The J.D. Power Online Automotive Review Dealer Edition just published an article about taking advantage of the online opportunities to target women consumers through dealership web sites. Here are some excerpts.

“In recent years, the automotive industry has become increasingly more attuned to the language of female buyers, translating their product and shopping preferences into all stages of the vehicle purchase experience. Vehicle design, advertising campaigns and dealer practices have all received special attention from OEMs as they attempt to capture the influence that women exert on household buying decisions.

As examples, Volvo and GM have been vocal about incorporating women’s opinions into the redesigns of their models most popular among women. Mercury has launched a female-centric ad campaign as it seeks to capitalize on its large percentage of this segment of buyers. Further, brands such as Saturn have worked to make the dealership experience as comfortable for women as possible. Dealers have an opportunity to take this initiative one step further—by reaching out to women via the increasingly important channel of the dealer Web site.

Females are more likely to rely on dealer sites for vehicle shopping information, and they rate dealer sites overall more useful than do males.”

Jody DeVere is quoted in this article as saying:

“A lot of dealers are realizing the potential of female consumers and are stepping up to the plate, but there are still many out there that haven’t adjusted their traditional marketing practices to include or specialize toward women,” DeVere notes. “Diversity, segmenting and targeting in marketing and advertising is good business practice—period—for dealerships. The actual overall consumer demographics of each dealer location need to be considered.”

Read full article here, Page 20-25 of the JD Power Decmber 2006 Online Automotive Review.

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