For Sale: Female Owned...

By: Jeanette Tran

For Sale: 2007 Ninja 250 with 2 Years left on the factory warranty. Rides perfect. Never been raced, trashed or stunted. Looks like it just came off the showroom floor. Female owned. Maintained at the proper intervals. Test rides with cash in hand. 3500 Miles, Clean title, Title on hand.

A friend of mine recently had her bike put up for sale on the local forums, and the ad itself seemed simple enough, so it surprised me when someone started a nice ranting thread shortly after the ad was posted in regards to the phrase "Female Owned." I never really gave much thought to the topic, but he brought up a good point in terms of 'So what?' when it comes to the motorcycle being female owned when you are trying to sell it. It is a touchy subject, but I can see how both sides of the argument can have its advantages.

So what comes to mind anyways when you see the phrase "female owned"? After reading through a couple of pages of the thread, the majority seemed to agree that a female owned motorcycle can either mean two things... One: the bike has not been ridden hard and Two: the bike has been dropped a few times. So if this is the case, I am going to assume that when one puts the phrase female owned on their ad, their selling point is that the bike has not been ridden hard. It was also pointed out on the thread that females overall have a gentler nature then males, and therefore were known to handle their belongings with a lot more care than a guy would. With that in mind, I think that the phrase stands out as a really effective marketing method, so I could understand why that phrase has been added into the bike ad.

But at the same time, from another person's perspective, the phrase provides little to none when it comes to helping making a sale. The guy who started the ranting thread stated that it was a stupid sexist throw-away phrase and that if women who want to sell their bikes, should sell it on the bike's own merits and not otherwise. When I posted my bikes up for sale I did not even bother with stating that a female owned the bike, because I personally felt like it had no relevance when it came down to selling the bike. There are females out there who race their bikes, pop wheelies and do stunts as well. (I personally do not know any, but that does not mean that they are not out there) So I could not agree more with the fact that bikes should rely on their merits to be sold on their merits and not just on some simple catch phrase.

However, that does not mean that it does not hold any significance in making a sale. As stated earlier, the bike being female owned can be geared towards that specific market. Whether or not it was because of the phrase female owned, the bike sold in 5 days. But then again it is a Ninja 250 and those bikes pretty much sell themselves because they are great beginner bikes. So I guess this just means that the argument is just all up in the air. It is amazing how something so simple such as posting a bike up for sale can get so technical. Maybe next time I put a bike up for sale I should put human owned and see how much of a riot I can start up...

Published: May 21, 2009

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