Bridging advertising practitioner theories and academic theories on how to communicate effectively with men and women

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand advertising practitioners’ theories on how to communicate effectively with men and women via advertising. Further, comparisons are made between practitioners’ theories and academic research. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative interviews were conducted with 39 US advertising practitioners. Findings Many professionals believed women preferred other-oriented messages, while men preferred self-oriented messages. They believed women were comprehensive processors, while men were less engaged with advertising messages. They believe men preferred slapstick humor and factual messages, while women preferred emotional appeals. Research limitations/implications Comparisons between practitioners’ perspectives and the academic research reveal that practitioners’ theories often correspond to academic theories and empirical data. Relationships with the selectivity hypothesis are explored in depth. Suggestions are made to extend existing theory to test practitioners’ theories. Practical implications This study helps to bridge the academician-practitioner gap, which helps academics understand practitioners, communicate with them and develop shared knowledge. Originality/value This study fills a research gap in understanding practitioners’ theories of how to communicate with men and women. A key contribution of the research is a comparison of practitioner theories with academic research to note points of agreement and disagreement, bridge the gap and offer suggestions for future research.

Consumer reactions towards femvertising: a netnographic study

“…Video ads containing femvertising accumulate millions of views and shares on social media and are designed to motivate, inspire and create an emotional connection with consumers (Abitbol and Sternadori, 2016;Akestam, 2018). This is in line with the evidence that women are more engaged for emotional appeals in advertising (Windels, 2019). Femvertising is connected to an ethical positioning of brands and it is a visible way of the recent trend of humanization of brands that relates emotionally with consumers and advocates for causes in society (MacInnis and Folkes, 2017).…”

Autoestima y Empoderamiento en Mujeres Feministas y no Feministas

“…El género femenino ha estado constantemente bajo la lupa del género masculino donde se le atribuye siempre un rol más sumiso que el de los hombres, donde estos roles suelen ser poco realistas llevando a la mujer a enfocarse en su apariencia física, dónde, si no se logra el ideal masculino, se siente disminuida como mujer y con el autoestima baja (Couture Bue, 2019). Estas diferencias de géneros han existido por el paso del tiempo sometiéndose a diversas opiniones sociales culturales religiosas y hasta políticas que conllevan al mundo a establecer diversas opiniones acerca del género (Windels, 2019).…”