Blog 04/06/2005
Today I received a press release about an upcoming marketing to women conference. I am sharing both the release, and my response, as it will help you understand what NewCarBuyingGuide.com is up against with respect to discrimination in the automotive industry.
Sandra
--------------------------------------04/06/2005
NewCarBuyingGuide.com
Dear Mr. Mayer,
Thank you for forwarding this release. The topics are very interesting. I will indeed forward your notice, and perhaps publish it on our website.
Please be aware that we do not see Miriam Mulay (and many others working on diversity in the automotive industry) as doing anything but hindering progress. Our data -- which represents over 20% of every woman in the US who will purchase a new vehicle this year -- indicates that General Motors is failing in their efforts to sell vehicles to women. They lag behind vastly smaller companies, like Nissan, in sales to women. Using Mulay and General Motors as examples of effective marketers to women is an oxymoron.
Moreover I feel sorry for people like Mulay and Ed Snyder (her diversity counterpart in Corporate Communications at GM.) It must be a horrible feeling for them when they are called by the Editor-in-Chief of the largest woman's automotive publication worldwide to request access to vehicles for test drives and thus reviews, and they are not allowed by their own senior management to even speak with us, let alone help solve our problems with their company. That cannot possibly consitute effective marketing, only systemic disenfrachisement.
On 4/1/2005 CNNMoney published the following about General Motors, "The world's largest automaker, which warned on March 16 of a loss in the first quarter and lowered its full-year earnings target by as much as 80 percent..." Consider having someone speak to your audience about the results of failing to effectively sell to women, and on how companies sabotage their own sales by not eliminating gender discrimination.
Very truely yours,
Sandra Kinsler
EPM Communications, Inc.
April 6, 2005
Please feel free to forward this newsletter in its entirety.
Dear Sandra,
Try this quiz (answers below):
1. What type of television program do women watch most?
2. Which group is most likely to play online videogames daily: male teens, adult men, female teens, or adult women?
3. What are the top three activities women do while watching TV?
The answers:
1. Women obviously want to keep up with local goings-on, and they do so by watching local news. In fact, more women watch local news (88% of women do) than comedy (65%), drama (62%), movies (traditional broadcast, 56%) or documentaries (49%), according to Horowitz Associates.
2. Women over age 40 who are online videogame players spend nine hours per week playing games, or over 40% of their total online time. They are also more likely than any other group to play daily, reports Digital Marketing Services' "Casual Games Report," prepared for AOL.
3. Multitasking is the only way for today's women to maintain balance in their lives, which is why 78% watch TV while opening the mail, 67% while reading a newspaper and 65% while online or reading a magazine, says BIGresearch.
Women, of course, aren't the only ones multitasking these days. Not so long ago it was called "juggling," usually in reference to family and career. But multitasking refers to the types of tasks that can be done simultaneously.
For marketers, that means courting attention not just through the clutter of one medium (say, television), but of several at the same time.
If you need to understand the implications of women's multitasked lives on purchase behavior, attitudes, health and other areas, take a look at EPM's new "All About Women Consumers, 2005 Edition."
As publisher of the newsletter Marketing To Women, we've just published this 262-page reference detailing the women's market by subject area, from automotive to workforce, clothing to philanthropy, education to entertainment, and many more categories.
You can see the complete table of contents, download the book immediately, or order a printed copy at www.epmcom.com/aawc. All About Women Consumers, 2005 Edition is $269 for either the pdf or printed version or $309 for both versions.
Also, I'll be speaking about "On-Demand Advertising & Marketing" as it relates to the women's market at the upcoming Marketing 2 Women conference in Chicago April 18-19 (www.m2w.biz).
Registration is still available for the conference, which features Grant Schneider of Time Inc. Women's Magazine Group, as well as executives with Best Buy, General Motors, Kimpton Hotels and Lincoln National Life Insurance, among others. EPM print newsletter subscribers save 25% off the regular registration rate by calling 860-724-2649 and mentioning the EPM print newsletter you subscribe to.
If you're attending the conference, please let me know so we can meet.
Cheers,
Ira
