Lady Geek

The old adage about men not asking for directions has an element of truth to it when it comes to my husband. Having observed quite a few of women & men driving, its clear that men and women think very differently about getting directions, planning routes and the technology that can help them do that. Susi Weaser from Shiny Shiny mentioned this fascinating piece of research to me from Standford University which highlights significant differences between the way men and women subconsciously react to stimuli.

In the first experiment, the researchers examined how clothes shopping influences subsequent choices. They found that men who were exposed to the idea of shopping for a new wardrobe became much more focused on the end result in a subsequent (ostensibly unrelated) task of plotting a route for a cross-country trip, tending to choose the most direct route. In contrast, women exposed to clothes shopping were far more willing to take the scenic route. Many men tend to be “purpose driven” when clothes shopping (they shop for specific items and only when they are needed), whereas many women tend to be “possibility driven” (they browse and shop to “see what’s out there”).

I see a huge opportunity for sat nav companies to connect with the growing proportion of women who could be persuaded to own a sat nav, 17% of the women I spoke to own a sat nav, and according to Mintel, it is the gadget that women most frequently admit to wanting.

However, when it comes to product, retail and advertising, most seem to fail to target the female market altogether or those that put a toe in the water like Garmin tend to do the pinking up and dumbing down as shown in this ad.

(The Garmin 200 and 250 comes in ‘powder pink’ and ‘candy pink’ respectively, women also get their own matching accessory cases called Penelope Pitstop’s Compact Pussycat!)

However, these 2 functional ads are far more typical of the way the sat nav companies advertise their hardware. Specifically, they list out features and show huge pictures of the machine but do not attempt to create any emotional connection.

My relationship with my Tom Tom could not be more different. I love my sat nav. I had a Tom Tom Go and then upgraded to Tom Tom 1 v2. It gives me freedom. It makes me feel liberated. It gives me confidence. It connects me to my friends. As a mum, if I didn’t have it, like lots of fellow mums, I would be stuck indoors or restricted to only going to those familiar places. I’d like to get more women to see the benefits of using a personal navigation system. Many don’t really see the benefits of a sat nav until they have experienced one. The fear factor also comes into play. A lot of women are daunted by technology and questions such as ‘Am i going to be able to set it up?’ ‘What if it goes wrong?’ Not to mention when you walk into a place like Halfords, which is used to selling ‘kit’ to petrol heads, its not really surprising that women don’t feel they can get answers to their questions.

Women make technology purchases in the same way they make other purchases: its emotional, instinctive and intuitive. Looking at the advertising, I would say there is a fair way to go!