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You’d think she could afford a comb.
dastanley: You’d think she could afford a comb.
Hilarious… and true.
My take-away is that GM has given up on men, who have been deserting in droves for carmakers that offer reliability, quality and modern technology.
But GM can still win in the marketplace, by stressing their unique capability to offer what women want: cupholders, sunglass holders, backup cameras and white paint.
That’ll go well.
Vanity mirrors as well.
Very interesting. The use of hands around the stomach, and then moving the hands between the stomach and Chevy, and talking about ‘mothers’ was neat sleight of hand.
Her hair being a bit rumpled is all too normal for busy mommy’s. That, and you throw in female engineers lined up to display how ‘feminime’ and female friendly the Traverse really is… and you have a really good PR piece.
Those of us who despise many of GM’s practices may realize that they can be among the slickest marketers out of any business out there. Give them class leading products (and eradicate their cost disadvantage) and they could truly become a world class company.
perhaps a subtle message that there is still enough room to do the nasty in the back seat?
or, a utility outlet for a blow dryer?
sheesh. Nice PR work, GM.
Ah, shades of Volvo’s 2004 Designed by Women, For Women concept car razzle dazzle.
http://www.roadandtravel.com/newsworthy/newsandviews04/volvoconceptcarbywomen.htm
Don’t tell those misogynists at Toyota and Honda about this. Chevy is going to clean their clock …. right?
You have to give GM some credit though. Compared to the VW-Brooke Shields women are getting pregnant so they can buy a VW minivan pitch, the GM piece is brilliance incarnate.
SherbornSean: My take-away is that GM has given up on men, who have been deserting in droves for carmakers that offer reliability, quality and modern technology.
Virtually every reputable survey shows that women decide the majority of new-vehicle purchases. It has been this way for years.
If men really had the final say regarding what vehicle to buy, we would have experienced the Mustang GT-Honda S2000-Subaru WRX-Chevrolet Corvette boom over the past decade, in place of an SUV boom.
I always laugh when people argue that the SUV boom was fueled by men who need to compensate for their…shortcomings. Sorry, but it was WOMEN who largely drove the SUV boom. They hated minivans and station wagons.
On anecdotal and personal level, I’ve watched my 60-something mother demand an SUV (“Because I want to sit up high and need four-wheel-drive to get to work!” – even though she never needed it during the past 25 or so years.) and am resigned to buying something like an Escape for the next vehicle, largely because my wife wants it (she once told me that she would buy an Escalade if we could afford it).
Advertisers kept pitching them to men, because, to pharaphrase Bunkie Knudsen, you can sell a man’s car to a woman, but you can’t sell a woman’s car to a man.
My mother chose the Sante-Fe she drives because it’s at the perfect level for her and the Grandmother to get in and out of, as well as visual height inside the car, without the overall vehicle being obnoxiously too big.
Those of us who despise many of GM’s practices may realize that they can be among the slickest marketers out of any business out there.
Yes, but only at the tactical level. Strategically, their marketing is wretched.
geeber :
October 28th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
I always laugh when people argue that the SUV boom was fueled by men who need to compensate for their…shortcomings. Sorry, but it was WOMEN who largely drove the SUV boom. They hated minivans and station wagons.
X2. Although I can say I actually picked out the last five vehicles my wife and I bought since being married, she had to approve each one. (lol) With the last one, she’s approved it, then when the car arrived she tried was ticked. But I already had that first approval. (lol)
I always figured CUV really stood for Chick Utility Vehicle, and now it has been confirmed.
What did she performed to mess her coif like that? Were better parts audited by moral majority?
Cool, GM has an entire team of women to design their CUV’s. Now what they REALLY need is an entire team of gay men to DRESS the women who design their CUV’s.
Seriously: untucked black shirts and khakis? Seriously? Was “frumpy” the actual intent here? If we’re going for WalMart Chic, why not just slap some Crocs on them. :p
Next time, GM: go to Macy’s, let the girls pick out their OWN clothes, and then film the entire segment in the parking structure, out of the 40 MPH winds. Repeat after me: more Sex in the City, less “Best Buy employee.”
Wow. I think I’ve out-gayed myself. Time to head over to AutoBlog and fight with guys over which of the 247 Mustangs currently available is a better choice…
dastanley:
You’d think she could afford a comb.
SherbornSean:
My take-away is that GM has given up on men…
I think men that make combs have given up on women that drive CUV’s.
Why is everyone suggesting that GM has completely given up on sales to men because of this? They simply stubbed their lug-foot acknowledged the target audience, and by dumb-luck, an executive decided to pursue it.
Until the Corvette is sold in pink… oh wait… crap!
Geez I hate vehicle marketing. The BS is just overwhelming.
Wasn’t the last Freestar designed by women too?
geeber :
October 28th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
“I always laugh when people argue that the SUV boom was fueled by men who need to compensate for their…shortcomings. Sorry, but it was WOMEN who largely drove the SUV boom. They hated minivans and station wagons.”
My experience exactly. All of the women I know prefer huge SUV’s because they are “safe”. They also despise wagons and minivans because they are uncool. They also like the weight and ride height of CUV’s and the more car-like driving dynamics.
So, what will the chicks buy once GM goes tits up??
I beg to differ on opinion. My daughter and I were sitting at a window seat in a Starbucks just the other day watching 7 out of 10 women SUV drivers try to pull into a parking space and then give up and go somewhere else. Then some guy pulls his jeep in and double parks it, blocking the driver of the Chevy Cobalt parked in the next space from opening his door.
It was fun to watch.
“In the 25 years at the company you would have never seen a female as myself in charge…” A little bitter you didn’tt get on the gravy train while there was still money for the bonuses???
Problem solved! Obviously it’s the man’s fault… Sounds like a job for Hillary.
John Horner> I recently read a follow up on the Volvo YCC car. The YCC has led to nothing. But seen as a “marketing vehicle” it was very successful, giving very much PR per krona spent!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_YCC
@Voice of Sweden – Volvo’s business results have been in a tail spin for some time now, so I’m not sure how much the “free” PR really bought them.
Success isn’t measured in how much free ink and tv time you get, it is measured in sales and profits. The old adage that “the only bad press is no press” may apply to movie stars, but it doesn’t work for consumer products.
In modern times what has sold to women automotively? MACHO! Those blinged out monster trucks were a huge hit with fashion conscious women. Go figure.
My wife & I have been married ~ 2 years.
I had all my vehicles before I met her.
She seems open to suggestions on “her” first vehicle….but mostly wants to select it herself. The problem is her taste changes weekly.
I told her I’d go along with whatever she wants as long as it’s sub $20k out the door & it’s manual. I don’t know if she’s going to go for that since she can’t drive stick (her beater is auto), but she needs to learn in order to drive back home.
YMMV.
Ah yes, the politically correct “women are superior” mantra again. Men are “obviously” too stupid to design a vehicle for women…
I’d find a “watch” on the sales of the new “designed by women for women” Perverse Traverse interesting.
I’m glad women are having more input into car design, but this is no bash to men. Men obviously designed many great vehicles over the years. It has been a predominantly male industry, but there is room for all types of vehicles and viewpoints. The companies are always going to market to a certain demographic (families, women, men, young people, middle-agers, etc.) rather than accepting the fact that you can’t always predict who will buy. CUVs of course will be probably mostly bought by women and families, but my husband, who’s a dyed-in-the-wool car nut, actually likes them. Go figure . . .
Case in point: the Honda Element. I think folks originally thought young guys would buy them, but the 40+ crowd embraced them. I see ladies in big trucks, all kinds of people in mid-size Camries, all kinds of folks in compacts, etc. And it’s all good.
When we purchased our RAV4,my wife wanted only one colour that being “Red”, do all women only like Red?
The hair is perfect!!
Women see a harried, busy mom/wife – that they can relate to and men see a mom/wife that they just looked at on voyeurweb.com
Everyone is a winner – marketing geniuses…..
Kevin- Toyota Siennas and Honda Odysseys. The same things they’ve been buying all along.
geeber : I always laugh when people argue that the SUV boom was fueled by men who need to compensate for their…shortcomings. Sorry, but it was WOMEN who largely drove the SUV boom. They hated minivans and station wagons.
I think that a lot of women are compensating for the same shortcomings, in a “Freudian Envy” sort of way.
“Women … made SUVs top sellers, because of their roominess, safety, and command view of the road.”
Well, one out of three ain’t bad…
If men really had the final say regarding what vehicle to buy, we would have experienced the Mustang GT-Honda S2000-Subaru WRX-Chevrolet Corvette boom over the past decade, in place of an SUV boom.
You’re so wrong. I’m a man, and I’ve only owned 3 out of 4 of those cars. Blows your theory right out of the water.
I’m still waiting for carmakers to start bringing child engineers on board to design cars. Before long we’ll be seeing vehicles that run on peas and broccoli and come loaded with a team of ninja wizards that shoot lasers from their eyes.
So then it is the female designers at GM that engineer the shitty interiors with panel gaps you could drive an Escalade through?
So why wou’dn’t you target women who are the main buyers of mini-van replacements?
Virtually every reputable survey shows that women decide the majority of new-vehicle purchases. It has been this way for years.
Not necessarily true — and misleading. First, women buy a slight majority of overall of car purchases — but saying they decide the majority of purchases as opposed to buying is a different thing. With the purchases of cars by women who are married, I can guarantee that men have a large say in those decisions. Men generally know more about cars and will usually be heavily consulted when women buy a vehicle. If the husband suggests that a certain vehicle would be suitable, and the women goes along with that call — are we going to characterize it as just the woman’s decision? Hardly. While the vehicle is purchased under the woman’s name, somewhere a man is usually heavily consulted on the decision.
Secondly, men buy (on average) higher priced vehicles than women. So men account for a sizeable majority of overall dollars spent on vehicles (the last figures I saw were 2/3 of every car dollar). In other words, if one looks at the overall dollar value of vehicles purchased, men spend more than women — a lot more.
And then there are statements like women influence something like 80% of auto purchases. Well … how much is that influence? Are women a major influence or only a small influence in those 80%? If the influence is small on most of the final decisions, then that number may not mean very much. What percentage of auto purchases do men influence 90% …95%? And how heavy weighted is their influence on those purchases? Feminists and those that promote feminism are always trying to overplay women’s in influence in some endeavor, including the auto market. I’ve never met a single guy in my life that asked a woman advice about buying a car. The average woman doesn’t even know how to check the oil in a car and they don’t generally show a lot of interest in a car except as an appliance or a fashion statement. On the opposite front — women don’t generally ask guys about the latest fashion to wear in shoes.
And then there is the influence of Auto magazines and online auto forums. Take a scan of the automotive forums — women make up such a small percentage of the members and those regularly posting as to be almost negligible.
The vast majority of the auto forums ( 95%+) and commentary on auto forums are by men. And the vast majority auto journalists are men (probably ~ 95% or greater). So, where do women go for information and analysis when they purchase a vehicle? Most likely it will be to some article or commentary by men. If one overestimates women’s influence on the auto market — and then markets a whole division to them (like Mercury), it can end up being a disaster because one has overestimated what that “80% influence” figure really means. The vast majority of your auto critics will be men, so they are the ones the auto makers have to please because that’s where most people get their information and commentary on autos.
Being that the Chevy Traverse was designed by women is not surprising. I mean look at it. I looks like the bulbous plastic toys they buy for their kids.
I also can’t stand what she said, “Who better than mom’s to design this vehicle,” or something to that effect.
Oh, I’m sorry, I guess fathers have no freaking sense when it comes to designing something with their child’s needs in mind.
Ahh, but I forgot, when it comes to women, equality is a one way street.
Sorry, Blastman, but the in real world, it works like this – if the woman isn’t happy with the purchase, it won’t happen. Period. That’s not “feminism,” it’s the way things work in a relationship.
Unless the car (usually a sports car or Mustang GT) is a bought as a “toy” for the man.
And most people do not post on auto forums or read automobile magazines. (The one magazine that really drives sales is Consumer Reports.)
If automobile websites and Car & Driver really drove sales of new vehicles, then the VWs and Subaru WRXs would be top sellers in America.