Pink or blue? The impact of gender cues on brand perceptions

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate whether, how and why gender cues influence brand perception and subsequent purchasing behaviour. Design/methodology/approach Across four experimental studies conducted online with either a convenience sample (Studies 1a and 1b) or a representative sample of consumers (Studies 2 and 3), the authors empirically investigate whether gender cues impact brand perception along dimensions of warmth and competence and how other warmth and competence cues in a consumer environment moderate the effect of gender cues on consumer brand perceptions. Findings Gender cues (e.g. gender-typed colours and shapes) activate gender-stereotypical knowledge of warmth and competence, which spills over to the brand. This effect depends on the presence of other competence cues in a consumer’s environment. In contrast to conventional practice, in the presence of a high competence cue (e.g. reputable brands), feminine gender cues enhance purchase likelihood (via activation of warmth perceptions), whereas masculine cues actually decrease purchase likelihood. In contrast, in the presence of a low competence cue (e.g. new companies), masculine gender cues enhance purchase likelihood (via activation of competence perceptions), whereas feminine cues lower purchase likelihood. Research limitations/implications The authors used an experimental approach to explicitly test for causality and isolate the effect of gender cues in a controlled setting. Future research should further address the implication of gender cues using actual sales data. Practical implications Reputable companies often explicitly use cues to highlight their competence. The results of this research suggest that managers may want to reconsider this approach. That is, marketers of brands with established high competence should consider integrating more feminine cues to highlight their warmth, such as feminine shapes (e.g. circles and ovals) or feminine colours (e.g. a shade of pink) in their packaging and marketing communication. In contrast, companies that have not established their competence or not-for-profit organisations would be better off integrating masculine cues. Originality/value This is the first research to empirically investigate the effect of gender cues on brand perception and subsequent purchase behaviour. Not only does this research show that gender cues can alter brand perception along the warmth and competence perception but also the authors address the call to identify conditions under which warmth versus competence cues enhance brand perception and purchase likelihood (Aaker et al., 2010). In particular, this research demonstrates how multiple warmth and competence cues interact with each other.

Disentangling the Differential Roles of Warmth and Competence Judgments in Customer-Service Provider Relationships

“…Irrespective of the service type, however, signaling warmth is more relevant to establishing strong relational bonds. Warmth can also be displayed in several ways, such as friendly service displays (Mende, Scott, and Bolton 2018), socially responsible behavior (Bolton and Matilla 2015), or the use of feminine cues (e.g., shapes and colors) in marketing communications (Hess and Melnyk 2016).…”

A Typology of Patients Based on Decision-Making Styles: Cross-Sectional Survey Study

“…We outsourced the recruitment of baby boomer patients to external commercial organizations that specialize in online panels [44]. The organizations were instructed to sample respondents born between 1946 and 1964 who had used the internet in the previous 6 months to search for and share health-related information.…”

Traveling to a Gendered Destination: A Goal-Framed Advertising Perspective

“…Typical masculine traits include assertiveness, aggressiveness, dominance, toughness, independence, courage, and bravery (Kimmel & Ferber, 2000; Lieven & Hildebrand, 2016); femininity manifests as being nurturing, submissive, graceful, tender, and sensitive (Grohmann, 2009; Schnurr, 2018). Since Grohmann (2009) developed a measurement scale to conceptualize brand gender, a growing number of studies have highlighted the importance of gender stimuli (Grohmann, 2016; Hess & Melnyk, 2016) in driving consumers’ attitudes and preferences (Azar, Aimé, & Ulrich, 2018; Grohmann, 2009; Lieven, Grohmann, Herrmann, Landwehr, & van Tilburg, 2015) and brand equity (Lieven & Hildebrand, 2016; Machado, Vacas-de-Carvalho, Azar, André, & Santos, 2019). Research has also highlighted the overarching effectiveness of brand gender in brand marketing and positioning.…”

“…The “framing effect” suggests that individuals respond to identical issues differently depending on how such issues are framed (Meyers-Levy & Maheswaran, 2004; Tversky & Kahneman, 1981). A growing body of research has come to imply that aligning product gender with marketing cues (e.g., communications and product designs) can boost consumers’ product evaluations/purchase intentions (e.g., Hess & Melnyk, 2016; Lieven et al, 2015; Schnurr, 2018; van Tilburg, Lieven, Herrmann, & Townsend, 2015). In the travel context, marketing materials (e.g., print and online advertisements) play key roles in framing a destination to appeal to and solicit tourists (Loda, Norman, & Backman, 2007; Tsiakali, 2018).…”