Survey: Marquez new “most valued” rider for Spanish businesses, Pedrosa most solid
In an annual survey – carried out by the market research company “Personality Media”, an advisor for advertising agencies – the main Spanish and international MotoGP riders are evaluated in 14 different image categories for businesses to decide which riders would be best suited for them to sponsor and support. After Dani Pedrosa reigned in most categories and overall evaluation for the last years, Moto2 rider Marc Marquez has now narrowly taken over the throne with a jump in valuation from 7.1 (out of 10) last year to 7.4 this year, as well as increasing his name recognition by 20 percent, now being known by 63 percent of the male population (51% overall).
But Pedrosa keeps his strong evaluations and despite not being the lead rider anymore he is still the prime MotoGP rider choice for potential sponsors. To that adds that Pedrosa has the highest degree of familiarity in the country. 88 percent of the Spaniards know the Repsol Honda rider, fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo shares the same amount of famosity, closely followed by Italy’s Valentino Rossi with 87 percent. Those three are still well ahead of the rest. Toni Elias in fourth place is only known by 59 percent, reigning world championship Casey Stoner even slightly less with 58 percent. 51 percent of the Spaniards are familiar with Marc Marquez, followed by Álvaro Bautista (46%), Andrea Dovizioso (44%) and Hector Barbera (42%). Moto3 rider Maverick Vinales is known by 27 percent of the people in Spain.
In the case of Lorenzo however, the high degree of name awareness is still not backed up with a strong sympathy from the Spaniards. The Mallorcan scores considerably lower than all other riders in the various categories like “inspiring confidence”, “genuineness” and “affability” even after his title win in 2010 and has the lowest overall rating with 6.2 points and the least points in the “confidence” category, scoring only a 5.6 average.
Marc Marquez took over the lead in most of the variables analyzed in the survey. He scored highest in “geniuneness” with 7.3 points, his closest follower being Pedrosa with 6.3 points. He’s also the highest rated rider in terms of “affability” and “inspiring confidence”. In the latter category he leads with 7.1 points, followed by Álvaro Bautista with a 6.8 average.
Dani Pedrosa continues to be the most solid in the evaluations over the years, with an very constant overall rating of 7.0 points (7.1 in 2011) and steady high scores in the “confidence” category, where he’s again rated with 6.7 points.
Italian Valentino Rossi also keeps high point scores and leads in the category “trendsetter” with an average of 6.8, ahead of Marquez (6.5), Pedrosa (6.1) and Lorenzo (5.9), as well as in the category “durable” with 6.5 points.
Source: Personality Media
