The following results were submitted to The WON by Moises Szarf, the Online Marketing Manager for Liberty Safes USA, one of the main Liberty Safe Dealers in the country. Moises also runs his own blog Gun Safes and More.
The “Pink Gun Safe Survey” was released at The WON on June 2nd. Since that time, we have received and compiled results from Thirty Three (33) surveys. Although this number by no means represents a scientific sample, we feel like it’s a great initial approach to answering the following questions:
As a preliminary study the “Pink Gun Safe Survey” was successful in that it opened a dialog with women (and men) about the feasibility of producing a gun safe designed with women in mind . In order for gun safe manufacturers to embark on making a gun safe targeted toward women, however, deeper marketing research must to be made.
Before continuing with the results, let me confess that a misconception arose as soon the “Pink Gun Safe Survey” was released. The idea of naming this effort the “Pink Gun Safe Survey” was to poke some fun at pink firearms, pink gear, and pink outfits for huntresses. Some firearm and firearm related companies do produce pink products in order to appeal to women and they do sell, but I always saw it as a limited effort to cater to women. I knew that using pink in the title as an ironic twist would make a great headline and a great headline it was since it produced reactions from women on both sides: pink haters, and pink lovers. We also received responses from men and women who were more interested in features other than color. In this post, I would like to address not only many of the comments we received from the survey but also add other considerations and thoughts.
To the many women who expressed their dislike of pink, we heard you and want to assure you that it was never our intention to embark on the production of a pink gun safe but to determine the optimum configuration for a successful launch of a gun safe targeted toward women. Using pink in the headline helped us get the word out. Although our survey revealed a significant number of women who support pink and other feminine colors used in a gun safe, our intention as marketers need to be objective, and that is our intention, we can’t sway a decision that needs to be objective based on the strong opinions of a segment, and ultimately I think there is room for all tastes in the market.
Before extending this more and without further ado find below the survey results along with my own personal analysis of them. Feel free to disagree, and please share your view by commenting below:
In QUESTION 1: Would you buy a Gun Safe with a Girl’s color? 61% of respondents answered No, and 39% answered Yes. It’s not an encouraging beginning to the prospect of a gun safe for women when looking at this answer in isolation. But as seen in the next question, when offered a little more detail and options this tendency is reversed.
In Question 2: Which color would you prefer in your gun safe? The answer with most responses is “other” with 44%, followed by RED and PINK, with 16% and 13% respectively. The interesting statistic is that when adding up all the colors together (Pink, Purple, Yellow, Turquoise, Red, and Pastel) it sums up to 56%, a much greater number than the ones who answered “other”, and starts to reverse the trend in Question 1, which might have been influenced by the strong title of the survey (Pink Gun Safe Survey). In a survey prepared with more time and resources, a set of slides with Photoshop renditions of all options for gun safe designs should be shown to respondents. The set of designs should cover the entire spectrum of tastes, from full colored dark-pink gun safes, to something like:
“…a dark color with just pink accents, or say a pale rose metallic surface base color (understand pink) with black or silver accents”…as expressed by a respondent.
As I type, I envision a black gun safe with ‘red’ or ‘pink’ detailing on the logo, border decoration, and handle, only.
It’s just a matter of giving it a thought and coming up with something that would be obviously for women but at the same time classy and with taste, then showing the options with slides to a bigger sample market to find out which one would perform better.
In Question 3: How many rifles would you be storing in the gun safe? The great majority, which is 60%, answered they would be storing between 5 and 15 rifles in their gun safe. Pairing it with Question 4: How much would you be willing to pay for it? We start to see a clear idea of the size and type of construction that the safe should have to conform to the highest demand segment.
59% percent of women gun owners who participated in the survey said that they have a disposable income of $800-$1500 to invest in a gun safe. This places the focal point on an entry to mid level price range, which in broad general terms would be a 30 to 60 minute fire rating construction. To me it seems that something falling among the range of the Colonial Gun Safes and Franklin Gun Safes from Liberty Safe conforms to this results.
The results of Question 5: Would you decide to purchase the gun safe yourself, or would you have to consult with a partner (spouse, other)? are the most encouraging in my opinion. A 48% majority of the respondents answered that they would by the gun safe by themselves without consulting to a partner. In general this is a great re-affirmation for the companies catering to the women’s outdoor community, it confirms their target market has buying power, even for high priced items. And it signals that a hypothetical gun safe for women would find a market ready to buy.
inally, in Question 6 we asked the respondents if they thought a gun safe for women should be manufactured and 56% said yes, while 44% percent said no. This also reverses the trend in Question 1, and contradicts it, and it might mean that despite an initial apprehension by some women to the idea of a gun safe with a feminine design, many from this segment remained open to the idea.
To conclude, I sense that a gun safe for women would be successful in the market as long as it is done with taste. I think that the gun safe manufacturer embarking on this adventure will score a financial and public relations success. The non-scientific approach followed in this survey indicates that, in general, to adapt to the current financial accessibility of women gun-owners in the market, the fire rating of the gun safe should be between 45-60 minutes, should have a 15-25 rifle capacity, and sell for $900-$1300. It’s up to a gun safe manufacturer to digest the information yielded by this study and decide if they should conduct a marketing research with a significant sample size to determine the feasibility of a gun safe with a feminine design.
Let’s see what the future holds for this initiative. Whichever the results, I have had a lot of fun, and I extend my deepest gratitude to Barbara Baird and Paige Eissinger of the WON for partnering with me to make this a reality.
Thanks to all the amazing, strong, and independent women who took the time to fill out the survey, and very important, feel free to comment below.
The Women's Outdoor News, aka The WON, features news, reviews and stories about women who are shooting, hunting, fishing and actively engaging in outdoor adventure. This publication is for women, by women. View all posts by The WON
Yep, that sounds about right: women will buy gun safes, but if it ventures into corny territory, the appeal is lost.
Coming from someone who has been victim of burglary on several occasions in the past, the importance of a gun safe is a major issue for me. Having a safe that looks like a designer piece is a perk. 🙂
Thank to everybody that participated. Looking forward to find ways to collaborate with the thriving women’s hunting community. I admire all of you, and wish you the best. Keep on hunting and sharing with all of us.