For us, living in the northern hemisphere, the change of temperature and finding ourselves in the midst of the autumn, constantly remind us of the soon coming winter. If not reminded by the change of seasons, advertisement, campaigns and multiple offers does the job of reminding us. Many of these campaigns are related to our cars and vehicles, anything from winter tires, heaters, batteries and of course chargers. We are getting closer to the moment of all these unpleasant surprises related to the flat batteries we discover the first cold winter days, and for some reason, too often on a Monday morning.
This also reminded me of a study we recently conducted in Sweden, where we are great at “do-It-yourself”. More than half of the respondents had never used a battery charger before. That is a surprising fact for Sweden, but what is it like in other countries also facing colder temperatures in their winters?
To change battery every time it’s flat, instead of charging the current one seems like such a waste, not only of money, but also time and all that hazel with it, such as delays, cancelled meetings, the stress to get reorganised, etc. Besides the inconvenience, there are also environmental arguments, and there are plenty of them such as the waste of lead and unnecessary emissions of carbon dioxide when transporting all these newly produced lead-acid batteries as well as the service vehicles out there to rescue the victims of the day to mention a few.
Another curiosity extracted from the study was that the responding age groups round 40 and 50 stood out as people charging frequently, being owners of chargers or knowing a bit more about battery care and different options. It is not as strange as one might think, many in the 40’s age group have families, both adults are professionally active, busy both with their own and the children’s activities, often having several vehicles, both for transportation as well as for hobby purposes. This is a group that have found that preventive charging is far better than last minute flat batteries. The 50’s group might not be as active driving children around, but they have certainly acquired the experience and do appreciate charging a better alternative than all the other negative aspects.
One slightly disappointing issue is the lack of interest women pay to battery care and chargers. One would think that the benefits of charging with adequate chargers would lay closer to a female heart than a male. While being important decision makers/influencers when purchasing a vehicle, overseeing practicalities better than their men, it is surprising that they do not pay much attention at all to chargers. A small percentage though, when prompting on some brands, did actually recognise CTEK as a good charger. What a “sweet – sour” taste of that fact, being the only brand they recognised, but the low 4% recognising CTEK is a sad truth we have to do something about.
Recent research undertaken by CTEK has identified that a whopping 87% of women undertake some form of DIY, with activities ranging from decorating to car maintenance. The survey also identified that whilst only 27% of females had charged their car battery, 61% said that yes they would attempt a charge if required.
And so CTEK brings you the PINK Bumper – an ideal product to make your CTEK charger just a little more lady like!
