The gender stereotypes in the media have always been a question of great interest for many researchers. On the one hand, superemently gender-oriented marketing helps a company to attract the target customer. However, on the other, the brand runs a risk of having toxic or offensive advertisements of their products. Nowadays, society strives to eliminate gender stereotypes and establish gender equality. Therefore, gender-oriented products advertisements should not include offensive images. As a result, the marketing of gender-oriented products should be more gender-neutral oriented because to be efficient in the market, the brand needs to meet the constantly changing social requirements.
Considering the up-growing tendencies of disposing of sex inequality, brands producing gender-oriented products should consider the necessity to change their marketing policy. Media, being the social institution, supports the positive changes in society. Coggiola (2021) points out that brands have to provide free gender stereotypes marketing. Doing so will not only satisfy society’s claim for equality but also avoid dangerous gender issues that can harm the image of the brand.
Alternatively, gender-oriented product branding may be more advantageous when customers associate themselves with the character in the advertisement. However, through practical research, Stavrianea (2021) found out that the efficient marketing of the gender-oriented product does not necessarily require showing the target gender in the ad: the impact on the audience stays the same. These findings can help brands to avoid offensive feminine and masculine connotations. Even if sometimes it is necessary to use gender characteristics in advertising, brands should stress only positive features of gender. Thus, the marketing of gender-oriented products can be free of toxic gender stereotypes and have high sales at the same time.
Marketing and advertising play a significant part in human lives. Seeing sexist advertising concepts constantly, people will have the image that it is normal to discriminate against different sex. Coggiola (2021) also emphasizes that society shifts to a gender-free mindset and branding should comply with these changes. Brands have significant responsibility for their marketing policy because it influences the audience. Especially gender-oriented brands have to be mindful about their marketing to do not offend people of different sex. Thus, brands need to be gender-friendly to contribute to positive changes in society.
Furthermore, there is the desire to avoid offensive concepts in marketing in many spheres of gender-oriented products. For example, Markova (2021), elaborating on gender-oriented fashion, also points out that there are tendencies to eliminate gender stereotypes in clothes design and marketing. Gender-free marketing will be more appealing to the target audience nowadays than full of toxic stereotypes advertisements. Thus, there should be two main reasons for branding: selling products and addressing the particular social problem.
So, in modern society, the understanding of gender changes constantly. The marketing of gender-oriented products has direct correlations with these changes. Creating highly appealing and offensive advertisements for some social units can lead the company to severe difficulties. Marketing is one of the main power of changes in society; that is why brands should not imply sex discrimination in their advertisement. Gender-oriented product marketing should strive to be gender-neutral.
Reference List
Coggiola M. and Coste-Maniere I. (2021) ‘The impact of gender-neutral communication on brand equity: a study on children apparel industry’, International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 13(1), pp. 46-55.
Markova I. (2021) ‘The elimination of gender stereotypes in fashion’, 2021 Joint Virtual Conference, pp. 9-11. Web.
Stavrianea A. et al. (2021) ‘Stereotypes and gender-neutral advertising: perceptions of the generation z and y cohorts’, Asia Pacific Journal of Advanced Business and Social Studies, 7(1), pp. 14-23. Web.