Detroit takes sharper aim in Marketing Cars to Women

The days are fast disappearing when car-makers appealed to women primarily as housewives who influenced their husbands in the family’s choice of a new car. As more women achieve financial independence, Detroit is increasingly targeting its messages to them as consumers in their own right.

"More and more ads are coming out targeting women," says Cynthia Marshall, media supervisor at Chisholm-Mingo Group in Detroit, which places ads for General Motors. "Women now support themselves and have discretionary income. Most ads highlight women without any men in the picture at all." 

Much of this change is recent, reflecting the increasing voice women have in buying cars. Women make half the car purchases in the U.S., and more and more women are buying cars for their own personal use as well as for family use. The recent trend for auto advertisers is to treat women the way they used to treat men, targeting to their unique needs in a car rather than to their gender.