Brand Failures

64 Brand failures
14 La Femme
Where are the pink ladies
In the 1950s, US car manufacturers discovered a new target customer, the
female car buyer. Up until that point, cars had been viewed as a male preserve.
However, an increase in prosperity combined with the levelling of the sexes
that occurred in the years following World War II managed to change all that.
Women wouldn’t want any old car though. Oh no. They’d want a car that
appealed to their feminine interests. They’d want flowers. They’d want a girly
name. They’d want accessories. But most of all, they’d want pink.
At least, that is what car manufacturers Chrysler believed after researching
this apparently strange and exotic creature. The end result was La Femme,
part of the Dodge division and the first car designed specifically for women.
The car was pink and white, and the seats were decorated with a tapestry style
cloth depicting a pattern of pink rosebuds on a pink background. The
carpeting was dark burgundy colour. In the publicity material La Femme was
said to be ‘designed for Her Royal Highness – the American Woman.’
In 1955 Dodge sent the following letter, expressing the company’s enthusiasm
for La Femme, to all Dodge Dealers across the United States:
TO ALL DODGE DIRECT DEALERS:
The enclosed folder will introduce you to the La Femme, by Dodge,
the first car ever exclusively designed for the woman motorist.