Pep-He or Pep-She?

What goes on in genderising brands and services?

Thums-Up is essentially male. Fanta is female. What are we talking about? We are talking about brands being perceived as masculine or feminine. Whoever said that gender roles were restricted only to humans or animals? They also include our favourite brands.

The roles played by men and women in our society ascribe the gender to a brand. A TVS Scooty is feminine to suit the role. On the other hand, Cinthol is masculine. Why? Because even though the ad campaigns have changed, most consumers would relate Cinthol to Vinod Khanna riding a horse - one of its earliest ads. A Barbie Doll is essentially feminine while G.I Joe is for boys. It is also often the name that influences the perception of the genders. Hallmark is seen as masculine inspite of the emotive, right-brain advertising because of the name.

How is genderising done?

Firstly, the product or brand is designed or modified to appeal to the stereotypical man or woman. Dove is designed to appeal to the Indian Woman. Then, to give it a gender image, it has to be strongly associated with the masculine or feminine stereotype through advertising and promotion. Masculinity of Marlboro has being built consistently through advertising and promotion. It is not only advertising that is to be put to task for communicating this image. It is the consumer’s perception as well.

Why are brands or products genderised?

The decision to gender a product or brand is strategic (long-term), rather than tactical (short-term). It is basically undertaken to appeal to the gender in mind.

For instance, if a hardware manufacturer is introducing a line of car repair tools for women, he should have his basics right. All through - from the design of the product to how it is going to be advertised, appealing to her rational and emotional senses. Apart from advertising, the brand name and display points also matter in creating the gender image.

Gendering a new brand to give it a masculine or a feminine image is a tempting way to differentiate it from other, closely similar brands in a sometimes crowded homogeneous product class. It can be done almost entirely by manipulating the gender connotations of packaging, advertising and sales promotion.

Take for example, the introduction of a new brand of toothpaste. There are already a multitude of toothpaste brands, containing almost identical ingredients. The alternatives on which your brand can be differentiated are very few. Almost every conceivable size, colour, flavour, and dispenser is either available or has been tried. Then one fine day it strikes you: Nobody has tried a masculine or feminine brand!

This is ideal in a scenario where the brand must be differentiated from the others.. Under pressure to find a workable differentiation scheme, the brand manager decides to go with a masculine brand. All the product needs is a masculine image, so it does not take expensive research and development or production process changes. Suppose the product itself is merely given a deep blue colour, a rather spicy flavour and a thicker, slightly more granular texture. The packaging, advertising, and sales promotion materials are also designed to appeal strongly to men. Will this new men’s toothpaste succeed?

Taking it a step further we may want to ask: Are brand personalities built on the gender of the brand? To a certain extent, yes. Brand personalities are a set of values with which consumers identify. The values Lalitaji provided to Surf was one of the reasons behind brand loyal consumers. After using the brands for quite some time, “they begin to be owned by consumers”.

Related Reading:
“Hidden Persuaders”; Kilbourne, Jean; Adweek, June 2000.