Archive for the ‘marketing to women’ Category

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Is your car as safe as it should be?

Friday, March 5th, 2010

ONE than five million motorists are driving dangerous cars says leading breakdown service Britannia Rescue. Its survey found that

  • The most common faults were worn tyres, defective brakes and faulty exhaust pipes. It goes without saying that worn tyres and faulty brakes cause accidents and could lead to a motorist being held responsible for injuries caused to another.
  • One in five drivers had known about the fault on their vehicle for more than six months but not bothered to do anything about it.
  • One in three said they could not afford to fix the problem whereas one in 10 said they did not have time to get their car repaired, neither of which would be an excuse in law if they caused an accident and someone was injured or killed.
  • Some 5% of vehicles in need of repair had broken or missing wing mirrors, while about the same number had broken head or tail lights.

Steph Savill of female friendly marketing service FOXY Choice suspects that some motorists have become complacent about their cars, imagining that if they are fairly new they are probably safe.

“Just as the recent vehicle recalls by so many manufacturers tell us, even nearly new cars can have serious safety issues and we mustn’t treat our cars like household appliances, doing little to take care of them and expecting to throw them away when they get old. Even those of us who are competent at checking our car’s tyres, oil and water levels can miss important safety concerns because we don’t have the professional eye to spot the unusual.”

Steph recommends that all motorists have their cars checked by garage professionals on a regular basis and explains that

“A dangerous car can cause a serious accident that could kill or seriously injure the driver, passengers, pedestrians and the occupants of other cars. Those who own a poorly maintained car may find that their insurer withdraws cover if it can be proven that the accident was caused because the car owner had neither carried out regular maintenance nor had it serviced often enough.”

Find out where the good and female friendly garages are in your area.

Find out how women drivers can save money on everyday motoring bills including garage charges.

FOXY Steph

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Posted in cost of motoring, green motoring, marketing to women, road safety | No Comments »

Female feedback about Halfords Autocentre garages

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Halfords is to takeover Nationwide Autocentres. They are a chain of British garages not to be confused with the Building Society (which many people did apparently).

Yet there has been very little in the trade press about this business move and, come to think about it, very little from Nationwide Autocentres’ about their business under normal circumstances, other than when they are pitching for industry awards of course…

Shouldn’t the garage and dealership industry want to know more about Halfords’ plans so they can compete with them more effectively? They are a national chain and many individual garages could be affected by their strategy. I posted a question about this very subject on a leading trade forum a week ago and nobody has responded yet.

It would be different if Halfords sold cars of course… aftersales and garage services are rarely top of the motor industry’s agenda despite a £9bn car servicing market.

Can’t help thinking of rabbits in headlights, frogs in hot water and ostriches practising familiar ‘head in sand’ antics…

Independent garages should be interested of course because Halfords seems to be offering several female friendly garage services that they are not. Like opening on Sundays and providing low cost fitting of bulbs and wipers so women drivers don’t get their hands dirty and/or have to pay over the odds for these routine but often tricky jobs. I speak as a convert here, having had an exploding windscreen wiper on a snowy Sunday motoring journey in Yorkshire recently when Halfords came to my rescue…

They should also be interested because Halfords admits to targeting the female purse and employing female mechanics, who are unlikely to be ATA qualified to begin with I’d imagine…

They should then be interested because Nationwide Autocentres do not, as yet, offer local car collection and/or courtesy car services so those independents that do, have a sales advantage that could work well if employed NOW.

And finally they should be interested because Halfords is planning to invest in posh reception facilities which [most??] old Nationwide Autocentre locations do not have now…so once again, female friendly independent garages with smart waiting areas, near shops and with car collection services and courtesy cars could steal a lead here if they got their act together NOW.

But the two main reasons why so many independent garages could lose out is because they are so complacent about their local female motorist business AND because few independent garages are genuinely computer literate and are failing to meet the demand for relevant information before women drivers choose who to give their business to.

Nationwide Autocentres are not unique in offering online bookings for MOTs and car servicing of course but they did take many years to introduce their system so it should be fairly robust. And whilst many female friendly FOXY Choice garages do offer online bookings, a significant percentage of small garages still don’t realise that a website is how women tell if they can trust them. Too many still can’t handle emails professionally, expecting customers to phone them and thinking they’ll have the same customers next year…

I wish them luck of course but they do not have a winning card to play in their hand…

From FOXY Choice’s female friendly point of view and on behalf of all women drivers too, we see most competition as good and healthy providing new garage initiatives raise standards for all and are not just attention grabbing headlines without genuinely sustainable quality substance.

I firmly believe that the garage industry must do more to raise awareness of quality standards so that male and female motorists alike understand how to stay safer on our roads by cherry picking businesses that clearly want to be better than others. They can demonstrate this by signing up to FOXY’s independent female friendly business Promise, by investing in regular technician training, by having the latest diagnostic equipment and by collecting informed and unbiased feedback about good garages, not just lacklustre testimonials that are often written to order…

FOXY Steph

“Find the good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it and you’ll start believing in it.”

Jesse Owens, Gold medal Olympian, 1913-1980

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Posted in female friendly, garage services, marketing to women | No Comments »

How to sell cars and garage services to women

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

FOXY provides marketing services to help garages and dealerships become [and be seen as] more female friendly and my specialist subject is marketing to women so I do have a vested interest in this subject…

Why bother making the industry more female friendly I can hear you ask? That’s the easy part! Because on a global scale women control about $20 trillion in annual consumer spending, and that figure could climb as high as $28 trillion in the next five years. And even more impressive – women represent a growth market bigger than China and India combined – more than twice as big to be precise. So you need to be there in her mind to get your share.

To be more female friendly, first and foremost, the retail motor industry MUST employ more females in all areas and levels of the business. At present some 20% of the retail industry are females and I read recently that c10% of females are in management jobs (which was higher than I had imagined…).

That’s pathetic of course but knowing that you must employ more women, how do you address the perceived chasm that the industry is not a female friendly employer alongside the self-perpetuating machismo that drives service levels and communications towards men. An example of this is where manufacturers focus on the performance of cars rather than their usefulness and when aftersales staff use unnecessary jargon and cause the female fog factor; in my experience this is common when it comes to car engines…

Yes, to employ a female she should be the best candidate for the job (as opposed to the only gender prepared to do it for so little?) so not anyone will do. If it is a business’s first female employee they may have to rethink their recruitment and employment policy too as well as staff amenities.

In many ways small garages are easier to make female friendly, especially when the often family owned business includes the wife, Mum, daughter or partner who gets involved on a daily basis. She makes it female friendly at customer level because she knows what women want and fear most.

The tricky cultural issue is more often in dealerships where the Dealer Principal is more likely to be a man and supported by male managers in the aftersales and car sales business units. Even if they wanted to employ females, few can work out how to do this or where to recruit them without falling foul of the equal opportunities lobby. Nor do many women read automotive job vacancies because they perceive this to be an unfriendly business to work in. So the male recruitment level is self-perpetuating and fulfilling…

There is a massive job to be done to encourage employers to recruit women and women to realise that their feminine talents can be used to add serious value to the balance sheet in future.

I have written the word ‘talents’ above and I can almost hear some males sniggering at this whilst they imagine the sort of feminine talents that are first to their mind ie we are not talking brains here. Having visited smart dealership and less smart garage workshops I know that both environments are equally as likely to have topless calendars and posters on show. I find them extremely demeaning and imagine I am not alone here.  If that is the business culture that is allowed in the workplace, no wonder female staff and customers alike would feel ill at ease and may well sense being patronised or treated as sex objects when they go to buy a car or garage services.

So what’s to be done, assuming the UK market finally gets its act together before we all go online and cut out the middle men.

Why not have a look at a new female friendly approved scheme including consultancy services, training and accreditation at femalefriendlyapproved.com.

And to find out about a unique range of female friendly marketing services for UK garages and dealerships, there’s always FOXY Choice providing you can meet the FOXY Promise© in real life.

FOXY Steph

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Posted in female friendly, marketing to women, women drivers | No Comments »

Do women drivers need female friendly car parks?

Monday, February 1st, 2010

At first I thought this was a joke from Nationwide Autocentres in their latest newsletter but it isn’t.

According to car sales giant Motorpoint who decided to ask, 77% of those they sampled thought women needed their own shopping car parks in the UK (not sure if the respondents were all male :-) , female or some of each…).

This survey was fuelled by tales of a stylish and female friendly car park reserved for women drivers in a shopping centre in Hebei in China. And apparently there have been similar female friendly marketing to women initiatives in Japan and Russia.

But it’s still rare in the UK and I sense a deep seated male resistance here to associate all this marketing to women as being sexist. On the other hand, many women (me included) object big time to being marketed to as being frilly or empty-headed a la ‘colour it pink’ marketing tactics we so often see.

Whatever the shopping occasion, women want to have all the information to hand, female feedback ideally, to make the right choice. Then it’s up to them. A good example of this is the female friendly FOXY Choice garage website where women drivers can do their buying homework in FOXY’s Good Garage Guide and then check out which local garages, fastfits and dealerships have agreed to ‘never overcharge, patronise or sell women services they don’t want.’

It’s full of information that isn’t online elsewhere and very soon it will include the female feedback women like – the sort of thing that savvy women want to read for their peace of mind, before getting their credit card out…

Of course if more male business owners knew as much about the workings of the female brain as they do about gadgets, computers and car mechanics (try The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine for some OMG eye-opening facts) more of them would understand how women think and react and (might) try harder to get it right for her in future.

If China is prepared to invest in getting it right for female consumers, why not the UK?

FOXY Steph

“Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men.”
Joseph Conrad

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Posted in female friendly, marketing to women, women drivers | 2 Comments »

Fiat upsets pinkstinks

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Ok the Fiat 500 is a cute car but will pink sell it to young women drivers as a fashion accessory as their marketers suggest.

Pink Fiat 500

A pink Fiat for the girls

And if young women drivers decide to buy a new pink car do they realise that they may struggle to sell or exchange it, come the time.

Or is colouring it pink a lazy marketing tactic from those who want to be seen as female friendly to attract a female audience but don’t really know enough about the female psyche.

I have heard that Sheilas Wheels car insurance for women sells well to gays because they love the pink thing.

Is this what Fiat wants?

Or is any publicity better than none in today’s tough car sales environment.

And if anyone from Fiat is reading this and can tell me that their research confirms that young women drivers want and are happy to pay £1000 more for a pink car (regardless of added on board value) I’ll happily apologise for being a tad negative here.

FOXY Steph

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Posted in buying a new car, marketing to women, women drivers | 2 Comments »

How garages can win new business in 2010

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

Despite the doom and gloom of 2010 there are new market opportunities just around the corner that many garages may not have considered yet.

For example, more motorists than ever are keeping cars longer and need trustworthy garages to keep them running sweetly; they may also need replacing soon. These motorists might have been used to selling their car before its third birthday and have little experience dealing with MOTs or car servicing that might previously have been covered by a 3 year dealership warranty.

Another big audience is that of women drivers who account for some 50% of garage customers but often dread the ultra-male garage experience come MOT, car servicing or repair times. More than 20 million Google searches were being made for female friendly businesses during 2009 and to see which local garages are promoting themselves as female friendly online you just enter ‘female friendly garage’ and your post town into Google.

New car dealerships need to attract garage service customers as well; this is an important way to retain customer contact, earn well into the process and then introduce the customer to the car showroom at the right time, knowing that every new and used car sale counts…

The following business tips are specifically designed to remind garages and dealerships how to maximise their business revenues during a downturn.

1.   Put existing customers first, ahead of new ones – they are cheaper to keep in touch with and they can influence others.

2.   Emphasise a ‘value for money’ message – no matter your brand, saving money is essential in a downturn.

3.   Encourage a topical ‘maintain and repair’ culture – running a well-maintained older car can be both cost effective and environmentally friendly (and it is the lifeblood of your garage business).

4. Explain why OE parts are better than cheaper alternatives – just in case motorists might be considering saving money here without understanding the consequences

5.   Consider including emissions checks to reduce fuel costs.

6.   Emphasise impressive mpg performance, low VED & insurance group ratings to help sell a used car quickly – low running costs are important in a downturn.

7.   Do you review your products and services regularly – can you add value for the same price or economise and charge less in future?

8.   Make sure that you are always seen to be on your customer’s side. Never patronise, overcharge or try to sell anything that isn’t wanted or needed.

9.  Test ‘exclusive’ offers and loyalty incentives – then measure the response. If at first this doesn’t work, try it again – it takes time for new things to take off and it might not be the right month for his or her MOT and/or next car service.

10.  Don’t forget the growth in online shopping and the need for search engine visibility here – as well as your website, is your business name getting noticed by future customers in news PR, are you ever mentioned in blogs, on social networking websites or as a Twitter tweet?

For more information about female friendly business marketing services for garages, fastfits and car dealerships by all means contact me at FOXY Choice via fcsales@foxychoice.com.

FOXY Steph

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Posted in female friendly, garage services, marketing to women, women drivers | No Comments »

Good garage in Greetland, sounds very friendly…

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

Given a choice of addresses, if I wanted one to sound friendly and different I’d probably pick Greetland as a great indicator of a warm and female friendly business.

Last week I spoke to Eileen Jack at Lambert Street garage in Halifax and there it was, a female friendly garage in Greetland which is a district of Halifax.

And whilst carrying out her marketing review with FOXY Choice  I learned that Eileen has been dealing with a business that had bought a domain name for her so she would then pay them to advertise her business with them. They then used her domain name to promote their business not hers and where there was a listing of garages hers appeared in sixth place not first. Remember she had paid for this ‘marketing service’.

How stupid do these people think female business owners are, simply because they are too busy running a successful business to know all there is about internet matters?

Increasingly we find a lot of these advertising sharks around giving the likes of FOXY Choice a bad name even though we are selling a female friendly marketing service, not just advertising.

And really awful to take advantage of a female friendly garage like Lambert Street Garage in Halifax Greetland, run by a foxy lady herself who is busy looking after local women drivers and doing a great job at MOT, car servicing and repair times.

When will the motor industry get its female friendly marketing act together and realise that women are the future entrepreneurs representing the lionshare of female influencers of cars and garage services. We know what we want and I am sure that Eileen will have made that point very clear…

FOXY Steph

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Posted in female friendly, garage services, marketing to women, women | No Comments »

What about the female ‘crème de la crème’ in the motor industry?

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Yet another Motor Trade conference with an all male speaker line-up in an industry where the majority of car sales are influenced by females who are also the more likely gender to be organising where to have the family car serviced or repaired…

And who need courting by female friendly car dealerships before they do much more of their new car shopping online, telling their friends where the deals are…

This is what the Motor Trader conference states…

“We’ve lined up the absolute creme de la creme of the industry to share their knowledge and predictions with you…”

Now I am not disputing that the speakers concerned aren’t impressive names but it would be good to hear from some impressive women too; to represent the growing number of senior female dealership staff and on behalf of female car shoppers in future…

How about discussing how dealerships can market to/reach more women online by being seen as more female friendly in future?

Or how to use aftersales as an alternative route into the showroom?

Yes we do need to have a post scrappage debate – it is essential to stop the industry from slumping into a second and more serious trough in 2010 but this does require some imaginative thinking to stimulate otherwise unimaginative businesses that can’t see how to source sustainable sales for themselves…

Please involve more women speakers in future guys… female experts will be there if you look hard enough.

The industry needs to be seen as more female friendly in future and those that get this right ahead of others should reap rich rewards.

FOXY Steph

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Posted in buying a new car, car dealerships, female friendly, marketing to women, women drivers | No Comments »

Women drivers smell a female friendly garage difference

Sunday, November 8th, 2009

We are often told that women drivers go into a garage expecting to be ripped off or patronised and that this then makes them aggressive and, occasionally, challenging to deal with.

Just imagine how off-putting this can be if you are a female friendly garage already, wanting to do the right thing for women drivers from the word go yet she is treating you with the same suspicion as she might an unscrupulous garage where this attitude might be totally justified.

So I was interested to read the latest US research that people behave less charitably in dirtier environments than in a clean work place which is what they found in a study called The Smell of Virtue, carried out at the Kellogg School of Management at North Western University. Not only do morality and cleanliness go hand in hand it would appear but simply making a room smell fresher is enough to cause a subconscious impulse towards fair play and honesty.

In this study, just a few sprays of a lemon-scented cleaner produced a noticeable improvement in ethical behaviour whereas those who worked in unfragranced areas were less likely to act charitably to others.

May I suggest that the UK motor industry come up with a suitably fragranced range of reception and workshop scents to be used in garages and dealerships? One that masks testosterone perhaps?

I believe in this theory because I know that smell sells all sorts of things; just the smell of freshly roasted coffee can sell the experience of living in the house that is one the market…

In this instance, I imagine that a female associates a clean (neat and tidy) organisation with one she wants to do business with, whereas one whose reception and waiting area are  coloured black, and smell of fuel and oils, may well be seen as a dirty business in her mind. This scent association can then transfer to the brand and the  garage experience in her head -  suggesting that this is a business that will care about her family safety, or not as the case might be.

How interesting to imagine that the right garage scent could reassure suspicious women drivers and surly front of house garage staff to find some common ground with a view to a future business relationship!

I hope one of the leading air freshener companies might give this a whirl and  suggest they call such a range ‘FOXY Scents’ for garages that want to make their businesses more female friendly in future ;-) .  We’d be happy to introduce some female friendly FOXY Choice garage subscribers to act as guinea pigs here!!

FOXY Steph

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Female friendly garage news from Woodley near Reading

Friday, October 9th, 2009

One way that garages show their quality, customer service and female friendly credentials is when they go out of their way to keep women drivers informed and safer on the roads in future.

Unsurprisingly, what women like is to be treated as human beings, not just as numbers. Whilst many men (in general) are more interested in information to do with mechanics and engines, women are much more interested in people especially when this relates to them

So the recent newsletters from Woodley Auto Centre of Headley Road East in Woodley near Reading are particularly useful and likely to get read by women as the front page has a photo of a female on it and tells readers that the original business founder’s daughter, Ali Clifford, has just joined the team to provide specialist marketing services. It’s the sort of thing that a caring business would do that wants to be seen to continue longstanding family values and traditions.

Other points of interest in the newsletter (apart from a mention about FOXY Choice in the Summer issue…) are some commonsense tips before setting out on a summer motoring holiday including the comfort of family members and their pets.

Finally it is worth saying that any business that publishes such a comprehensive list of fully inclusive car servicing prices starting from as little as £45 needs to be taken seriously in an expensive county like Berkshire, and just in case any motorist still thinks they need to take their car to a franchised dealership to maintain its warranty, this idea is kicked into touch (you don’t by the way). Local women drivers in Reading could save a huge amount of money using Woodley Auto Centre and will enjoy a genuinely female friendly welcome for their MOT, servicing and repair work – trust me I know!

female friendly garage group near Reading

female friendly garage group near Reading

This garage is part of the Woodley Autos Group; their other garage Wargrave Auto Centre on Wargrave’s High Street has a female Service Manager.

As you might expect, both garages are FOXY Choice subscribers and have signed the female friendly FOXY Promise© to never knowingly overcharge, patronise or sell women services they do not need or want.’

These are all signs of a female friendly garage and both are also listed at the new website www.femalefriendlyapproved.com which is another sign of reassurance for women drivers.

FOXY Steph

Posted in female friendly, garage services, marketing to women, women drivers | No Comments »

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