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MKTG-101 Introduction to Marketing

Group Project Report

Gender Marketing

Abhishek Anand

Kshitij Khandelwal

Rijul Arora

Saarthak Mehta

Toshith Batra

Yeswanth Katragunta

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Gender marketing can be defined as marketing of product on the basis of gender. Products are

marketed differently because there is a disparity between the physical, emotional, psychological and

sociological behavior of male as compared to that of a female. In this report, we would critically

examine the idea of gender marketing. The report will give a brief argument on the need for

marketing product differently followed by analysis of examples. The report will be concluded with

corroborating the facts with the examples analyzed.

Need for gender marketing Men and women are different from each other, the differences exists in their

psychological, social behaviors etc. and physiological/ physical Characteristics.

This creates different needs for both men and women and different perspectives

about the product. Men display certain common physiognomies that reflect their

sovereign and egocentric nature. This is why men endorse products like cars,

bikes or any other product that reflects the masculinity of the product (Palan,

2001).

On the other hand women are generalized by their typical idiosyncrasies like

concern for others, winsomeness, emotional attachment, tenderness etc. so,

any product which showcases metaphoric peculiarities of women will be

targeted to women, let’ say Pink version of any product display tenderness,

cosmetics which provides wide range to women than men shows that women

love to be beautiful than men, different products are made to meet the

different physiological needs of gender. For example, a women-shaving razor

can be different from men in terms of sensitivity because women skin is

tender. Likewise, men can’t endorse tampons because it is unambiguously

made for women.

The reason why mostly home products are endorsed by women because it is

closely related to their characteristic of ‘concern for others’, women most

likely look after home affairs in any part of the world, so they are given

priority to choose the products like Detergents, any wash agents, food like

groceries, vegetables, cleaning material, soaps or any other house hold items

including kitchen electronics (Martins and Yusuf et al., 2012).

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But there is another necessity that had risen up in recent years; women and men had started living

independently especially in metros to aspire their individual goals which is contrary to the old

lifestyle where women is a part of every household to look after men and children, so companies

now have been targeting men with their products which is considered to be ‘women’s role-

supporting’ product and had to come up with different strategies for both men and women.

Now we will critically examine the following example:

Copenhagen by Carlsberg Gender marketing is taken as differentiation in the 4 P’s of marketing for the two sexes. Even an existing product in the market, which is dominated by one gender, can be marketed for the other sex. For example, Beer has always been a male dominated drink according to oxford journals the ratio in the consumption of beer in Europe is 3:1. But now the marketers have realized the importance of promoting beer as a neutral drink as now women drinkers are increasing in number. Carlsberg has introduced a new

beer Copenhagen that is targeted to the modern women who like a refreshing drink. The product is marketed as a neutral product rather than a guy or ‘dude’ centric product. Carlsberg has also changed the color and the packaging of the product giving it a more stylish and fresh looks. The VP Marketing, Kirsten Ægidius puts says "Many young people aren’t keen on the bitter aftertaste of beer...we have created a highly drinkable beer with a balanced taste – a real alternative to white wine and champagne (Polis, 2014). Molson Coors has also launched a similar beer centered to females. The beer is named Animee and it comes in three flavors “clear filtered, crisp rose and zesty lemon” The company claims that it is lighter than many other beer. Nestlé’s Yorkie Chocolate Bar

Chocolate bars are liked and consumed by both male and female. In British Confectionary market, Nestle introduced its chocolate bar called “Yorkie” which was a male dominated product and had “It’s Not For Girls!” stated in bold on the front wrapper conveying that is made for men only. The packaging of the bar is designed not only to appeal to men but also to discourage women from buying it. According to Andrew Harrison (Marketing Director at Nestle),"Most men these days feel as if the world is changing around them and it has become less and less

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politically correct to have anything that is only for males. Yorkie feels that this is an important element of men's happiness and is starting the reclaiming process of making a particular chocolate just for men" (Day, 2002).

Dove Men+ Care by Unilever

For years, men used the same skin and beauty care products that were made exclusively for women or that are unisex in nature. According to Dove's gender expert Michael Kaufman, "they (men) told us they didn't feel accurately portrayed, that they were stereotyped... that they found it difficult to relate to images of people and their age in advertisement."

Recently, Dove launched male specific skin and beauty care products. Its ads were premiered during the Super Bowl matches. Dove Men+ Care started making advertisements which targeted men and discouraged the use of women products. Dove advertisement showed the activities, which are carried out by men, and then cleaning themselves with the Men+ Care Products. One of their advertisement states in the end," Now that you are comfortable with who you are, Isn’t it time for comfortable skin. At last there is Dove for Men". They also show the difference between the ordinary product and Men+ Care Products. Dove played its cards right by marketing the product in the successful way and the value of the name, now Dove Men+ Care is present in over 35 countries. (Murray and ↠ 2013). Floral Kiss range of laptops from Fujitsu

Laptops from Fujitsu were designed to target

business professionals and home users with

neutral gender focus. It has been found that the

laptop was more appealing to male consumers

and it had a user ratio of 6:1 between male and

female customers. Later the brand realized the

potential of female customers that was still

untouched segment for the company. On

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October 2012, the company launched its new range of laptops under the name of “Floral Kiss” as

personal computers for women. The female engineers designed the product itself so that it should be

more appealing to female customers only and bringing elegance to the PC. The concept of “Floral

Kiss” was emerged due to desire of female employees of Fujitsu to make a laptop that should be

solely made and more appealing to female customers. The laptop was launched in three colors

keeping in mind of female customers such as feminine pink, luxury brown and elegant white. The

models of the laptop were designed in collaboration with jewelry brand “Agete” as the brand is

known for its drive to offer stylish new products constantly and reflect the latest fashion and trends

as per the women’s lifestyle and fashion (Fujitsu Global, 2014).

Conclusion In this report we were able to demonstrate the need for gender marketing. We highlighted the

psychology of man and woman when they shop and their natural traits that correlates with their

shopping preferences. We had also critically examined the examples from various industries such

alcoholic beverage industry, confectionary industry, beauty and care, and electronic industry. In

Copenhagen by Carlsberg example, we have observed how the company targeted the male

dominated alcoholic drink beer to women in an all-new avatar. Also, Yorkie chocolate bar aimed the

product to man by clearly writing, " It's Not for Girls" on the product's packaging. Moreover, Fujitsu

was able to differentiate its range of floral kiss laptops by designing the product in woman-oriented

fashion. They were launched in colors that are assumed to be woman centric. Dove man+ care

highlighted the need for exclusive men's beauty and care products. The company was able to put in

the products that were liked by man and their advertisement campaign highlighted the same. By

scrutinizing the examples and corroborating them with the gender's psychology, we can conclude the

need for gender marketing and its advantages. It also shows how different industries are investing

heavily in gender marketing by innovating gender specific products and their ad campaigns.

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Bibliography Day, J. 2002. Nestle bans women from Yorkie bars. [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/mar/27/advertising.marketingandpr. [Accessed: 12 Apr 2014]. Fujitsu Global. 2014. Fujitsu Announces New 'Floral Kiss' Brand of FMV Personal Computers for Women: Fujitsu Global. [Online] Available at: http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/pr/archives/month/2012/20121019-03.html [Accessed: 12 Apr 2014]. Martins, J. M., Yusuf, F. and Swanson, D. A. 2012. Consumer demographics and behavior. Dordrecht: Springer. Pg-151 Murray, J. and ↠ V. 2013. Dove Men+ Care Captures New Market Share Blade Creative Branding | Blog | Marketing, Design, Trends. [Online] Available at: http://www.bladecreativebranding.com/blog/index.php/2013/08/29/dove-captures-new-share-with-mencare-expansion/ [Accessed: 12 Apr 2014]. Palan, K. M. (2001). Gender identity in consumer behavior research: A literature review and research agenda. Academy of Marketing Science Review, 10, 1–28.

Polis, C. 2014. Carlsberg Wants Women To Drink Its New Beer. [Online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/20/carlsberg-gender-neutral-beer_n_864642.html. [Accessed: 12 Apr 2014].