Once upon a time, auto shows meant barely clothed women draped over cars. However, car makers are slowly changing their ways and have begun using more responsible images to boost female attraction to their products and gain a more realistic sense of appeal.

During the Paris Auto Show this week, the Renault hostesses wore knee-length yellow dresses with short sleeves instead of the historically popular bikinis and mini dresses. Nissan featured a model in a loose fitting pale blue dress while promoting the new Leaf electric car. “The days of bikini-clad women on bonnets are long gone,” said David Fitzpatrick, Account Director at automotive PR agency PFPR Communications. The agency managed the 2008 British Motor Show’s PR and noted that a quarter of visitors were female. Car makers trying to gain headway after such a deep crisis in the auto industry can’t afford to alienate potential buyers with tactics that many see as outdated.

The last Paris Auto Show, in autumn 2008, attracted over 1.4 million visitors, mostly men, although women visitors are increasing in number. Some manufacturers even used male hosts this year at the show.  Claude Guillaume, director of specialist recruitment agency Mahola, which is supplying 600 hosts and hostesses for the show said things are changing, “we are a long way from the hostess stuck in the role of standing like a pot plant next to the car.  My clients’ specifications focus on the quality of information, a trend we had already noticed at the last auto show, and which is being confirmed this time.

Matt Thompson, marketing director of UK motoring website Autotrader agreed there was a shift in attitude.  According to Thompson, “the brands that really understand motorists are changing for obvious reasons.  Why on earth would you want to alienate a very important, equally important, sector of your audience?”  Thompson noted that over half of UK driving licenses are held by women, while Autotrader’s website users are around 30 percent women, up from around 20 percent about a year ago.

Hyundai Europe vice president Allan Rushforth believes the changing role of models at motor shows reflects the increasing recognition that women play a central role in the buying decision.  Hyundai’s stand at the Paris show featured hostesses in tailored white dresses with a black belt and matching white jacket.

French manufacturers, known for their small, fuel-efficient cars, are keen to point out that their image tallies with this mood. “Peugeot has never really played the glamorous, sexy card,” said a spokesman for the French brand. On Peugeot’s futuristic black-and-white stand, male and female models in casual suits with open-necked shirts and short black dresses respectively showed off the new HR1 concept car.

Fiat is known for its Italian glamour and eyebrows were raised in Detroit last January when models in futuristic metallic mini dresses joined the Fiat 500 small car on a joint stand Fiat displayed with its new U.S. partner, Chrysler. However a spokesperson for the group, whose brands include Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Maserati, said it has never crossed the line. “There’s a difference between having girls in designer clothing, and girls looking cheap,” he said.

It appears that more auto makers are finally realizing that females are strongly present in the industry and make up a large percentage of both drivers and buyers. It’s about time the auto world tries to appeal to not only men as their target market, but women as well.

Tags: Car Shopping, Events // Add Comment »