Section 3: Target Audience & Insight Summary
I chose design-led Londoners buying their first electric car as Polestar’s core UK audience. I kept Sam, the persona from my class empathy map (Figure 3), because my coded comments support his values. Owners praise the design, and one values the brand’s “transparency about its cars’ carbon footprint” in a comment that then turns critical (Appendix A). His shortlist is now Tesla, BMW and Volvo, the rivals commenters mention.
Rezvani et al. (2015) note that mass acceptance of EVs relies largely on how consumers perceive them, and Sam’s online picture is mixed. Positive opinion falls from 78.1% on Instagram to 56.1% on YouTube and 50.0% on Facebook (Table 2.2), with complaints about software and aftersales, including a UK owner waiting five weeks for a repair. His doubt extends to claims: a 2021 page still promises a climate-neutral car by 2030, although the target is now 2035 (Section 2). Chen and Chang (2013) found that greenwash lowers green trust partly by raising confusion and perceived risk. For a buyer who values transparency, an outdated promise may do more harm than silence.
Section 2 contradicts part of my class map. I had Sam seeing cinematic social content, yet only six of 39 sampled Facebook posts were UK-specific. I removed every quote and claim I could not trace to my log (Figure 4). My showroom visit was observation only. Battersea was quiet, but its material table and gold details told a craft story Sam rarely sees online.
Comments such as “so Chinese” reduce the brand to a single story (Adichie, 2009), and a purely Scandinavian design story would be another. Polestar is headquartered in Gothenburg in tight collaboration with Volvo Cars in the area of aftersales (Polestar Automotive Holding UK PLC, 2024). At that time, companies controlled by the CEO of Geely controlled many Polestar’s shares (Randall, 2025). Meyer’s (2014, as cited in Coventry University London, n.d.-b) task-based trust is for complaints about delivered tasks, so warmth is not enough to repair the trust. The UK scores a low 35 on uncertainty avoidance (The Culture Factor Group, n.d.), so novelty may worry Sam less than delivery. His age is my assumption, and most commenters are global fans or owners.
Insight and opportunity. Polestar can tell the full story of owning one in the UK, because Sam values design and transparency but struggles to trust a young brand on service and revised claims. “The Full Story” can open with my own footage of the craft, then give him real owner comments and facts to check.
