Honda target women with new Jazz

Honda has recently released a pink car, the Fit She’s (the ‘Fit’ is another name for the Honda Jazz) targeted exclusively towards women. In a traditionally male dominated environment where the general rule is that women will buy a ‘men’s’ car but men won’t buy a women’s, this is not a first.

Previous attempts

A century ago, there were attempts to sell primitive electric cars to housewives as they didn’t have the shoulder-busting engine crank that petrol cars had. These never took off. In 1955, Chrysler released the Dodge La Femme which came in pink and a range of female accessory storage solutions. 50 years later we saw Ford produce a female-marketed people carrier concept with a range of domestic appliances stored in the back.

Lost in Translation

Certainly quite a Japanese phenomenon, the new model has been described as “adult cute” which is rather ambiguous. At any rate the social situation in Japan is very different to that of Britain or the United States, with more women remaining housewives and occupying traditional roles. A new trend in younger Japanese professional women is what Honda is really looking to target with the new Jazz She’s. There are a good fifty shades of pink including stitching, steering wheel badges and so on. Conveniently you can get the car in other colours which apparently match eye shadow tones.

Outrage

Some feminists have however expressed their disgust at the new model. The marketing methods have been scornfully likened to Hello Kitty and it has been suggested that women in fact influence 80% of car purchases, where men purchase 66% of cars overall. Some have suggested that the marketing tactic is inherently degrading and that women have the same wants and needs as men when it comes to buying a car â€" i.e fuel efficiency, safety and so on.

Whether incensed or seduced by the new car, you probably won’t be able to purchase this beauty outside of Japan but if you could, you’re looking at a reasonable £12,000ish. What would be certain however is that your car insurance quotes would cost substantially less as the demographic purchasing it would most likely be female.

[image credit - handbag.com]