How to Sell a Car (Interior) to Women - Building Gender Balanced Business

Johnson Controls surveyed women in the US and EU about what they want a car interior to offer. Since women control more than half of the car buying decisions in many developed economies, car makers — and everyone else — should pay attention.

• Women want to feel safe and comfortable in their car.

• “Feeling safe and secure is all about peace of mind,” said Renae Pippel, Manager for Consumer Research North America for Johnson Controls, or JCI. “Women want to be safe physically but emotionally as well.”

• Women want vehicles that are transitional, so the car can adapt to changes in their lives. They need vehicles that offer features that meet their expanding roles.

• Women want to be connected. They want vehicles that help them stay connected, safely, via the technology they are incredibly familiar with and increasingly dependent on.

• “Women have a love-hate relationship with technology,” Pippel said. “We are connected 24-7, it’s not always a good thing, but it has become a necessity.” Women are natural multi-taskers, which means their minds are constantly thinking about what is going on around them, she said. In order to make women feel safe and at ease, it’s important a vehicle’s interior offers all the amenities to help keep them organized and essentially more comfortable.

• Women want storage space.

• Women want to be environmentally conscious.

• Oh, and they want style too. In fact, they want it as much as men, maybe more. And if men don’t care about the other items on this list, you have to wonder what they want in a car. (OK, lots of horsepower…)

A summary of the findings

Johnson Controls’ overview of the study