In recent years, marketing experts have been reinforced by the idea that automakers are supposedly producing universal cars that can meet the needs of any driver - they say, it can be used in the city, hunting, racing track, and traveling around the globe. However, it was not always the case before for each individual task the automaker produced its model, not forgetting to take into account the different financial possibilities of the customers, age, and much more. One of the most failed experiments was repeatedly the production of cars designed for female audience.
In the 1950s, the welfare of the American people grew and allowed the middle class to have more than one car in the family. While the head of the family was leaving for work in the city, his other half, on whose shoulders was all the way of life, shopping, children, and other cares, also needed a car. Usually it was a modest station wagon with a minimal set of options. Representations of marketers about the women's field were very original - no one even thought of asking the women themselves what they needed. It was believed that the ladies themselves are crazy about domestic cares, they only think about how to please their man, they love pastel colors and they only care about their own appearance.
It is believed that the first automaker who placed a bet on the female sex was the corporation Chrysler. Their marketing department, based on the prevailing in those years judgments about the ladies, created a car specifically for women. The basis for the new model was the two-door hardtop of 1955 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer, and the novelty came out in the same 1955 and was named Dodge La Femme.
The car was painted in two colors: "White sapphire" and "Pink heather" and received a gold plate with the inscription La Femme. The interior of the car was uniquely decorated: the seats were trimmed with pale pink vinyl and a decorative cloth with a pattern of pink buds on a light pink background. In the back of the front passenger seat was built a leather ladies' handbag in pink with a gold-plated clasp, on which you could order the engraving of the owner's name. The handbag was filled with fashionable accessories: powder, a set of lipsticks, a comb, a purse, cigarette case and lighter. In the back of the driver's seat was an umbrella, raincoat and cap from the weather - all in the color of the cabin.
The following year, the configuration slightly changed, both in color design and in a set of options, because constancy is not the strongest side of female taste.
Nevertheless, by 1957, Chrysler turned the production of the first ladies' car. The exact figures of the cars produced are not, but it is believed that about 2500 copies were produced and sold. Chrysler has never advertised the reasons for such modest sales, but suggest that the reason was mediocre advertising support and poor marketing research of the product. Employees of the marketing department, men, had no idea what the ladies really need.
Despite the fact that such sales can not be called phenomenal, but even sufficient, Dodge marketers after 18 years rushed to step on the same rake, however, with less loss.
Plymouth Barracuda
The popular vinyl option in the USA (roof coating with artificial leather, slightly different shade, or at all contrasting with the main body color) still finds its fans to this day. In 1969, due to the unusual design of vinyl-top floral design, marketers once again expected to attract the female part of consumers. This design was used this time in a number of models - it was oil cars and pony cars: Plymouth Barracuda, Plymouth Satellite, Dodge Dart, Dodge Super Bee and Dodge Coronet. The modification received the prefix "Mod Top". Artificial leather for the roof of the car manufacturer ordered from the manufacturer curtains for bathrooms and kitchen utensils made of plastic. In addition to the flowers on the roof, the same story was present in the cabin in the form of fabric inserts on the seats and special rugs. The inscription Mod Top was applied to the corners of the side rear windows.
And again, unsuccessfully. For two years, all models sold only about 2,800. Subsequently, the failed models often become a kind of cult - it happened more than once in the history of the car industry - but this fate has not beenfall Mod Top. Despite such a modest circulation and a real exclusive, even today the well-preserved model does not differ much from the usual modification, besides it is also sold with a noticeable creak.
Then different automakers have repeatedly tried in every possible way to impose their vision of the women's car thus women, not particularly delving into their worldview and motivation. For many years it was believed that a woman needs a small machine of pleasant, pastel shade, with a small motor, and all these years it never occurred to anyone to ask the woman herself what kind of car she needed. And only in the last couple of decades, sales began to show the true preferences of women. Yes, they are more rational than men, and for regular city trips they will choose a five-door hatchback rather than a large sedan, but female housewives are no less practical and choose spacious cars that are convenient for trips with children and to supermarkets. For example, a huge SUV Chevrolet Suburban, which in black is preferred by special services and brutal muzhiks, the United States will most likely be managed by a housewife, simply because it is so convenient. When choosing colors, the weaker sex also stops at inconspicuous and more practical shades.
It seems that it is high time to accept that girls and women do not treat the car as an accessory like a handbag - they are much more a means of transportation for them than for men. But it's men who tend to treat the car with more attention than to their own clothes.
