Advertising for the sex's

Previous research suggests males and females exhibit different beliefs and attitudes toward traditional media advertising along with different advertising stimulated consumer behaviors. This formed the discussion of our Understanding the Customer class this week. Our lesson began with looking at a number of advertisements and attempting to remember as many as possible. This proved highly interesting as there was a vast difference between what the majority of the class (females) remembered and what the minority (males) remembered.
The spider diagrams below are a short summary of the type of things which males and females remembered. (Note the differences!)

At a semiotic level there is disparity in the portrayal of men and women in popular advertising. When men and women appear in advertisements together, the women are often depicted as weaker than the male, either through composition of the advertisement or particular situations in the scene. When females appear in advertisements alone we again note the stereotype of the female as sexual, unintelligent and fragile. Males, conversely, appear as strong and cultured. Particular roles and gender constructs are also evident in male adverts. Males are told to act tough, hide their emotions, and compete at all costs (Thompson 1993:146-7).

Take a look below, the advertisements present stereotypical images of masculinity which are highly unlikely to appeal to females.

In addition to this, Charity advertisements were used in class to provoke a response and discover the different emotional responses from both males and females.

How do you feel after watching that?

If you are female then there is a good chance you feel like I did. I found this video extremely powerful, making me feel emotional and overwhelmed. After discussing our feelings with other class members, it was evident that the majority of females were experiencing feelings like mine; however the males were not feeling quite the same. Despite the fact that the advert was quite short, they claimed that they lost interest quite quickly which may suggest that males are influenced by other factors rather than emotion. A study carried out by ‘All Academic Research’ stated that “Males were more inclined to take notice of, and interact with sexual images and humour in advertising, while females were not particularly interested in sexual or sports images.” They also stated that “although the effects of visual images in advertising did not directly influence personal involvement with the advertised products, visual images may indirectly encourage higher product involvement by exerting significant influences on individual preference to advertising”. (All Academic) The fact that the males in the class lost interest in the charity event relatively quickly could therefore be due to the fact that it is an advert serious in nature and did not initially capture their full attention by either sexual images or humour.

Guys, you may find the Ad below a little more entertaining!

Women control more than 80% of all consumer purchases and represent more than 50% of corporate buyers. When marketing to females, triggers, language, visuals and messages which will make women sit up and take notice need to be identified. This in turn will increase the effectiveness of their advertising and marketing initiatives.
It is for this reason that there are generally more advertisements aimed at females rather than males. (Mad4Marketing)

When taking a test to discover my brain’s “Sex I.D”, I found out that I have both male and female traits and thus, my brain works in neither a female of male orientated way. This has been discussed in depth in my “Gender Differences” blog, however in relation to this task, these results would suggest that I should be remotely engaged in Charity advertisement. Technically I shouldn’t experience high involvement emotions when watching it like females but I should experience more interest than males. So why did I feel overwhelmed by emotion? Could it be because I know numerous people who have been affected by cancer? Will an individual be less involved if they have not been personally affected by cancer?

These are all questions which should be considered when advertising a product/company/charity as it is not just gender which affects how we react. Although gender is the most important factor for the majority of products, advertisers can also appeal to our senses and use personal experience as a means of promoting their product (or in the case of the Cancer Research UK advert, to encourage us to donate).