We’ve known for a long time that women 50+ are critically important customers to the auto industry. We’ve also known for a long time that they feel under-informed, ignored and often abused by the same industry.
Individual entrepreneurs have been working to bridge that gap for at least a few years, but I haven’t seen evidence of critical mass among them very recently, at the recent M2W Conference in Chicago, where attendees included the following:
- Anne Fleming created Women-Drivers.com to provide auto dealers with research on women customers and to allow women to review dealers, the best-rated of which are recognized as “Women-Drivers Friendly.” A car-loving dynamo, Fleming notes that women (who generate $200 billion of annual purchasing power for new cars and service) pay an average of $1,250 more for a car than men. As the auto industry loses thousands of dealers, Anne Fleming also wants to serve women forced to work with dealers she’s never met.
- Jody Devere, a dynamic and inspiring Vibrant Woman, has built successful business in two male-dominated industries: technology and auto. Her current business, the pathbreaking website AskPatty.com, provides deep and detailed information for women car buyers. She also trains car dealers and services companies in women-friendly practices. You can find the list of certified firms at AskPatty.com.
- My colleague Carol Orsborn has already written a comment-provoking blog post about Kelly Styring’s “What’s in Your Trunk” research project. Styring’s inspired research project, sponsored in part by auto companies, suggests that recent challenges have finally forced them to address the genuine needs of their consumers. I haven’t met many researchers whose work I both respect and enjoy so much, but I also wonder whether there is another industry that would have shown so little interest creative work like Kelly’s until it was broke.
- While attending M2W you might also have run into representatives from General Motors, Cox Auto Trader/Auto Mart, and Meg Lopé, a longtime consultant to auto manufacturers and women dealers.
Will the auto industry recognize the importance of Boomer women before it is too late? As I sit on the edge of my own seat wondering about the answer, I am also reminded of a talk that inspired my own interest in this field. At a major food conference many years ago “Supermarket Guru” Phil Lempert used this story (which I will paraphrase) as an example of how to market to the Boomer woman:
Lempert’s mother, a reasonably well-off widow in New Jersey, needed a new car. She wanted a convertible. She drove to a dealership by herself, walked up to the first salesman she saw and said, “Young man, I want a convertible.” The salesman took one look at her and said, “Lady, you don’t want a convertible. They’re hard to heat, they aren’t safe. Let me show you a nice sedan.”
Lempert’s mother left the dealer, and drove to another. The scene was repeated, but this time the young male salesman took a step back after hearing her request, paused, smiled, and said “Lady, I wish my mom was as cool as you.” He sold a convertible that day, and I have relied on this story for several years not just as a reminder of an industry that has ignored an important customer for too long, but as a justification for starting my own business in this space.
I'm a writer too. In fact I have seven books in need of publishing. I have two already published. I just rewrote the first one. It was published in 1993 and the publisher altered it in such a way, making my true story no longer true. So n
We have a ritual at the end of every vacation. We were inspired by the movie Three Coins in A Fountain (The legend is if you throw a coin into Rome's Trevi Fountain you are sure to return to Rome). We toss three pennies - one for returning, one for
Times have changed. Automotive manufacturers know that women buy half of all vehicles, spending more than $80 billion annually. Research has shown that women influence 85% of all automotive purchase decisions. Money talks and manufacturers are listening. They can’t afford to do anything else.
You can thank women in the workplace, women dealers, designers, engineers and managers for those changes. Women dealers especially are effecting this change by influencing their manufacturers, developing best practices for both male and female sales consultants and leading by example. Many of these women dealers are Boomers and successful entrepreneurs.