Tag Archives: Wessex Garages

marketing to women

Foxy Fiat is ideal design icon for women in Wales

Wales’ women’s economic development agency, Chwarae Teg, has teamed-up with Cardiff-based Wessex Garages to inspire Wales’ next generation of designers and celebrate the charity’s 20th anniversary.

This cooperation is marked by Wessex Garages’ donation of an iconic Fiat 500 to encourage competition entries from female students in Wales to create an inspirational design based on their interpretation of the Chwarae Teg ‘ribbons’ logo.

Wessex Garages is a privately-owned company with locations in Cardiff*, Newport, Bristol and Gloucester, and is known for supporting female employees in their careers as well as creating female friendly dealership environments for their women customers.

The competition will encourage and build female design talent that contributes to the economy and Wales’ perceived intellectual property rankings.

Richard Craythorne (in the photo) is the Fiat brand manager at Wessex Garages and explains:

“We are extremely proud to be associated with the Chwarae Teg Design Contest and the Fiat 500 is an ideal ‘mascot’ to promote the unity between the businesses. The car’s original design in the 1950s was ingenious and promised an exciting new life to those who never had their own transportation before. This promise of a new future (in 2011) has a great synergy with the opportunities Chwarae Teg makes available through its projects, schemes and training courses and I wish all the design competition applicants every success with their entries.”

Katy Chamberlain (in the photo) is the chief executive of Chwarae Teg and she reinforced the synergy between her aims for the competition and the Fiat 500.

“Through the competition we are aiming to inspire students to use their design flair and ambition to help nurture a new generation of world-class female talent in Wales.”

Chwarae Teg’s 20th anniversary celebrations will end with a special three month exhibition at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea coinciding with International Women’s Day on March 8th 2012. The finalists in the design contest will have their work displayed as part of this exhibition and to celebrate the wealth created by women in Wales.

For more information…

The Chwarae Teg Design Contest is open to female students based in Wales who are studying creative disciplines from A-level or equivalent and upwards. Such disciplines could include art, photography, graphic design, fashion and sculpting at school, university or college. The closing date for submissions is Sunday 18th December 2011 and details of how to enter can be found at http://www.chwaraeteg.com/design-contest/

FOXY

car dealerships

A female friendly dealership welcome in Wales

The Ladies evening at Wessex Garages Penarth Road dealership in Cardiff

Wessex Garages in Cardiff organised a very successful evening event for their female customers last month at their Penarth Road showroom.

The event attracted an impressive 60 women on a dark and dreary October evening who were entertained whilst a dedicated team of hard working valeters treated their cars to a special Primp & Polish makeover.

Wessex’s Penarth Road showroom represents the Kia, Hyundai, FIAT and Abarth franchises in Cardiff so this was a great opportunity for everyone to give the latest models the once over.

And in case the Abarth brand isn’t as well known as the others, members of the all female audience were treated to a ‘Top Gear’ like review from a panel of  motorists who had just test driven the Abarth. Their feedback was fun and favourable which is what you should expect about such a smart and zippy car with female appeal.

Next on the agenda was an excellent presentation from Conflict Solutions covering road safety issues and survival tactics in the event of the dreaded vehicle breakdown when you are on your own. Undoubtedly the highlight of this talk was the clever self-defence moves that were demonstrated, just in case this know how ever might come in handy!

At this point in the proceedings Wessex Garages female technician, Natasha, joined the party and led a number of fun challenges (for the mechanically less experienced…) including changing wheels, checking tyres and topping up oil levels. It’s always good to have a go for ourselves, even though we know that the professionals are likely to be there to do it for us on request…

During the evening there had been a few exciting prize draws but the ultimate one that most time-strapped motoring maidens would surely covet most was a professional car valet service for a whole 12 months! Just imagine that…

To demonstrate their female friendly credentials to more women drivers, Wessex Garages Penarth Road has recently joined the new FOXY Choice approved FEMALE FRIENDLY garage network and are the first dealership listed in Cardiff.

To tie in with this initiative, all attendees were offered gift memberships of FOXY Lady Drivers Club with Wessex Garages’ compliments.

As one guest said in her feedback after the event ‘It was a cold and wet October evening and I was tempted to go home after work …but I was really glad I forced myself to go!’

Well done Wessex Garages. This was a big event that was professionally managed and organised for the benefit of the lucky ladies who attended. From FOXY Choice’s point of view we have just awarded you a generous handful of female friendly brownie points as part of our garage monitoring processes!

FOXY