Will Saudi women drive once ban is lifted? US car companies want to find out.
https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-03-26/will-s...t-find-out
March 26, 2018 · 12:15 PM EDT
Sept. 26, 2017, is a day many women in Saudi Arabia will always remember.
It's the day when King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud issued a decree granting women the right to drive. The news was seen as a great victory for women in the kingdom, many of whom had fought for a long time for this change.
Related: Saudi women celebrate end of the driving ban
But this was also major news for the car companies.
"I don’t think in my entire career has a market opened up in this way," says Molly Peck, chief marketing officer for General Motor's Middle East operation. "Suddenly a whole new group of people — which is somewhere between 5 and 7 million people — would be given the permission to drive."
Peck and her team are based in Dubai and they wanted to get on the news quickly so they could start cranking out ads and acknowledge the major victory for Saudi women.
But there was a slight problem.
"There was a lot of discussion on exactly how we should do that," she recalls. "You know, do we talk about vehicles that may appeal to them or do we just talk about our brands?"
Not far from the Chevrolet offices, another marketing team was scratching its head.
"All of the market research that we had in the marketplace in cars was literally 100 percent men," says Crystal Worthem, Ford Motor Company's marketing director for the Middle East and Africa. "So we had to go back and really assess what is it that she thinks about the brand? What is it that she thinks about the cars? What types of cars would she consider when you’re moving from the back seat to the front seat?"
The first car ads went out on social media within hours. Ford and Chevrolet went with a simple message: Congrats!
But as the days went on, car companies realized they had to fine-tune their messaging. They started to do more market research targeted specifically towards women drivers in Saudi Arabia. Yes, some women already owned cars but they had made their decisions based on what appealed to them from the back seat.
As Worthem puts it, "before they had the influence on how the seat works from the back. Is there air conditioning? Are there proper amenities in the back seat? Whereas now it’s about how does she maneuver the car? How does she park the car? How does she handle the car?"
One of the more recent car advertisements from Chevrolet asks Saudi women a simple question: Will you drive when the ban is lifted?
Some say yes. But a good number of them say no, they won't.
Cherine Khoury shot the ad for Chevrolet and she says she was surprised by the answers. "I knew some of them would say no but I did not know the reasons why they were saying no."
The Chevrolet ad ends with the hashtag #UpToMe.
"What really resonated with me about it as even a Western woman, a woman from the US," explained GM's Molly Peck, "it’s not so much about the decision, you know, driving or not. But it’s about the ability to make the choice for yourself."
The Saudi women who do plan to drive tend to be younger. And if you’re a car company trying to woo those customers, a college campus is a good place to start. That's why earlier this month, Ford held a driving workshop for students at the all-women Effat University in Jeddah.....
$ONCI / HEXA$
https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-03-26/will-s...t-find-out
March 26, 2018 · 12:15 PM EDT
Sept. 26, 2017, is a day many women in Saudi Arabia will always remember.
It's the day when King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud issued a decree granting women the right to drive. The news was seen as a great victory for women in the kingdom, many of whom had fought for a long time for this change.
Related: Saudi women celebrate end of the driving ban
But this was also major news for the car companies.
"I don’t think in my entire career has a market opened up in this way," says Molly Peck, chief marketing officer for General Motor's Middle East operation. "Suddenly a whole new group of people — which is somewhere between 5 and 7 million people — would be given the permission to drive."
Peck and her team are based in Dubai and they wanted to get on the news quickly so they could start cranking out ads and acknowledge the major victory for Saudi women.
But there was a slight problem.
"There was a lot of discussion on exactly how we should do that," she recalls. "You know, do we talk about vehicles that may appeal to them or do we just talk about our brands?"
Not far from the Chevrolet offices, another marketing team was scratching its head.
"All of the market research that we had in the marketplace in cars was literally 100 percent men," says Crystal Worthem, Ford Motor Company's marketing director for the Middle East and Africa. "So we had to go back and really assess what is it that she thinks about the brand? What is it that she thinks about the cars? What types of cars would she consider when you’re moving from the back seat to the front seat?"
The first car ads went out on social media within hours. Ford and Chevrolet went with a simple message: Congrats!
But as the days went on, car companies realized they had to fine-tune their messaging. They started to do more market research targeted specifically towards women drivers in Saudi Arabia. Yes, some women already owned cars but they had made their decisions based on what appealed to them from the back seat.
As Worthem puts it, "before they had the influence on how the seat works from the back. Is there air conditioning? Are there proper amenities in the back seat? Whereas now it’s about how does she maneuver the car? How does she park the car? How does she handle the car?"
One of the more recent car advertisements from Chevrolet asks Saudi women a simple question: Will you drive when the ban is lifted?
Some say yes. But a good number of them say no, they won't.
Cherine Khoury shot the ad for Chevrolet and she says she was surprised by the answers. "I knew some of them would say no but I did not know the reasons why they were saying no."
The Chevrolet ad ends with the hashtag #UpToMe.
"What really resonated with me about it as even a Western woman, a woman from the US," explained GM's Molly Peck, "it’s not so much about the decision, you know, driving or not. But it’s about the ability to make the choice for yourself."
The Saudi women who do plan to drive tend to be younger. And if you’re a car company trying to woo those customers, a college campus is a good place to start. That's why earlier this month, Ford held a driving workshop for students at the all-women Effat University in Jeddah.....
$ONCI / HEXA$
