Ladies Who Launch

CEO and President, Ask Patty, Inc.
www.askpatty.com

Jody DeVere will be part of our L.A. LIVE “Queens of the Web” panel on Saturday, May 31. Click for more info.

Many women love cars, love the excitement of GETTING a new car, love the new car smell, love driving that car off the lot. But what many women HATE is everything that has to be done to get to that point, which is where Jody DeVere comes in. Jody is the CEO, president, and co-founder of AskPatty.com, a Web site geared toward helping women with everything automotive.

While Jody is very passionate about what she does, there was also another driving force behind her starting AskPatty.com: her oldest son, Joe DeVere. Joe was diagnosed with secondary progressive MS about five years ago. Two years into his diagnosis he could no longer work, and then he had a very tragic car accident, leaving him paraplegic. Jody had to figure out a way to create a lifetime of income for him. Although she had a very successful consulting business already, she decided to take advantage of an opportunity that came her way that would allow her to help Joe, and Ask Patty—’Patty’ being a figure representing all women consumers—was born.

What we learned from Jody: “Read your manual. When you’re standing out in the parking lot and your car is making beeping noises, check the manual, it’s in there. The ‘check engine’ light is the number one question, and it’s in the manual.”

Why Not “Ask Jody”?

“There are a number of reasons, but if it were Ask Jody, what happens if I sell the company or retire? That would be a problem. So the name ‘Ask Patty’ has really worked and been a great brand for us.”

From Idea to Reality

“I had my own successful consulting business, and I was and still am president of the Women’s Automobile Association International. My partners were talking to me about creating a women’s project to add to another company called Cars magazine. They called me because they thought I might know someone to head that up, and then they invited me to do it. We looked at the business model and said, ‘You know, we could actually turn this into a company.’

My idea was to create an environment that looked fun, because to a lot of people, talking about cars all the time might not be so fun. We have a whole panel of women who are automotive experts answering questions 24/7. The color scheme and the look and feel is catchy, and I wanted to create an icon of what women would like to feel like in their automotive experience, i.e.: Patty, an empowered woman.”

The Business Model

“The business model is that dealers subscribe to our service, we generate revenues by selling our training, and there are also fees for setting up Web integration.”

Why Women Need This

“There is an unequal balance in the automotive industry. If more women worked in the industry, imagine what car buying would be like, what marketing and advertising of vehicles would be like. Running pink ads is a guy’s version of being female-friendly. When presented with the idea of marketing to women, I felt that’s all fine and good, but we need to provide training to the people that are marketing—automotive retailers—to really make them effective and then certify them.

We launched first to see if women would respond to having an automotive place just for them. That went over really well. Then we launched our dealer network in September. Women were very excited to go someplace to buy a car where they could feel more comfortable.”

Training the Dealer

“We have a very thorough program that we teach them. We provide them with a Web presence that integrates into the dealer Web site, designed to solicit the input of women regarding the kind of environment they would like to enter. Many women do their research online before going to the dealership. We provide an online experience that is comfortable for them.”

Secrets of Selling to Women

“The biggest complaint women have is they’re not treated with respect. I think that the automotive retailers need to wise up, quit with the high-pressure sales, be sincere. But I also think that women need to become more empowered in understanding their vehicles, not only in the car-buying process, but with regard to repair.”

Driving Traffic

“Ask Patty started as a blog, not a Web site. The blog is the little engine that could—I get great organic search results due to the organic syndication of blog content and the fact that blog links never go away. I’m writing about a topic that is very narrow, so when you do a Google search, it brings a lot of organic hits to us.”

Road & Track? Try Parenting

“We consult dealerships on the type of advertising used. We encourage retailers to place in parenting magazines because that’s what a lot of women are reading. You have to go where the women are.”

Patty Never Sleeps

“I usually start my day between 5 and 6 a.m. I have East Coast customers, and I work with my staff that I have all over the country. I usually have meetings, answer IMs and e-mails. I’m really done with the busy part of my day at about 3 p.m., and then I focus on the blog and log into Second Life, where Ask Patty has a presence.”

Tips for Online Businesses

“Subscribe to all technology newsletters or blogs that provide info on what’s new and coming out. DO NOT BE AFRAID, this is not brain surgery, if I can learn it, anyone can. Instead of looking at it as technology, look at it as business solutions. Think of technology as something you can leverage to make your business better, rather than as a scary thing.”

Some of Jody’s recommended sites/blogs:

www.Mashable.com
www.imediaconnection.com
www.BlogHer.com
www.lipsticking.com/
bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/
www.blognetnews.com/autos/
blogs.edmunds.com/women/

Tech-Savvy Grandma (She Has Six Grandkids!)

“I love it, I am very passionate and enthusiastic. Technology is in my blood. I would scare you if you took a computer apart and took the motherboard out—I could tell you exactly what each one of those components do and who manufactured it.”

This Featured Lady was profiled by Kristin Herold, a freelance writer and entertainment reporter in Los Angeles.