Women Now Buy Half of New Cars Sold : Figure Is Double the Level of 10 Years Ago
Women now buy almost half the new cars sold in the United States--double their share of just 10 years ago, industry surveys show.
“It’s an incredible gain,” said Karen Ritchie, who handles Chevrolet advertising for Detroit-based ad agency Lintas: Campbell-Ewald.
But how effectively Detroit’s Big 3 auto makers have seized on this growing market and used it to sell more cars is open to debate.
Detroit has never marketed a “woman’s car,” claiming instead that any well-designed and -engineered automobile can be driven by anyone.
But women car buyers are attracting attention, and their traditional emphasis on safety and security features over raw horsepower has figured prominently in many recent advertising campaigns.
“Women are more concerned about safety and less about going ‘vroom, vroom,’ ” Ritchie said.
Still, many say the auto makers have been slow to realize that it is not just women readers of Ms. magazine but the more mainstream readers of Ladies’ Home Journal who make many of the nation’s car-buying decisions.
Not All Agree
“We have had a 100% increase in car advertising in the last year,” said Myrna Blyth, the editor of Ladies Home Journal, one of the so-called Big 7 mainstream women’s magazines. “But that is not enough.”
“The typical woman drives, and the typical couple buys a car together,” said Blyth, whose 5-million circulation magazine claims a readership of more than three times that number.
Not everyone in Detroit agrees that women’s magazines have been given short shrift by the auto makers.
“The magazines’ gripe is that we spend a lot of money on television,” said Ford Motor Co. spokesman Ray Windecker.
But while it is debatable how advertisers should best spend their dollars, there is no doubt the traditional advertising images have changed.
Gone are the svelte, leather-clad women purring about extra leg room and stylized car interiors. Sports sponsorships have been de-emphasized, while prime-time TV spots have been re-emphasized, said Ritchie.
In addition, the emergence of women as a car-buying force has wrought major attitude changes at many of the nation’s car dealers.
Savvy Buyers
“Ten years ago, the classic line was ‘I need to go talk to my husband,’ ” said Elliot King, a car salesman at Rice-Marko Hyundai in Greensboro, N.C. “Now, they know just as much as a lot of guys do.”
Indeed, almost everyone in the industry agrees that women have become some of the most savvy buyers around.
“Women do their homework. They buy Consumer Report (magazine), visit the dealerships. It is not true they go in knowing less than men,” said Arlene Reindel of General Motors Corp.’s Chevrolet division who serves on Chevrolet’s women’s marketing committee.
Toni Portfield, who heads Chrysler Corp.’s women’s advisory committee, says figures compiled by the No. 3 auto maker show that by 1990 women will influence about 85% of car-buying decisions--decisions that involve more than choosing a car’s color.
“What will let her get out of the tough spots in driving?” said Portfield. “For most women, safety and security issues are more important than performance and handling.”
