Men and Women Navigate Differently, even with PNDs

August 14, 2009

Men and women look at a lot of things differently -- navigation is one of them. Navteq has analyzed research from several proprietary studies that point to key differences between the male versus female audience for personal navigation devices (PNDs).

The results offer important insights into each group's interest and interaction with navigation across different types of devices, Navteq said. The female audience is equally aware of and attracted to the use of navigation, but they get their information in advance of a purchase from different sources than men.

Women are also having a very different experience after the purchase with their device. A much higher proportion are not taking advantage of advanced features such as points-of-interest (POI) search and traffic alerts. Not surprisingly, the satisfaction they report with their systems is dramatically lower than men. This learning suggests that the female consumer could likely benefit from a different level of personalization through marketing that focuses specifically on use cases and features.

Specific highlights from the analysis include:

Familiarity with navigation among both women and men tops 90%, but unlike their male counterparts who rely more on information from media sources, word of mouth is the main source of awareness for women (41% for women; 26% for men.)
If purchasing a PND, the highest percentage of men buy at consumer electronics stores (34%), while a higher proportion of women buy online (26% of women) or at a grocery (8% of women.)
Women use features such as POI search and traffic dramatically less than men; 15% of women "never" use POI search (versus 2% of men) and 39% never use Traffic features (versus 10% of men.)
80% of men state that they are "extremely" or "very" satisfied with their navigation system; only 60% of women make that same statement.

The results are based on analysis of six separate proprietary studies conducted by Navteq in 2008. In each case, the sample sizes were substantial enough to allow for an examination of the findings based on gender. This is one of several announcements made by Navteq this year on learning from the company's proprietary research efforts, following previous reports regarding the positive impact of navigation on fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions as well as consumer learning on the desire for reminders on regular map updates.

"As the navigation market matures in the United States, this type of detailed data on the consumer becomes an increasingly important tool in continuing to fuel industry growth. Navteq is in a unique position to study a broad cross-section of the industry in this manner, which benefits not only our customers but also the ultimate end consumer," said Dave Dale, Navteq's vice president, Americas Sales.

Bookmark it: digg propeller del.icio.us technorati yahoo facebook

Add Comment