Domestic Automakers Sees Rise in Female Car Buyers.
Posted by: buickmaine / Category: Buick MaineFemale car buyers are purchasing more cars from U.S.-based automakers, especially from some brands that have historically been aimed at men. Automotive research site Edmunds.com recently tracked cars purchased by women and found that Porsche has had the biggest gain. During the first eight months of 2010, only 19 percent of Porsche buyers were women. By 2011, that was up to 23 percent.
Applying sales figures to Edmunds’ percentages reveals even more striking changes. At Buick during the first eight months of this year, overall sales were up 25 percent, but sales to women were up 36 percent. Of the 10 brands that increased in popularity among women, seven were owned by Detroit-based companies. Domestic automakers are still far behind the competition in appealing to women.
Jody DeVere, chief executive of female-oriented auto advice site AskPatty.com, said marketing chiefs at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have gotten better at offering vehicles that appeal to women and getting that message to potential buyers.
“The challenge has not been creating the perfect car for women so much as getting information out there on what they have available,” DeVere said.
Traditionally, automotive marketing has concentrated on power and performance – commercials showing cars taking turns at high speeds or the sounds of revving engines. DeVere said companies are learning that those sales pitches don’t actually appeal to most women. Successful marketing has shown that female buyers respond to advertisements that highlight safety features and new technology, DeVere said.
Another example would be a popular commercial for GM’s is the Chevrolet Cruze. A man in the commercial stands in front of a Cruze in a driveway and calls his wife who is boarding a plane. He asks her if she “wouldn’t mind doing it again.” The wife then uses her iPhone to connect to the Cruze through GM’s OnStar system, and starts the car’s engine. DeVere called it a great commercial because it showed off the car’s technology, but it also showed a tech-savvy woman using the latest technology, a message that resonates with many young female car shoppers.
“Automakers are understanding how women operate in today’s world and depicting them appropriately,” DeVere said.
Car companies downplayed the importance of the trend, saying that they’ve understood women’s buying power for quite some time. While they make up less than half of car buyers, automakers say women influence about 85 percent of all purchases. Dora Nowicki, marketing manager for Chevrolet’s small vehicles, said men may buy most of the family sedans and crossovers on the road. But they don’t buy those vehicles if their partners don’t like them. She also said that the company hasn’t changed its message specifically to appeal to women. She said automakers in the past made the mistake of pitching some cars to men and others to women and found that limited the appeal. She said GM has put more effort into social media and other online marketing tools in recent years. DeVere said those techniques are very popular with female buyers.
“You have to appeal to everybody every day,” Nowicki said.
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Tags: 2011, bmw, Brunswick, Buick, cadillac, domestic automakers, female car buyers, gmc, hyundai, infiniti, kia, Maine, marketing, Westbrook
