Car is… Feminine
donna al volante.. © zibibboo
This year in Italy – in the middle of the worst car market since the 70′s – nearly 600,000 new cars will be personally purchased by Women; and Women will also influence the decision to purchase an additional 250,000 cars, used by Italian families.
Every day on the streets of the “Bel Paese”, millions of women are driving and dealing with the maintenance of their 13,400,000 cars, generating every year – only in the aftersales – more than 6 billion Euro of revenues (7.642.000.000 US$)
A lot of money!
And that’s not all: the 40% of the Italian Women, driving their cars, every year cover more than 20,000 km (13.000 Miles) consuming fuel, tires, spare parts, accessories.
A GIPA survey says that Women – on average – go to the service dept. for a maintenance or a repair twice a year, and every time a Woman is visiting a dealership for a service, she spends an average of 230 Euro (293 US$).
At the bodyshop the figure rises considerably.
Without mentioning that the rate of feminine fidelity towards those dealers/workshops who represent a brand is higher than the… faithless boys.
Yet only 5.7% of the Italian dealers have a Woman as head of service/service manager, and only 16.1% of the authorized workshops is run by a Mrs. or a Miss. It is interesting to know that in these “feminine” structures, the sales, the work and the revenues - even in times of crisis – have a significant improvement over those ruled by men.
Do you know?
Notwithstanding the contents of these data, endless are the testimony of lacking listening: manufacturers and dealers have not changed - in the last 60 years – a ”least little hair” in their approach to the female audience and they don’t have been “stay tuned” with this important part of the market.
The communication is directed almost exclusively to men: both the seductive and also the persuading messages: the pages of the magazines and TV commercials overflow of representations of the female gender provocative and vulgar, and browsing the web the images of Women with automobiles is not edifying, at the turn of the clumsy and the “femme fatale”, if not worse.
Seeing is believing!
Maybe the persistent booster of basic needs (male) raises the index of turnover, but it also grow the index of unacceptance and disliking (female). But what will be the goal, if the Women purchase the 42% of new car sales and almost half of the used cars + parts + accessories + tires + … ?
Why waste this huge potential business?
Why within the marketing departments of the manufacturers/dealers nothing speaks the language of the Women? Where strategy are developed, where are Women? Inside the communication dept. where are Women?
Although this has been spoken during the event Anticrisi Day: a close-knit team of young Women entrepreneurs and men of good will - using a survey conducted by Maurizio Sala - have tried to provide answers to these questions, creating a super-workshop dedicated to the difficult relationship between Women and the car in Italy and worldwide.
Many doubts have remained unsolved…
During the same event, authoritative representatives of the OEMs, car dealers and their associations answering to the question “what will be in the near future for the Italian automotive” they said: “the car without driver”, “new contents on the contract OEM>Dealers”, “stop speaking about crisis on the newspapers: customers are conditioned by bad news”,” bonus, State aids, and Government grants “, “there are too many indipendent workshops: the competition reduces incomes”.
Choices impeccable, mind you, each one with a valid reason…
Personally – however – I would have inserted in the sample of the responses also Internet Sales (not the dispensation of information via the web), the Customer Satisfaction, and the totally untapped opportunities of the Women market!
Not chimeras, given the importance they have and will have for the survival and renewal of this obsolescent industry!
I think it’s time to really listen to what Women want when they buy or repair a car (… not only!), because Women earn, influence, decide, spend!
20 November, 2012
20 November, 2012
20 November, 2012
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