Why does the car industry have such a problem marketing to women?

Over 50 per cent of women find car advertising patronising, according to research released earlier this year by Different Spin. Research groups that we surveyed for Fiat went further, with many women we questioned saying they actually find car ads offensive. It is rather alarming that an industry that spends billions of pounds designing and manufacturing products that sell for thousands of pounds can get its marketing so wrong.

At Krow, when we’ve produced creative work that women really respond to, such as the Fiat 'Motherhood' campaign, women have been involved throughout the development.

For the launch of the Fiat 500L – an extension of the 500 range but bigger and more practical (ie perfect for women with kids) – we took the car and our original creative ideas to research groups with mums. They loved the car but hated all our ideas. They also tore into car advertising in general. “I bet it’s all done by a bunch of middle-aged blokes who love cars and Top Gear,” was one woman’s verdict.

And she was probably right. This is the issue that still besets the agency world – and I include Krow in this. There are not enough women, particularly in creative roles. The problem is exacerbated by carmakers’ desire to focus on the clever features they’ve spent millions designing in their advertising, resulting in ‘boys and their toys’ style marketing.

There are lessons that the car industry and its agencies could learn from other sectors. P&G’s Roisin Donnelly set out the challenge better than anyone else when she said that marketing success comes from a deep understanding of consumers and “walking in your audience’s shoes”. I don't see this level of insight in the car ads on TV at the moment, perhaps because so much car advertising is produced at a European or even global level, or perhaps because the advertising is created long after the original product development and design insights have been lost. Or maybe it’s because each new car has too many new bells and whistles that the manufacturers want to shout about.

With Fiat we have been lucky. We get to work with a lot of car models that have been painstakingly designed with the core target market in mind, starting with the 500. Our job has been to take this focus on design and style and amplify it with communications. Today, the strategy to behave more like a fashion brand than a car company seems obvious, but at the time it was bold and different.

The work for 500L was a simple progression. Women told us they still wanted a stylish, well-designed car but they wanted one that was big enough to fit the kids in. And they also said they would respond better to a brand that displayed a bit of empathy with their situation. So we created The Motherhood, a rap video that shone a light on the reality of being a mum but with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek.

I support Roisin Donnelly’s call for businesses to embrace the differences between men and women for the good of their people and bottom line.

This is the challenge that the producers of car advertising face if they are ever going to catch up with the fact women account for over 85 per cent of all consumer purchases; everything from cars to new homes. At Krow we know we have a lot more work to do.

Vicki Saunders is managing partner at Krow Communications