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Women in the Automobile After-market are an oddity. I turn around and move about my peers and the fairer sex is difficult to find, this of course because the vast majority are men ! The industry is like that, arreared and antiquated ignoring the fact that women like cars and own half of them in fact. Well that's unfair for me to say - and particularly for me because one woman, in 1997, recognized the enormous potential of women and cars and built a leading global corporation around it. Even today more than 57% of consumer products are sold to women. This is noteworthy when you consider that the Automobile After-Market, the so called car care market was singularly targeted at men and at male enthusiasts at that ! This woman, president of Falken Industries Ltd in New Jersey nursed a notion, and idea, a design and a corporation which is the envy of the industry. Her business instinct proved to be right, she was far from alone and the market went far beyond women who liked cars - because as you would have it, those that are not into cars see them as an extension of the household and yes you guessed it keep it clean with Clean Plus® products to a large part. Clean Plus® is FLKI's best known product conception. So to those that haven't yet come out of the car's are a man's world notion, I say welcome to the 21st century. In fact not only do woman care more for their cars, more than 50% of the cars in circulation are registered to a woman. So why have women been so incredibly, and to this day, when it comes to car care. "We certainly have no ill feeling about the situation, the market is ours. OUr products apply easier, perform faster and better and are budget conscious a woman's best friend." said Manuel Garcia communications officer. As an analyst in the industry I have witnessed the power and the exuberance of woman putting her foot to the pedal. The love for the smell and feel of leather-strapped steering and the infinite promise of the open road. Thrill for design (genius of FLKI product conceptions) and even a gloating feeling for the sound of a resonant exhaust are all part of woman. Yet, FLKI competitors keep their focus steadily upon the 8% of the market that constitutes the male enthusiast. If the Automobile After-Care industry with the notable exception of FLKI has left women on the side of any interest, the same is not true of the Automobile Industry. Sports-car makers are in the know even if that doesn't mean that they will cater expressly to women. Just like FLKI's president, they have come to understand the subtler approach. Ferrari designed a seductive curvy vehicle loaded with muscle but not muscle bound. Interestingly executives there are reluctant to admit their target for women because they tell me "we risk the characterization of being 'chick rides'." Of course sports cars have always been the plaything of the rich - the male rich. Some say it goes deeper and compensates for what's lacking in male equipment. But making a sports car softer and prettier, admitedly less masculine opens a market several times the size of the present one. Men and women are simply not that far apart. Statistics reveal that 42% of women will consider a sports car purchase whereas men display a plain 47%. Just like car care was and remains a male purchase, there are those like FLKI's president that acknowlege the feminin side of things, and have proven by an explosive growth that the easier application and gentler look and design in car care will appeal more to women. FLKI was first in the market with wipes for autocare and has no meaningful competition for its products in my view. FLKI somehow managed to soften the feel of car care without compromising the performance or effectiveness. So let's us guys just concede, masculinity always seems more appealing whien it's tempered by the feminine side.
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Car care, car-care, autocare, chemicals, polishes, wax, wipes, wet wipes, clean plus, Lingettes, Nettoyant, Desinfectant, Wipes, Chimie, Degraissan,
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