Female Automotive Buyers
April, 1996
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This 1996 Management White Paper is being provided by The Dohring Company as a supplement to our 1996 National Automotive Consumer Study.
The national study, provided as a service to the automotive industry, focused on the most topical issues of the day including:
This white paper is intended to provide in-depth answers to help you better understand the consumer perspective on specific issues.
The national study has not been funded by any outside source and is strictly provided as a service. The design intention was to address several primary areas of importance to our automotive, OEM supplier and dealer client base.
The Dohring Company is North America's largest provider of custom market research to the retail automotive community. We have conducted more that 3,000 automotive market research studies for dealers, dealer associations, advertising agencies, manufacturers and suppliers in North America and internationally. The company, based in Glendale, California, employs over 100 full time staff and has conducted over 300,000 interviews with vehicle buyers in 1995 alone, and over one million in the past ten years.
Additionally, we are proud to have been designated Marketing Research Supplier to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
The Dohring Company is a full-service provider of marketing research and the developer of TrendTrak®, our exclusive on-site survey polling device. For additional information, please contact us at 1-800-242-8022.
A total of 1,253 respondents were surveyed from across the 50 United States in proportion to their household populations. All respondents were surveyed by telephone during December 1995, and were qualified as intending to purchase a new or used vehicle in the future from a new car dealership. The study has a standard error of ± 2.8%.
The female automotive consumer has become an increasingly important segment of the retail automotive market. More and more females are becoming active participants or the key decision makers in vehicle purchases. More female automotive consumers are now taking responsibility in getting their vehicles serviced. Not only do females constitute a majority of vehicle owners, but they also now represent a large percentage of decision makers regarding both vehicle purchasing and servicing.
The female automotive consumer can have different perceptions, attitudes, and decision criteria and they can have different factors influencing their satisfaction and loyalty than the historically dominant male automotive consumer. Following are some noteworthy trends from the 1996 National Automotive Consumer Study regarding female automotive consumers.
Women are an important influence in automotive retailing. Over half of the automotive consumers surveyed (54.3%), based upon the random national sampling of those who intend to purchase a new or used vehicle in the future from a new car dealership, were females.
Women are especially important in certain segments of automotive retailing. Six in ten (59.2%) future passenger car buyers are females, more than six in ten (61.4%) future minivan buyers are females and over half (53.8%) of future sport utility vehicle buyers are female.
Type of vehicle buyers intend to purchase next:
Women between 25 and 49 years of age represent nearly half (48.2%) of the future minivan buyers.
Intend to purchase minivans:
While the heritage of sport utility vehicles came out of the male-dominated light truck market segment, the market for sport utility vehicles is becoming increasingly influenced by the female buyer. Over half of future sport utility vehicle buyers (53.8%) will be female, and four in ten future sport utility buyers (40.2%) will be females between 25 and 49 years old. Many of these females likely intend to use the sport utility vehicle as a family transport vehicle; few S.U.Vs will likely be used for off-road driving and many may never be used for driving in snow or other harsh conditions.
Intend to purchase sport utility vehicles:
Females Prefer Negotiating Vehicle Purchases Top
and "Buying on Sale"
A greater percentage of female automotive consumers preferred to shop and purchase from a negotiating dealership over a One-price dealership than did males.
Preference for negotiating vs. One-price dealership:
More females paid the dealership's exact price for their most recent vehicle purchase than did males.
In most recent vehicle purchase paid the dealership's exact asking
price:
The top reason females paid the dealership's exact asking price was that the vehicle they purchased was "on sale" (44%).
Reason for paying dealership's exact asking price:
Females are More Satisfied With Their Car Buying Top
and Ownership Experiences at Dealerships Than Males
With their increasing contacts with traditionally male-dominated dealerships, there has been a lot of attention by both the auto manufacturers and the dealers in recent years, on providing the female automotive consumer with a good experience in doing business at the dealership. While there have been many "horror" stories shared from both the dealership's and the female automotive consumer's viewpoint, this study uncovered some surprising results which are contrary to the opinions of most dealers and industry observers, alike.
A greater percentage of women were satisfied with their most recent dealership purchase experience than were men. Respondents were asked to rate their most recent vehicle purchase experience on a scale of "excellent", "good", "fair" or "poor". For analytical purposes the rating "excellent" was assigned the value 4.0, "good" was assigned the value 3.0, "fair" was assigned the value 2.0 and "poor" was assigned the value 1.0, and a mean score was calculated.
Dealership purchase experience:
A greater percentage of women liked their most recent vehicle purchase negotiation than did men.
Liked vs. disliked most recent purchase negotiation:
About two thirds of both males (64.9%) and females (66.5%) took their vehicles back to the dealership for service.
Women who took their vehicles to the dealership for service were more satisfied with the experience of having their vehicle serviced at the dealership than men who took their vehicles to the dealership for service. Respondents were asked to rate their experience with the dealership in servicing their vehicle on a scale of "excellent", "good", "fair" or "poor". For analytical purposes the rating "excellent" was assigned the value 4.0, "good" was assigned the value 3.0, "fair" was assigned the value 2.0 and "poor" was assigned the value 1.0, and a mean score was calculated.
Dealership service experience:
More Females are Loyal to Their Dealership Top
and to Their Vehicle Make Than Males
More women said that they would "probably" or "definitely" consider purchasing again from the same dealership the next time they were in the market for a vehicle. Respondents were asked if they would say that they would "definitely", "probably", "may or may not", "probably not" or "definitely not" purchase from the same dealership, the next time they were in the market for a vehicle. For analytical purposes, "definitely" was assigned the value +2.0, "probably" was assigned the value +1.0, "may or may not" was assigned the value 0.0, "probably" was assigned the value -1.0 and "definitely not" was assigned the value -2.0, and a mean score was calculated.
Dealership loyalty is strongest among females 18 to 24 years old, those who'd likely had their first dealership experiences within the past 4 to 6 years. Dealership loyalty is low among both males and females 25 to 49 years old. Dealership loyalty increases among categories of females 50 to 64 years of age and those 65 years and over, where their loyalty to the dealership is substantially greater than that of males.
Dealership loyalty: (Repeat purchase intention)
With the exception of those 18 to 24 years of age, females in age categories from 25 to over 60 years of age demonstrated greater loyalty to the make of their current vehicle than did males. When asked which make of vehicle they currently drive and then later asked which one make of vehicle they would most seriously consider for their next vehicle purchase, over four in ten respondents (41.4%) indicated that they would most seriously consider the same make of vehicle again. Almost a fourth of the respondents (22.7%) were undecided regarding the make of their next vehicle and over a third (35.9%) indicated that they intended to purchase a vehicle of a different make next time.
While the likelihood of purchasing the same make of vehicle next time increased dramatically with age, make loyalty was lowest among females 18 to 24 years old, where less than a fourth (23.5%) intended to purchase the same make next. Make loyalty tended to increase among increasingly older age categories for both genders, with females of each age category demonstrating greater make loyalty than the males of the same age category. The greatest loyalty was demonstrated by women 65 years and over, where six in ten (59.7%) intend to purchase the same make of vehicle next time.
Make loyalty: (Repeat purchase intention)
From the above two graphs, females generally had greater loyalty to both the dealership and to the make of vehicle than did males. Younger females have strongest dealership loyalty and lowest make loyalty. Females 25 to 49 have the lowest dealership loyalty and have increasing make loyalty. And older age categories of females have both greater loyalty to the dealership and greater loyalty to the make of vehicle.
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