Don't Pain It Pink
Agenda – Volvo’s worldwide magazine, distributed to 27,000 employees
March 2002 Tatiana Butovitsch Temm
Translation by Einar Berg
"Automobile companies that regularly communicate with women can double their sales" When selling cars to women, it's as much of an error to pile facts on top of one another as showing newly crashed wrecks. But for heaven's sake, don't make a rose colored auto and call it a women's car. Tell people instead what the car can do, not what it is. So reads the main theme in Marti Barletta's advice to Volvo wagons.
 Men talk by exchanging facts. Women by trading stories.
A customer clinic was set up in the USA in a recent year. A group of men and a group of women were to make a statement about a product. They thought. But in reality the test was aimed at watching their behavior in the lobby. The group of men were quiet. And quiet. Then someone said: “Did you see the game last Sunday?” Someone else answered: “Some shots by Bill Smith!” A third one piped up: “Almost as beautiful as Joe Bloke's hat trick in the World Series of 96.” The moment was saved. The unpleasant silence broken and the men exchanged facts with each other until they could enter and do their fake test.
The group of women was silent, but only for a bit. Then someone said, “What a pretty brooch you've got!” The one spoken to answered: “Oh, I saw it when my sister and myself were on vacation last summer. I really wanted it but didn't think I could afford it right then, since the children's sailing course was quite costly. So I was happily surprised when I got it as a birthday gift from Mom.” The moment was saved. The unpleasant silence broken and the women exchanged stories with each other. In addition, everyone got to know that the woman in question has children, a good relationship with her sister and Mom, and goes on vacation with her family who likes to sail.
If you look at the auto industry in general, it's a sorry sight to look at, says Marti Barletta. In ad after ad, the auto manufacturers talk about cylinder volume, cam shafts and torque. And then they show pictures of a car on a mountain top in a left turn (or shown from the left) or car on a mountain top in a right turn (or shown from the right). No person in sight anywhere.
If you are going to tell a story, you need actors, that is, people. Put them in the picture! Focus on the advantages for human beings instead of product quality. Women want to know what the technical stuff is useful for, not how it works. They want to know that the company they deal with is a responsible one and that they themselves won't pollute unnecessarily through the product they have chosen.
It seems as if you at Volvo have missed the fact that half the customers in USA are women, and in Europe the percentage is strongly on the increase. And you still communicate in a language for men to men.
Marti Barletta is convinced that the automobile company that regularly communicates with women as well (not instead of), can double its sales. The one who fulfills the women's expectations, exceeds men's expectations as well. Thus, you won't frighten away men by building cars that appeal to women.
Women like cars with smart solutions that save time and make them feel spoiled. If Volvo already makes such cars - then tell us about it!
Facts: 51.6 % of Volvo car customers in the USA are women. Volvo V40 is sold in USA to 63.7% women. Most of them are employed, university educated with adult children. In Europe, however, the V40 is clearly a favorite of the men; a smashing 95% of the customers are men. Of these, half of them have children at home and 65% lack university education. |
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