Hyundai's Unconventional Approach to Women

By ROBIN FIELDS

July 8, 1999 12 AM PT

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Auto makers have tried just about everything to persuade women to embrace car buying, from running slick ad campaigns to redesigning door latches for long fingernails.

Hyundai Motor America, stuck with a tiny budget and an enormous image problem, is taking an unconventional, grass-roots approach to winning female consumers.

In a program called Power of the Purse, company public relations manager Donna Kane barnstorms women’s conventions and radio shows nationwide, teaching mostly female audiences to be savvier car buyers.

As a marketing approach, the program borders on heretical: Kane never pitches Hyundais outright and her spiel debunks and defangs the tricks of the auto trade, to consumers’ delight.

Moreover, even Hyundai can’t measure if Power of the Purse delivers sales, Kane acknowledges.

But in sharing advice on how to set budgets and bargain with dealers, the program subtly positions Hyundai as an understanding ally in the oft-maddening process of buying a car. Post-seminar surveys indicate that more than 80% of Power of the Purse attendees walk out willing to at least consider visiting a Hyundai dealership.

“Our message is: ‘This is a car company that knows what your problems are,’ ” Kane said.

Pure pragmatism drives Hyundai’s efforts to court women. When it comes to cars, women are less impressed with horsepower and styling than men, making them crucial customers for bland but inexpensive Hyundai vehicles, analysts say.

Already, women account for more than half of Hyundai’s U.S. sales, and the Fountain Valley-based arm of the South Korean auto maker needs every one of them. Its U.S. sales slipped 20% in 1998, even though analysts say quality has greatly improved. “Perception has lagged reality,” Hyundai spokesman Chris Hosford said.

This year, sales have rebounded, outpacing last year by more than 46%. The relative proportion of women buyers, however, hasn’t changed.

Analysts say Power of the Purse makes sense for Hyundai.

“Consumers have approached [Hyundai] cars with a lot of doubt,” said Jim Hossack, senior consultant for AutoPacific Group of Tustin. “Is it reliable? Will it keep its resale value? What will the neighbors say, we bought the Hyundai, not the Honda?”

The seminars are part of the auto industry’s decades-long pursuit of female buyers. Back in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, manufacturers experimented with models painted in cotton-candy pinks and powder blues, convinced that their girlish palette would captivate women. Ford even feminized the Mustang, adding lipstick holders and more mirrors.

“They thought every female was like Barbie,” said David Cole, director of the University of Michigan’s Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation. “Women were offended by the attempt to patronize them.”

Manufacturers also have focused on the marketing and sales process.

Mercury last year promoted its redesigned Cougar--touted in the ‘60s as “a man’s car”--at a booth at the Lilith Fair, a concert tour begun by singer Sarah McLachlan to showcase women artists.

Saturn, owned by General Motors Corp., has sold cars with features--economy, reliability, safety--that appeal to both genders. But it has tailored its marketing message and sales tactics to women, who account for 60% of its sales.

Instead of macho ads showing cars swerving through hairpin turns, a typical Saturn commercial shows a practical Saturn driver slipping a coupe into a tight parking space. The company’s no-haggle pricing made dealerships seem less fearsome, especially to women.

Indeed, a recent J.D. Power survey showed that though women tend to face more time and budget constraints than men, the biggest gender gap is in attitude.

“More women actually dread shopping [for cars] because they dislike dealers,” said Loretta Seymour, J.D. Power’s director of automotive retail satisfaction.

Hyundai’s overall brand strategy--expressed in its ads and car designs--is largely gender-neutral, stressing value and reliability, Hosford said. The company recently began offering a 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty on its cars to silence doubters.

The Power of the Purse seminars concentrate on the car-buying process.

Hyundai has gradually expanded the program since its launch in 1994, pumping $385,000 into it in 1998. Besides offering tips, the company gives away a car at each conference where Kane makes her presentation.

Kane uses her own experiences to bond with listeners.

As her audience of two dozen at the Los Angeles Women’s Show last month laughed and nodded in recognition, Kane recounted how she had made virtually every car-buying mistake a consumer can.

She had been “upside down,” owing more on her car than it was worth. She had walked into a dealership and announced, “My used car is ready to die.” She had spent less time shopping for a car than for a dress to wear to her high school reunion.

Much of Kane’s advice is similar to what consumer groups give.

She directs audience members to Internet sites that explain how much dealers pay for cars and lets them in on dealerships’ typical markups on new cars (as little as 7% on economy models, up to 30% on luxury cars).

In “Donna’s Dreaded Don’ts,” she gives 11 tips on what not to do, instructing women to sidestep questions about how much they can afford to spend or whether they have a trade-in.

But most of all, she teaches women to understand the value of their business and to take control of their car purchase.

“I want you to think, ‘They need me,’ ” she tells listeners.

Mary Ann Paddock, a Phoenix grandmother about to buy her first car because her husband is too ill to shop, said she was set on a minivan before she saw Kane’s presentation in Los Angeles. Now she said she may go with Hyundai’s station wagon.

“I learned a lot about how to approach buying a car,” she said. “A company that wants me to know this much must be all right.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Cars by Gender

Here are the top 20 car whose buyers are predominantly one gender versus the other, according to sales figures for the first three months of the 19999 model year:

WOMEN’S CHOICES

Make and model: % bought by women

Volkswagen Cabriolet: 69%

Saturn sports coupe: 67%

Toyota Celica: 64%

Toyota Rav4: 62%

Saturn SL (sedan): 62%

Pontiac Sunfire: 62%

Chevy Cavalier: 60%

Nissan Sentra: 59%

Honda CRV: 59%

Subaru Impreza: 59%