For a long time, the automotive industry has been owned by men, ran by men, and designed for men. Those times are changing and with more women buying or influencing car purchases, the way we market and sell a car needs to change too. In this blog, we will talk about the ever-changing auto industry and how it has begun to make a dramatic shift towards women being the majority of buyers.
Connecting Women to the Industry
There was a time, not very long ago when men completely dominated the auto industry. Men held the majority of driver’s licenses’ in the United States, bought the majority of new and used cars, and men were the ones providing their family with the means to buy the cars. However, the times have changed since then. According to Par Excellence Magazine, women are buying 63% of all new vehicles, and 53% of used cars. They influence 85% of all car purchases and spend more than $80 billion annually on buying cars alone. The way we market towards women needs to have just as powerful of a shift as the transition from men buying the majority of vehicles to women buying most of the cars.
According to Forbes, 74% of women say that they feel misunderstood by car marketers. You don’t need to ask too many women about their car buying experience to find one with a story about a terrible experience when purchasing a car. Salespeople aren’t quite as savvy when it comes to women in the automotive industry as they should be when it comes to dealing with female customers in the automotive industry. A seller should never, ever talk down to the woman or only speak to the man that is with her when discussing a deal – an all too common and unfortunate reality even today. As many married couples know, and research backs up, the wife is typically the one with the final say in major financial decisions.
When about only a quarter of the automotive industry has female workers, (that’s counting office and clerical work) it is hard for women to feel represented in the industry to drive ladies to the dealership more frequently than they are. The great news is that there are many ways to modify the way we market to women that will create positive experiences for them online and off and it has started at the top. GM hired their first female CEO in 2013. Many others are following suit by promoting their women to management and executive positions. This is just the beginning of a positive change in the industry that is helping connect female consumers to the industry.
Strategies to Target the Female Market
Women have different priorities in a car than men do and we need to balance them in our content with those of the male demographic we’re targeting. Women tend to focus on a specific budget and care about the monthly payments they will have to make. They are also focused on safety, comfort, and durability; they want a vehicle that will last them longer than just a couple years when the new car smell wears off. Women are “not likely to sacrifice fuel efficiency just to boast about horsepower, ” says Casey Williams, a freelance writer for The Chicago Tribune. Women are also more likely than men to do their homework online before purchasing a car making them far more knowledgeable about vehicle details and pricing than most salespeople would like to think.
Men and women also have different preferences in how vehicle details are presented, particularly online. Men tend to prefer a quickly scanned bullet list of the highlights, whereas women care about the story. By delivering the story of a vehicle, we can create a higher level of engagement with the vehicle and build an emotional connection to it that helps them make the purchase decision more quickly. When the technical specifications and pricing of two vehicles are similar, the one with the better story usually leaves the lot first. With custom, handwritten comments from Dealer Assist Now, we provide you with a story that appeals to both men and women.
Taking Action
Now is the time to deliver an exceptional dealership experience to both women and men to benefit from the shift in buyer demographics. If you’re ready to get started with better-targeted vehicle descriptions for your online marketing, Dealer Assist Now is ready to help you make that transformation. Get Started by telling a story that sells with your automotive comments, today!