Quote:
Originally Posted by dgs
Manufactures don't make cars for girls and for boys, they make them for both sexes.
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Actually that's not quite true. They ALWAYS have a target audience in mind. Sometimes it's an economic group, sometimes it's an age group, sometimes it's a lifestyle, sometimes it's gender. Usually it's a combination of those.
For instance the Element was directly targeted towards a male 20-something age group, outdoorsy lifestyle, college or college grad.
Cadillac's famous flop Catera was intended to attract younger buyers to the brand, particularly women. And ad featuring Cindy Crawford was actually discontinued because a sexy female model is probably not all the helpful in attracting other women to your product.
The fun irony is that in practice all this focus grouping often backfires. I'm sure Honda is pleased that the unusual Element ended up being a hot seller, but the outdoorsy male 20-something audience ran the other way while middle-aged folks in love with the SUV functionality in a compact size came buying in droves.
I have no evidence of what the Fit's target audience was meant to be. If I had to guess it was not gender-specific, though.