Breaking up the Boys Club: Women are Taking Over Auto

Breaking up the Boys Club: Women are Taking Over Auto

It was recently announced that former eBay CMO, Suzy Deering, would take the reins as Ford Chief Marketing Officer in January of 2021, exactly seven years after rival automaker, General Motors, brought on Mary Bara as the first CEO of a major automotive company.

This appointment marks the latest in a positive trend in which women are increasingly taking the driver’s seat at automotive companies, holding senior marketing, branding and chief executive roles, a shift that could help transform the category.

Other recent industry moves include the appointments of Tara Rush as Audi Chief Marketing Officer and Kimberley Gardiner, who leaves Mitsubishi for Volkswagen as Chief Marketing Officer. They join Aston Martin’s Alexa Harnett; Cadillac’s Melissa Grady; General Motors’ Deborah Wahl; Chrysler’s Marissa Hunter; Volvo USA’s Leigh Moynihan; Hyundai Motor America’s Angela Zepeda; Ford’s Marla Skiko; and Nissan USA’s Allyson Witherspoon, in the ranks of the automotive industry’s marketing and media leadership.

Audi, Volkswagen, Volvo, Hyundai, Ford, Nissan USA, Cadillac, General Motors, BMW USA, Chrysler and Aston Martin are just some of the brands with women at the helm in this new wave of leadership. But this is just the beginning.

“A recent co-sponsored Deloitte survey showed that change is still needed in the Auto industry – almost all women surveyed (91%) believe there is a bias towards men for leadership positions – and these recent appointments show we are moving in the right direction,” says Suzanne Kounkel, CMO of Deloitte. “Having strong, talented women in top marketing roles at companies like GM, Cadillac, Ford, Audi, Nissan and Aston Martin, is a trend that can only help as the industry strives to attract and retain a more diverse workforce.”

As these car companies shift to include more female voices at the top, they are attracting more women at every level. “The automotive industry isn’t the dinosaur industry that some still perceive it as,” says Allyson Witherspoon, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Nissan U.S. “It’s an incredible place to be for anyone who thrives in a fast and dynamic environment, and we’re seeing more women who are motivated and inspired by the industry’s challenges moving up in the ranks.”

Deborah Wahl, CMO of General Motors, says that GM “aspires to be the most inclusive company in the world and that begins with hiring the right top talent – employees consistently say seeing people like them at the top inspires their own growth.”

“We and others have made progress on that journey, with many strong, talented women across all industries; automotive, and GM is at a critical inflection point and we are attracting top talent from many non-traditional industries, and those industries are beginning to tap into our talent, as well,” says Wahl.

More women are taking on senior roles, per McKinsey, and Angela Zepeda, Chief Marketing Officer at Hyundai Motor America, says this is being driven by two trends – women are being hired at the director level and are being promoted to the director level on average at a higher rate than men.

“Greater commitment from leadership in automotive companies is putting diversity and gender as a top priority,” says Zepeda. “In the case of Hyundai, Jose Munoz, HMA/HMNA CEO and HMC COO, made a public commitment to focus on diversity and gender hires at senior executive roles. Within the last year and a half, we’ve hired four women (two are African American and one is Hispanic) to North American C-suite leadership roles. Commitment from the top and ‘walking the talk’ is what drives the greater change.”

The progress of the last couple of years is expected to continue and shape how these automotive companies do business. Having women at the top has shown to have a positive impact on the bottom line. McKinsey Research has found that when women are well represented at the top, profits and share performance can be close to 50% higher.

“The automotive industry has experienced more rapid and unprecedented change in the last few years than it’s seen in the last several decades,” said Alexa Harnett, Head of Marketing, at Aston Martin The Americas. “This includes a new and progressive generation of automotive professionals including both men and women. I believe that greater awareness around unconscious bias, passionate industry leaders who become vocal advocates and efforts to attract talented females to the automotive industry are all reasons for the enhanced gender diversity seen in the boardroom.”

With women leading the marketing departments in these companies, the branding and marketing messages are getting more diverse and accounting more for how women consume content.

“Consumers are bombarded with messages every second of the day, so we need to know who to reach, how to reach them, when to reach them and what to say,” says Witherspoon. “With women driving a majority of consumer purchasing, it’s imperative that we have their perspectives in mind in order to break through. Having a variety of perspectives and experiences can only help us to better understand our customers and what they need. In fact, a very impactful event of my career was working for Nissan and being in Saudi Arabia just as women were being allowed to drive. It was a completely humbling experience to speak with the women there to understand what they were looking for in a car and the societal pressure that was on them to be good drivers.”

Aston Martin’s Harnett says that her presence is impacting who they hire to produce commercials. “In leading the marketing team at Aston Martin The Americas, I have the opportunity to impact diversity and support gender equality in our marketing output,” says Harnett. “This includes the talent we select in and behind the creative we produce. Our marketing budgets can help to support more female led agencies, production companies, directors, creative talent, photographers and product specialists.”

These advertisements are being impacted by women who lead with a more diverse experience in culture than their male counterparts and this is rippling into the creative.

“Having a strong, creative, visionary leader helps drive a shift in culture which ultimately ripples into a brand’s advertising,” says Wahl. “When talent is sourced at General Motors we scope many different industries which allows us to get a set of new eyes on how we have traditionally done things. This leads to a shift in momentum that charts a course for an internal / external cultural shift.”

“But that’s also just part of the story,” she continues. “We’re challenging ourselves and our agency partners to commit to meaningful diversity because if we don’t have those different perspectives in the room when the creative magic is happening, the end result will be limited. The people telling our stories need to mirror the diverse audiences we’re trying to reach. And in a world where we’re now seeing a majority of vehicle buying decisions being made by women, our voices need to be heard whether that’s from the driver’s seat, the passenger seat, or otherwise.”

A female point of view in customer engagement, as well as marketing messaging is likely to become more increasingly common in the future.

Because of this natural ability for women to lean more into culture, diversity and overall employee engagement, women are able to better read the current consumer sentiment and align with topical cultural events and varying perspectives, which help shape communications and advertising that resonates with the general public,” says Zepeda. “As advertising is part science and part art, women also have a greater ability to use both cerebral areas of the brain simultaneously, for visual, verbal and emotional responses.”

To hear from a few of these amazing industry leaders, you can tune in to tomorrow’s Brand Innovators Women in Automotive Livecast, featuring:

  • Marla Skiko, US & Global Head of Media, Ford Motor Company
  • Allyson Witherspoon, Chief Marketing Officer, Nissan Motors USA
  • Melissa Grady, Chief Marketing Officer, Cadillac
  • Angela Zepeda, Chief Marketing Officer, Hyundai Motor America
  • Leigh Moynihan, Head of Marketing, Volvo Cars