Urban versus rural population - Differences in the acceptance of sustainability in vehicles

The topic of sustainability is gaining increasing importance and that includes the automo-tive industry. Accordingly, vehicle manufacturers need to adjust their marketing strategies. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to develop a guide for successful advertising campaigns for sustainability in vehicles. This is achieved by identifying differences in the acceptance of sustainability in vehicles between urban and rural populations. Thus, the following research question is answered: “How is sustainability perceived in automotive advertising in urban versus rural areas in Germany?”. To achieve this, a quantitative study in the form of an online survey was conducted among 187 participants from Germany, who were between 18 and 65 years old. To compare these two groups, participants who lived in areas with more than 5,000 people were con-sidered urban and the others were considered rural. They were asked about the key topics of sustainability, mobility, and their attitudes toward electromobility. Survey responses indicate that there are differences in attitudes toward sustainability in vehicles between rural and urban populations. In urban regions, people are more open to the topic of sustainability and mobility plays a less important role compared to rural areas. The factors that influence these attitudes are driving factors among urban participants while people from rural regions tend to see problems with the batteries. Based on these results, companies need to put a stronger focus in their electromobility efforts on urban residents. In rural regions, the focus must be on sustainable materials. In addition, for both rural and urban populations, companies must generally use more adver-tising on the topic of sustainability and, above all, present advantages