What We're Reading: Women Are Key for Toyota, Emerging Markets
By Michelle Krebs March 12, 2010A few articles caught my eye this week. Both pertained to women, appropriately so since March 8 was International Women's Day. They are pertinent to all auto companies as their business is employing women and marketing to women.
One article was written by former Chrysler marketer Julie Roehm on how Toyota must regain the trust of women in order to recoup its sales and image. Another was by economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett discussed women as a major emerging market in emerging markets. A a third was by University of Michigan professor Susan Douglas who contends women's equality is only a perception that doesn't mirror reality.
Toyota Needs to Regain the Trust of Women
Now an independent marketing consult who writes a blog called Slash Marketing, Roehm is former Chrysler marketing chief famous for Dodge's controversial sponsorship of the Lingerie Bowl during Super Bowl festivities. She penned a blog post for AOL Autos entitled Toyota's Female Problem: Women Buyers Considering Other Brands.
Roehm contends Toyota - long a favorite brand for female car buyers -- faces problems regaining the trust of women buyers after its numerous recalls.
And Toyota's biggest competition for the female buyer looks to be Ford.
She cites data from social listening company Networked Insights that shows female would-be Toyota buyers are turning to Ford, whereas their male counterparts see Honda as an alternative.
February sales, she contends, illustrate Ford, which was No. 1 in U.S. sales surpassing not only Toyota but also General Motors, not only benefited from great products, not taking government funds and not being managed by the government but also from the fact that more women decided Ford is their brand, even more than Honda.
Her advice to Toyota is: pay attention to women, use their marketing forces to regain their trust, understand women are not one size fits all. "Emotion, trust, facts, assurance and authenticity" speak to them. If Toyota doesn't regain the trust of women, she warns, Ford wins.
Women As An Emerging Market
Hewlett, an economist and founding president of non-profit think tank Center for Work-Life Policy, insists in a Harvard Business column posted on Bloomberg News column that the biggest emerging market is not geographic but demographic - it is women who have new-found power in the global economy.
She points out:
- Women's income in developing nations is growing at 8.1 percent compared with 5.8 percent for men.
- Women worldwide control nearly $12 trillion of the $18 trillion of overall consumer spending, a figure to rise to $15 trillion by 2014.
- Highly-qualified, well-educated, ambitious women are taking over the talent pool "from Delhi to Dubai."
She cites smart moves by two global companies designed to capitalize on the trend: Goldman Sachs "Returnship" program that recruits candidates who have left the workforce for a time looking to re-start their careers; and Google's India Women in Engineering Award Program that helps young women finance college and grad school for careers in engineering and computer science.
"By investing in women in emerging markets," she concludes, "companies are betting on a brighter future -- for a workforce just waiting to blossom, for economies whose development depends on this new crop of talent, and, of course, for themselves."
Hewitt has written numerous books on brain drain and maintaining top talent.
Women's Equality: Perception Not Reality
Women have not achieved full equality despite media images that suggest the battle for equality has been won, according to a University of Michigan researcher Susan Douglas, who chairs the school's Department of Communication Studies.
Television shows, movies and advertisements depicting women as high-powered lawyers, surgeons, judges and police chiefs suggest that women now "have it all," but these are mere fantasies of power that excuse, and even justify the resurrection of sexist stereotypes.
Douglas describes this as "enlightened sexism," a new, subtle form of sexism that seems to accept and even endorse the achievements of feminism on the surface, but is really dedicated to keeping women, and especially young women, in their place.
As the media exaggerate women's achievements by showing them in positions of power, the reality is women earn considerably less than men, Douglas says. And, she argues, these portrayals not only distract us from the real-world challenges facing women today, but also drive a wedge between baby-boom women and their millennial daughters.
Her findings appear in her new book, Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message That Feminism's Work Is Done. -- Michelle Krebs, Senior Analyst and Editor at Large
LEAVE A COMMENT
In business world before, most men have more achievements than women. But today, women appear to be taking on more of the traditional male roles in society and gaining more and more power, likely because of our recession. Ladies within the auto sales world are no exception to this trend. Females are making more and more purchasing decisions within the home, and it has filtered to the auto world where women are also now making more sales than men. It is interesting that more ladies are the ones taking out auto loans to purchase cars, and doing a lot more of the purchasing for them; but women are also having much success with persuading men to purchase automobiles also. Here is the proof: Women in auto sales: Smashing the testosterone barrier
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