Automakers Getting Up To Speed

Dec 3, 2007

     So says Garlanda Freeze, vp, group account director at Burrell Communications in Chicago and one of the driving forces on the agency's Toyota Camry business. While some automakers are only beginning to take baby steps in marketing their products to women, the Japanese car company is hitting full stride with the Camry, which research shows skews highly toward African- American women.

     Burrell currently is at work on a branded online video series that will feature the 2008 Camry as a pivotal part of the story line. Early indications are that the show will focus on a buttoned- up business woman by day who gets involved in a variety of benevolent escapades by night… all with the help of her Camry. The sixweek series is due to hit the Internet in February. "Women love the Camry, so it seems to make a lot of sense to develop our work that way," Freeze adds.

     Women, in fact, have been an underappreciated element in the car-buying paradigm for decades. J.D. Power and Associates' 2007 Media Report shows that in more than 42 percent of new-car purchases, the principal driver is female. So why aren't automakers gunning the marketing engines in pursuit of women?

      "I think the automakers are doing a fairly good job of reaching out to women, but they probably could be doing a bit better," says Steve Witten, executive director of automotive research at J.D. Power, whose data shows that brands such as the Volkswagen Beetle (69 percent of those who purchased the vehicle in 2007 said the principal driver is female), Subaru Outback Sport (66.9 percent) and Chevrolet Equinox (64.8 percent) have been the most successful with women.

     Marti Barletta, president of Winnetka, Ill.–based TrendSight, a firm that specializes in marketing to women, says automakers need to speak to women differently than they do to men. "Ads focusing on things like 'dynamic engineering' are not going to appeal to most women," she says. "Women are far more concerned with people and lifestyles and how a certain product is going to improve their lives."

     Courtney Caldwell, president, CEO of Royal Oak, Mich.—based Caldwell Communications, a multimedia marketing company focusing on the car and travel industries, says car companies tread a fine line when they market to a specific group. Lexus, for instance, looks for smart ways to market to a luxury demographic but doesn't market to women specifically.

     Caldwell says that thinking may change somewhat in the future, particularly as Internet-based marketing techniques—with their potential for laser-like targeting— become more accepted. "The automakers are beginning to use the Internet to find new ways to tap into new markets because they can be so much more targeted, whether it's by ZIP code, or economic group or gender," she says. "So I think there's some opportunities there to reach women. But it's still a learning curve."—R.B.

For More on Marketing to Women:
Marketing to Women Part I
Marketing to Women Part II
Marketing to Women Part III
Politics: The Way to Women's Purses?
Automakers Getting Up to Speed