Never Underestimate Women's Purchasing Power

Traditionally male-targeted brands are revamping campaigns to target women

Waukegan Tire and Supply Company Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Julie Scroggins’ drive to attract more female customers has led her to gut and remodel all four store locations, adding family friendly features such as male, female and family washrooms, children’s play areas and full service business centers. And recently, she decided to add yet another item not often seen in your local tire store. She added handbags.

“Carrying purses in our stores epitomizes what I want to do,” explains Ms. Scroggins, whose father began the family-owned business over 40 years ago. “[We carry] Passchal’s line of purses, custom, luxury designer bags made out of recycled inner tubes. Selling them in our stores not only plays into our efforts to be more female-friendly, but we’re also able to give back to various charities within our community, including 10 percent of all sales going to support United Way of Lake County.”

It’s yet another example of the efforts of many in the male-dominated automobile industry to better target female consumers, most of whom literally hold the purse strings in the family.

The numbers don’t lie: Women buy more than half of all new cars in the U.S. and influence 86 percent of all purchases. They also request 65 percent of the service work done at dealerships. Yet, a recent study shows that females still feel misunderstood by car marketers.

“It's about changing the culture and better addressing the needs of women,” says Jody DeVere, a social media and marketing to women expert, who’s best known as the CEO of AskPatty.com. “Everything she sees, touches and feels should make a woman know that she’s welcome at your place of business.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s a gender story, but instead, an economic story,” adds Nan McCann, president and founder of PME Enterprises and founder of M2W – The Marketing to Women Conference, which lands in Chicago this month. “Women are making a majority of purchases these days. Companies are leaving money on the table if they don’t market to them correctly.”

BIKER CHIC

Even the ever-expanding bike industry has evolved to better address the needs of female customers. In less than a year on the job, Trek Women Brand Manager Leslie Prevish has implemented a number of new programs with the female rider in mind.

“A referral from a peer has a much stronger influence than a print ad for our Trek Women experiences and WSD products,” says Ms. Prevish. “Especially with the three triathlon series we sponsor, women love to come together and share stories with each other. The pre-race parties, onsite activation and post-event follow-up strategies give dealers a wonderful opportunity to improve engagement with our female cyclists.”

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