fire-engine-red coupe boasts a 12-cylinder, 453-horsepower engine and a top speed of 150 miles per hour. Base price: $435,000.

Similarly, the Bentley trademark screams wealth--typically at least $5 million in investable assets, to be precise--but in a softer voice than some of its competitors.

"Our cars aren't as brash as some other performance-car manufacturers," says Stuart McCullough, a Bentley board member. "We tend to be understated, quintessentially English. That reflects the mood and style of our customers."

Such restraint can be considered especially important in the current climate. With unemployment rates skyrocketing around the world, many auto enthusiasts would rather drive an understated gray Bentley than a flashy red Ferrari.

"The most opulent part of a Bentley is on the inside," says McCullough. "Rich people are very aware of how others see them at the moment, the choices they make. Now is not the right time to be seen to be spending money when you're laying people off at your factory."

A note to those wealthy employers: Think twice about splurging on even an understated new car. If you see scads of Hondas in your company parking lot, their savvy owners may be wise to your ways. If you only see Chevys, you might be able to get away with it.

In Depth: What Your Car Says About You

1. Bentley

The Bentley trademark screams wealth, but in a softer voice than some of its competitors. "Our cars aren't as brash as some other performance car manufacturers," says Stuart McCullough, a Bentley board member. "We tend to be understated, quintessentially English. That reflects the mood and style of our customers." A Bentley also reflects its owner's bank account: typically flush with at least $5 million in investable assets.

2. Buick

Known as one of Detroit's geriatric brands, Buick is trying to shake its reputation with splashy vehicles like the LaCrosse. Owners of the 2010 Buick LaCrosse are 13% younger as a group than owners of the 2009 version, according to Buick reps. But on the whole, the sedan's owners remain a stodgy bunch: two-thirds are older than 55. They're also reasonably affluent, with a median household income of $75,000.

3. Chevrolet

On top of all the challenges facing Detroit automakers, Chevy must find a way to deal with the fact that its owners have a reputation for being behind the times, to put it nicely. Strategic Vision's 2009 New Vehicle Experience Study found that 13% of Chevy owners have never used the Web. By contrast, only 3% of Honda owners remain in the technological Stone Age. While 70% of Honda owners boast a college degree or higher, only 35% of Chevy owners can say the same.

4. Ford

Like Chevy, Ford faces a few unfavorable demographic trends. Only 45% of Ford owners have a college degree and 12% don't use the Internet. To combat this image and appeal to a younger, more tech-savvy group, Ford has introduced features in its cars such as Ford Sync, which allows drivers to play music from an iPod on the auto's sound system using Bluetooth technology. Drivers can request songs by voice command; Sync will even read text messages aloud.

5. Honda

The antithesis of flashy, Honda owners are usually pragmatic and well educated; 70% boast a college degree or higher. "Honda buyers buy primarily for the trust and dependability they find in our vehicles," says Chris Naughton, a Honda spokesperson. "Typically, highly functional vehicles deliver less image because customers didn't purchase for image." Honda users also tend to be tech-savvy--only 3% of owners don't use the Internet, compared with 13% of Chevy owners.

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How companies are using your Social Media Data....You Need to Know

Companies are mining the social web to build dossiers on you. Information posted publicly on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, forums and other sites is fair game. It is yet another reminder that people need to be aware of what they are posting on social networking sites and to whom they're connected.

Jules Polonetsky, director and co-chair of the Future of Privacy Forum, said online users have no clue that a comment they made on a blog is being added to a database for some unknown use.

"I don't think users expect that," he said, and if consumers think idle chatter and casual conversation can be used against them by institutions, it's almost certain to create a backlash, according to Polonetsky. He said the Federal Trade Commission is right now re-examining the current privacy structure in the U.S.

But at the same time, he said consumers are always very comfortable with Amazon using data to recommend books they might like. "When users are in control of it, it's a win-win - if they feel empowered."

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How Data is Being Used

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Polonetsky said aggregators like Rapleaf Inc. will collate information about individuals and sell it to companies that want to learn about those customers and what they do online.

Personal finance reporter Erica Sandberg, who covered the issue of social media datamining in a story for CreditCards.com, said that if a data mining company turns your chatter and network into a behavioral pattern, and if they can prove it has some worth, then it's valuable to companies. Sandberg said this is just more information anyone can use to help them make a decision.

"I don't think there's anything scary about it," she said. "Why wouldn't they look at it? It's public." She said she is not aware of any specific examples of those who have been negatively impacted because of it.

Entities such as airlines, politicians, and even non-profits can use this data for finding new customers or targeting products to existing ones. Financial services companies such as banks and lenders are also using the same datamining services for marketing purposes and to make lending decisions. For instance, certain types of credit products, which fit your personality, could be marketed specifically to you.

"It's a helpful tool to identify the right customers, the best customers," Sandberg said.

She said the immediate fear is the misconception that it affects your credit report. She stressed that companies that do social media datamining do not have access to your credit report, and the act of collecting the publicly available data has no effect on your credit score.

However, she said, "it can affect the credit you're offered, and the credit you receive."

Social media contacts play a role in behavioral profiles as well. "I think what's most interesting is how those in your network have an impact," she said.

Do you know if your Facebook friends have good credit histories? Likely not, but if you associate with people who are a good credit risk, than you'll probably be a good credit risk, according to Sandberg. "The whole idea [is] like follows like," she said.

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Learning About Customers to Tailor Experience

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According to a counter on their website, Rapleaf Inc. has mined social data about more than 389 million customers. They do that by crawling the Internet just like Google or Bing does, said CEO Auren Hoffman, but that they only crawl sites such as forums, social networks, review sites, newsgroups, and blogs - where information is publicly available.

He said clients they work with include car companies, airlines, hotels, banks, retailers, non-profits and politicians. If they can learn more about their customer, then they can personalize an experience for that customer, according to Hoffman. He said consumers are already expecting this high level of service, and that it's all about the product, service, and experience that you would prefer.

"The power to personalize things is much greater," he said.

Rapleaf's blog links to a SmartMoney story about how banks and financial services firms limit their use of social media data to marketing departments, and not those "charged with making credit and lending decisions," according to the post.

Sandberg said it's up to businesses to use the information from datamining companies as they please. "This is public information. They can use it any way they want."

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Social Data Helps to Prevent Fraud

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Lending Club, a peer-to-peer lending service that matches borrowers with investors, has been using a variety of tools and software to help them gather social media information for six months, according to Rob Garcia, the company's senior director.

He said Lending Club uses social media data for marketing and operational purposes and stressed that Lending Club does not use any social media data for credit decisions and that it does not affect whether an applicant can get a loan. "We use this information to benefit our customers - to prevent fraud," he said.

For operational purposes, Lending Club makes sure the user's information checks out to try to protect his or her identity, according to Garcia. So they will compare application information from a credit file against information that's publicly available. He said that if there's a mismatch, it gives them more reason to go to more strict identification procedures.

"We have found a way to use this information in a positive way," he said.

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Credit Card Companies Turn to Social Media

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Consumers might soon be seeing more credit card offers in their mailboxes. In the last quarter of 2009, the number of credit card offers mailed were up 46% from the third quarter of 2009, according to a news release on the direct mail tracking service Synovate Mail Monitor.

Anuj Shahani, director of competitive tracking services for Synovate's Financial Services Group, told me that the number of credit card mailings is still down 40% from the fourth quarter of 2008. He said the CARD Act, which is a new federal law aimed at better disclosure and banning unfair rate hikes, and the economy were reasons for the decrease in mailings of credit card offers.

He said that because of the CARD Act, there are restrictions on spending for credit card companies. Credit card companies will have to come up with targeting models, and data companies can help them figure out those models, according to Shahani.

"Issuers will have to come up with smarter ways to target the right audience because it is so much more expensive to extend credit," he said. "I think one of them will be social media."

Credit card companies are already using social media to launch new products. Shahani pointed out that theCitiForward credit card launched in March 2009 on MySpace. He said that in December 2009, American Express launched its new Zync card on social media sites.

Shahani said the credit card issuer's goal is to find the right audience and go to the right people and that's where he expects social media would come in.

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Social Media Usage Tips

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Here are some tips from Erica Sandberg on the types of content to avoid posting on the social web and handling network connections.

1. Determine whether you want to go public or private with your social media profiles. If the profiles are set to be public, then be consistent with information you are posting. "The caution lies in what you say. Be truthful," she said. For example, don't post a status update joking that you're filing for bankruptcy when you're not. "It's the off-the-cuff remarks you're going to want to be aware of," she warned.

2. Eliminate people and sites from your social networks that you don't need. "Make sure people who are around you are reflective of you as a wonderful person," Sandberg said.

3. Pay attention to your friend, invite, and connection requests. "You don't want random associations," she said. Sandberg recommends first checking out that person's profile before accepting it. "I get flooded with friend requests of people I don't know," she said. "You have no idea who these people are. It's a risky thing to do."

What if opting out of being on social media is not an option? Sandberg said she's on there for business purposes and can't really go private. In that case, be careful what you write. "It underscores the importance of being honest and projecting yourself in a positive way," she said.

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