Getting your car fixed has traditionally come with a big shot of testosterone.
Think car mechanic, and you think of men with dirty hands talking car talk that is intimidating to many people and especially women.
So the notion of a female-focused auto shop is a brilliant marketing idea to empower women and solve a marketing problem.
When Patrice Banks quit her job as a material engineer at Dupont, she decided she wanted to learn how to become a mechanic to fix her car. She took classes at Delaware Technical Community College, and it was an intimidating experience. She persevered and successfully graduated.
SHEcanics
After graduating, she wondered, what would it be like if the auto repair shop only hired women and was designed for women? How could the experience of getting car repair change and be disrupted?
Banks was determined to not only change her fear of cars but to modify the way other woman dealt with auto repair issues. She realized that if she could learn the trade, then other women could too.
And then an idea flashed before her eyes like an oncoming set of bright lights.
She decided to reimagine the auto repair shop experience with a woman in mind. She found other like-minded female mechanics who could talk to the woman in a more compassionate and understanding way. She didn’t want anyone to flip out over a warning light or a leaky valve. Banks was driven to succeed.
She shifted into the next gear and said, what if we teamed up with a beauty and nail salon so the woman could get their cars fixed and their hair and nails done at the same time.
“Girls Auto Clinic is like a clubhouse for a woman. Come hang out with some dope chicks”, Banks recently explained in an interview.
To bring customers in, Banks holds a free monthly car clinic for a woman, is working on a book with Simon & Schuster and has a TED Talk called “How I Plan on Disrupting the Auto Industry…in Red Heels”
Filling Up with the Big Marketing Lesson
The big marketing takeaway is imagining an experience that tends to skew in one direction and turning it upside down.
Auto repair shops tend to be very male. Patrice realized by making it fit the needs of woman; she’d have a market for herself. Why wouldn’t most woman want to get their car serviced by a woman who understands them?
Is there a market or business you are thinking about entering? Can you reimagine it with a completely different customer in mind? For example, toy stores for adults or exercise gyms for senior citizens.
Can you change the experience and perhaps mash it up with something that reconfigures what it means to get your car fixed?
Patrice Banks is a clutch marketer and the original SHEcanic. Her story aligns with most entrepreneurs story where they have a problem and decide to start a business to fill their own need.
I hope she keeps her foot on the accelerator.
Are you building a new business but feel that you haven’t figured out a powerful point of difference? I can’t fix cars but I can help you repair your business model. Need a tuneup? Let’s talk. Email me at jeffreylynnslater@gmail.com or text me at 919 720 0995.
Photo: Screen shot from Ted Talk by Patrice Banks
