Gender Differences in Automobile Buyergraphics in Mexico

Advertisers realize that not all persons are in the market for their products.  Even among those who are potential buyres, there are significant differnces too.  So it is common to run a segmentation of the marketplace in order to target more effectively and efficiently.  The most common market segmentation schemes work along these dimensions:

1. Demographics (age, sex, socio-economic level, education, etc).
2. Georgraphy (countries, regions, cities, market areas, etc).
3. Psychographics (values, attitudes, lifestyles, opinions, etc.)

There are generalized types of psychographic variables (such as price sensitivity, brand loyalty, etc), and then there are category-specific psychographic variables which should properly be defined as buyergraphics.  For many categories, there are really no compelling psychographic variables.  But for pricy consumer durables, the buyergraphic variables are probably more important than any other consideration.  Automobiles fall into this category, because it is relatively expensive (compared to soft drinks, jeans or athletic shoes, for example) and there are many buyergraphic dimensions that were uncovered over time and built into the product lines.

In this article, we will be looking a catalog of attributes related to the buying of automobiles.  We will be referring to the 2004 TGI Mexico study.  This is a survey of 4,181 persons between the ages of 12 to 64 years old conducted in Mexico during the first half of 2004.  Within this study, there were 1,118 persons who identified themselves as the principal drivers in their household which owns one or more automobiles.  Within these people, there were 703 males and 415 females.  Our interest here is in the comparison of gender differences in automobile buyergraphics.

The data are summarized in the chart below.  There are 22 attitudinal statements, and we obtained the percentages who say that they completely agreed with them separately by gender.  The statements have been arranged in descending order of the male responses.  We will not editorialize here, but we are sure that you will enjoy yourself about the usual clichés about men being from Mars and women from Venus.  Yes, men "prefer cars that make them feel strong and power" and women "have no emotional attachment to her car, which is just a tool."

(Source: 2004 TGI Mexico)

(posted by Roland Soong, 7/18/2004)