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European Advances in Consumer Research, Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley & Pauline

Maclaran (eds), Vol. 9, London, Association for Consumer Research.

BRAND GENDER AND ITS DIMENSIONS

Ulrich Isabelle, ESCP Europe and Université Paris II,

Tissier-Desbordes Elisabeth, ESCP Europe

Dubois Pierre Louis, Université Paris II and ESCP Europe

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ABSTRACT

This paper investigates consumer perception of brand gender and its dimensions. An

exploratory study reveals this concept salience and the existence of its six dimensions: 1) the

gender of the typical brand user, 2) gendered brand personality traits, 3) gendered attributes of

brand communication, 4) the grammatical gender of the brand name, 5) gendered attributes of

the logo, and 6) gendered attributes and benefits of the products. Leaning on gender theories

in psychology, we suggest a classification of brand gender in three groups: masculine,

feminine, low masculine/feminine, high masculine/ feminine, with no brand in the high

masculine/feminine brand gender position.

Key words :

Brand gender, gender, brand extension, brand personality

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INTRODUCTION

Do brands, like human beings, have gender identities? Gender takes into account the social

and cultural difference between femininitt and masculinity and has also been a key symbolic

processing variable in our thinking system since Antiquity (Héritier, 1996). The male/female

categorization process is still one of the first classification systems learnt by children

(Powlishta et al. 2001) and is continuously used by adults without full awareness they are

doing so (Schneider 2004).

Gender is deeply rooted in many languages, with gendered nouns. In French, the “sea” is

feminine, and the “ocean” is masculine. Many languages have two grammatical genders

(feminine, masculine) or three (feminine, masculine and neuter).

Is Gillette perceived as masculine and Lancôme as feminine? These brands used to target men

or women only, then started to extend across genders with the launch of Gillette razors

”Venus for Women” or “Lancôme for Men” skincare products.

This has been scarcely studied in the literature. Researchers often suggest that brands possess

gendered images (Aaker 1997; Fournier 1998; Keller 1993; McCracken 1993) but the concept

of brand gender has not been investigated. How can brand gender be defined? Which

dimensions constitute the gender of brands? If gender and masculine/feminine categorization

is central to the way we see the world, it may impact our perception of brands. The objective

of this study is to explore consumer perception of the brand gender concept and its

dimensions.

BACKGROUND

The central role of gender in civilization

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The biological term sex defines men and women by their physical characteristics, their genital

organs and their chromosomes. Gender is a social sex, representing the set of characteristics

and behaviours that a given society associate and ascribe differently to women and men: it is

our notion of femininity and masculinity (Burr 1998). Despite societal moves in the

egalitarian direction, gender norms are still alive and well. Childcare continues to be a

feminine role with limited intervention from men (Abbot and Wallace 2003). Gendered

differentiation in upbringing persists with families encouraging boys to behave in a manly

way and girls to behave in a womanly way (Dafflon-Novelle 2006) In experiments, adults

tend to give masculine toys to boys, but allow girls to choose neutral or even masculine toys

(Wood et al. 2002).

In parallel, anthropologists have shown how gender is a key structuring variable of

civilizations. Each culture develops a set of masculine and feminine gender identities, which

can differ totally from one tribe to the other (Godelier 1982; Mead 1928). Yet, each one is

built upon the allocation of distinct social roles to men and women (Bourdieu 1998; Mead

1928; Lévi-Strauss 1979). Héritier (1996) reveals how differences between male/female

bodies organize thinking processes. Most civilizations structure thoughts on the basis of

couples of opposites derived from sexual bodily features. Thanks to their body and hair,

women are associated with curved/fluid/soft versus men with straight/stiff/hard. This was

institutionalized long ago in most cultures via myths or legends. Hence gender seems to act as

a major symbolic processing variable in perception. Does it impact the perception of products

and brands?

Gendered perception of products

Studies have shown that consumers have gendered perception of product categories: some

were seen as highly masculine, some highly feminine and others moderately masculine and

feminine (Allison et al. 1980). Their masculinity/femininity seemed linked to the gender of

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the stereotyped user of the product category. Allison et al (1980) concluded that products did

have a gender, demonstrating the existence of two separate constructs: product masculinity

and product femininity. More recent studies suggest that objects generate gendered

associations. Products are classified as masculine or feminine according to their shape and

colours (Tissier-Desbordes and Kimmel 2002). Small products with light, pastel and soft

shades are associated with women, while large dark-coloured items are associated with men

(Kirkham 1996). Researchers have shown that round shapes generate ideas like harmony,

compromise, and friendship. Conversely, angular shapes lead to masculine attributes: energy,

strength, robustness (Berlyne 1976). Both men and women can decode shapes ascribed to

their gender: facing four unmarked perfume bottles, men choose those with masculine shapes,

and women those with feminine shapes (Schmitt, Leclerc, and Dubé-Rioux 1988).

Gendered perception of brands

Consumer perception of brand gender is referred to indirectly in the marketing literature. The

phenomenon of humanizing brands is not new: Martineau (1958) and Levy (1959) observed

the human dimension of brands fifty years ago. For Levy, brand personality included

characteristics such as personality traits, age, and gender. Some researchers have suggested

that brands possess feminine/masculine dimensions (Aaker 1997; Alreck et al. 1982; Fournier

1998; Keller 1993; McCracken 1993). The feminine or masculine image of the brand comes

from the gender of the main user associated with that brand (Keller 1993). Moreover, people

transfer to a brand the specific personality traits of its stereotyped consumer (Mc Cracken

1986). Recently, Yorkston and De Mello (2005) show that Spanish consumers spontaneously

use gendered associations of brand names, then evaluate more favourably brands whose

grammatical gender name is in line with the gender of the typical brand user.

Yet little research has been focused directly on the gendered perception of brands. Early

studies revealed congruency between the masculine/feminine personality of individuals and

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their preference for brands with masculine/feminine images (Alreck et al. 1982; Fry 1971;

Vitz and Johnson 1965; Worth et al. 1992). Brand gender has recently regained attention from

researchers analyzing a growing managerial practice: cross-gender brand extension

(Grohmann 2009; Jung and Lee 2006; Veg 2008). Grohmann (2009) shows that consumers

associate brands with feminine and masculine personalities, and successfully develops two

scales to measure these two dimensions.

However, we have found no conceptual definition of brand gender, nor any description of its

components, in the existing literature. Brands can convey masculine or feminine personality

traits, as proved by Grohmann (2009) and generate gendered associations through the

grammatical gender of the brand name (Yorkston and De Mello 2005). Brand gender is

therefore a multidimensional concept that we will strive to define via its dimensions.

Brand gender: towards a multidimensional concept

Brands can be considered as a set of associations held in the memory (Keller 1993). Most

authors agree on this conception, although they may differ in their approach to the nature and

the number of these associations (Aaker 1991; Keller 1993). Given the central role of gender

in our thinking processes, the gender of brands could be made of all the gendered associations

of the brand, as perceived and memorized by consumers. In socio-psychology, gender is

predominantly considered as a multidimensional concept, encompassing the various

categories of attributes, attitudes and behaviours that empirically distinguish men from

women in a given culture (Ashmore 1990; Spence 1993). Also, marketing literature has

defined brand personality as “the set of human personality traits associated with a brand by

consumers” (Aaker 1997). We thus propose to transfer the multidimensional vision of gender

to brand gender with the following definition: brand gender is the set of masculine and

feminine attributes and personality traits associated with that brand by consumers.

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What are the possible attributes that make up brand gender? Brand perception or brand image

is defined by Aaker (1991) as a prism with ten dimensions (figure 1).

FIGURE 1

The ten dimensions of brand image (Aaker, 1991)

For brand gender, we retain only the dimensions which, based on our literature analysis, could

have gendered associations (underlined in figure 1). This led us to exclude for instance

dimensions such as price. Capitalizing on previous research on the gender of brand names

(Yorkston and De Mello 2005), we propose to add a dimension consisting of the brand name

and logo. Moreover, since brand advertising can also be perceived as masculine or feminine

(Alreck et al. 1982; Till and Priluck 2001), via colors or sounds (Wolin 2003) or

spokespersons (Debevec and Iyer 1986), we add a further dimension: communication

attributes. Finally, we propose a concept of brand gender with seven dimensions (figure 2).

FIGURE 2

The seven possible dimensions of brand gender

Brand image

Product category

Price

Competitors

Associated People

Typical Buyers and Consumers

Intangible characteristics

Perceived personality

Places and moments of usage

d’utilisation

Consumer Benefits

d’utilisation

Brand Gender

Brand name and logo

Associated People

eceivedproduit

Perceived personality

perçue

Typical Buyers and Consumers

Product attributes

Product category Communication attributes

Product Attributes

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This study aims to explore brand gender and the pertinence of these seven dimensions.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Exploratory depth interviews were conducted with 35 French individuals1 to let the

respondents openly express all the brand associations that came to mind. Our semi-structured

guide was organized by themes, from the general to the specific, beginning with perception of

product categories, the overall perception of the brand tested in the interview2 and the

potential dimensions of brand gender. We presented various stimuli to consumers (the brand

name, the brand logo, a major product of the brand, brand advertising) to generate richer

vocabulary, then asked again about the overall perception, without mentioning our focus on

gender. To maximize generalization of results, we selected four product categories (mineral

water, coffee, razors, skincare), either utilitarian or symbolic and with different genders

according to previous literature: masculine (razors), feminine (skincare), or mixed due to

mixed usage (coffee, mineral water). We also chose ten well known brands3, potentially

possessing a masculine or feminine image.

The respondents consisted of 20 male/15 female users of these product categories, who were

familiar with the tested brand and varied in age, social group, occupation, marital status,

gender, sexual orientation and place of residence. Each brand was tested by five participants.

The interviews were analyzed in a two-stage methodology. A traditional content analysis was

conducted, following Denzin and Lincoln (1994) principles. A lexical analysis was run using

the Alceste software, to reveal the classification of textual data without any pre-conception of

themes or interpretation by the researcher (Helme-Guizon and Gavard-Perret 2004).

1Interviews lasted from 45 minutes to 3 hours.

2 The question was as follows: “What are the impressions, images, words that come to mind about this brand?”

3 Mineral water: Contrex, Badoit. Razors: Gillette, Bic. Skincare: Biotherm, Lancôme, Dior, Nickel. Coffee:

Jacques Vabre and Grand-Mère. Some of these brands have launched masculine brand extensions (Biotherm,

Lancôme, Dior) or feminine brand extensions (Gillette, Bic).

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RESEARCH RESULTS

Brand Gender as a salient concept and a categorization tool for consumers

Half of our respondents spontaneously referred to gendered brands at the beginning of the

interview4 (25 references). Contrex was quoted 10 times (feminine), Taillefine 3 (feminine),

Mercedes 3 (masculine), Sveltesse 2 (feminine), then Castorama, Nordauto, Marlboro, Hépar,

Surcouf, Peugeot 106, Aston Martin (once each).

Furthermore, our content analysis reveals that brand gender is a salient and relevant concept,

emerging from the outset for many brands. From the first associations, brand gender is quoted

for five of our brands by all respondents, whatever their sex, age and sexual orientation. For

example, one male respondent stated that “Lancôme is sophisticated, feminine, dicreet,

seductive, French”. Another female interviewee commented: “Lancôme is luxury, feminine,

not the modern woman, sophisticated and sensual”. Dior is also perceived feminine from the

first associations: “Dior equals prestige, quality, aesthetic, graceful.. simply feminine”, or

“For me it’s luxury, femininity, Haute Couture, for women only, essentially feminine” from

another individual. Contrex appears feminine just the same, illustrated by these two

participants: “it’s feminine, about being slim” and “it’s slimness and a mineral water for

women, feminine and light”. Both Gillette and Nickel appear masculine, as stated by this

comment : “Gillette is about perfection for men, the idea of performance, it’s about

masculinity, for virile men”, which echoes these words: “Macho advertising, technical and

high-performing, very masculine” from a female respondent. Similar quotations are associated

with Nickel: “a masculine brand, intended for men only, selling masculine products in

masculine packs that have automobile connotation”. Importantly, we can see from these first

associations that all consumers mentioned the gender of the typical brand user for these five

brands, with the words “for man/masculine” or “for women/feminine”. Other categories of

4 These are answers to the first question of the interview concerning perception of product categories.

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associations emerge, such as product attributes, brand personality traits or communication

attributes: some of them are gendered associations that we will further analyse in this paper.

Conversely, some of the other brands do not immediately lead to gendered associations

(Jacques Vabre, Grand-Mère, Badoit, Bic): respondents concluded that these brands are

neutral, without gender, unisex. Biotherm appears with low masculinity and low femininity

for three respondents out of five.

Thus, our set of brands can be classified as feminine (high femininity/low masculinity –

Contrex, Lancôme, Dior), masculine (high masculinity/low femininity – Gillette, Nickel), and

neutral or genderless (low femininity/low masculinity – Badoit, Jacques Vabre, Grand-Mère,

Bic, and Biotherm at a lesser extent). These results reflect the gender theories on masculine

and feminine traits, classifying people in four groups: 1) masculine, 2) feminine, 3)

undifferentiated, and 4) androgynous (masculine+feminine) (Bem 1981; Spence and

Helmreich 1980). Drawing on these theories, we arrive at Figure 3. Yet, none or our brands

was perceived as both strongly masculine and strongly feminine, duplicating the results of

Grohmann (2009) on the gendered dimensions of brand personality.

FIGURE 3

Potential positions of brand gender

In parallel, the lexical analysis with Alceste revealed four groups of words, or four universes

in the consumers’ discourse on their overall perception of brands: 1) a masculine universe

containing textual data on the Gillette, Nickel and Bic brands, 2) a feminine universe

M+F

F

M

High Low

Low

High

Neutral

Femininity

Masculinity

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associated with the text on skincare brands and Contrex, 3) a theme focussing on coffee and

family, and 4) a more minor theme concerning youth and water. This lexical analysis covered

51% of the “u.c.e”, which is satisfactory5, and results in a classification in which a vocabulary

class associated with masculinity contrasts with a class on femininity/sophistication. It shows

that consumers tend to classify some brands in masculine/feminine categories that extend

beyond traditional product categories. Thus, class 1 (masculine universe) contains the textual

data relative to razors brands and Nickel (skincare) while class 2 (feminine universe) consists

of the textual data for the other skin-care brands and Contrex water. The strength of masculine

associations is evidenced by the repeated use of words like masculine, masculinity, men, he,

macho in class 1, combined with instrumental6 personality traits (realize, dynamic,

performing). Regarding feminine associations, there are many occurrences of the words

woman/feminine/femininity, in addition to expressive traits (soft, discreet) and archetypal

attributes of femininity (sophisticated, elegant, aesthetic).

TABLE 1

Classification of the textual data on brand perception using the Alceste software

* (n / m): occurrence frequency of the word / associated/ Khi2.

5 U.c.e are « units of elementary text » in the Alceste software. To be statistically significant, this percentage

should exceed 50%. 6 Instrumental and expressive traits refer to Parsons and Bales theory (1955), which indicated that men are

characterized by instrumental attributes and women by expressive attributes.

Masculine Universe Feminine Universe Coffee Universe Water Universe 38% of u.c.e 20% of u.c.e 29% of u.c.e 13% of u.c.e

Masculine (13/19)*

Razor blade (6/10)

He (29/10)

Innovate (8/9)

Macho (5/3)Realize (11/6)

Dynamic (8/3)

Performing (3/2)

Aggressive (3/2)

Sophistication (6/25)

Perfume (7/20)

Woman (10/11)

Feminine (6/8)

Aesthetic (6/5)

Elegant (5/5)

Soft (3/3)

Discreet (3/3)

Coffee (23/64)

Grandma (5/13)

Family (4/10)

Quality (5/7)

Mother (3/8)

Old (4/4)

Water (6/28)

Bottle (6/29)

Young (9/9)

Sparkling (3/21)

Friendly (3/21)

Green (5/35)

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The six dimensions of Brand Gender

Our content analysis reveals six dimensions of brand gender.

1. The gender of the typical user of the brand. From the first associations for Lancôme, Dior,

Contrex, Nickel and Gillette, all consumers mentioned the gender of the typical brand user, as

says individual L.: “Dior evokes star system, it’s for women, fashion-addicts and trendy

women”. This replicates previous research about the gender of products (Allison et al. 1980)

and is in line with the brand literature (Keller 1993). The gender of these brands appears to be

associated with the gender of the typical brand user, independently of the gender of the

product category of the brand. For example, a man (P.) perceives the skincare category as

feminine and the Nickel brand as masculine, because of its stereotyped user (Table 2). The

gender of the typical user associated with the brand can be considered as a main dimension of

brand gender. In contrast, the gender of the brand’s product category was never mentioned as

a component of the brand gender and thus does not appear as one of its key component.

TABLE 2

Gender of product categories, brand gender and gender of the typical brand user

Brand Interviewee

(Sex)

Gender of the brand’s product

categories7

Perceived brand gender Gender of the

typical user

Nickel P.

(Man)

“ Skincare: more feminine than

masculine”

“For men, with an original

vision, scientific, masculine”

“ Young men”

E.

(Woman)

“Skincare : masculine and

feminine, was feminine only”

“Masculine brand, thinks about

men only”

“ Elegant and

masculine men »

Lancôme M.

(Man)

“Skincare: now mixed ”

”Make-up : feminine market”

“Sophisticated, feminine,

discreet, seductive”

« Women »

F.

(Woman)

“ Skin care: mixed”

”Make-up: feminine”

“For all women , elegant,

fashionable and trendy”

“Women”

Contrex K.

(Man)

“ Mineral water:

undifferentiated, no gender”

“ Old brand, institution,

feminine, helps in slimming”

“Women”

M.

(Woman)

“Mineral water : no gender,

for everybody“

“ Slimness, a mineral water for

women, feminine and light”

“Women”

7 Only the product-categories mentioned by consumers in the interviews.

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2. Gendered personality traits of the brand. From the first associations, a majority of

respondents expressed gendered associations qualifying the feminine or masculine personality

of the brand. These attributes are for instance “discreet, seductive, sophisticated, soft, tender,

cheerful” versus “assertive, forceful, technical, high-performing, competitive, aggressive”

(for the Lancôme, Dior, Contrex brands versus Nickel, Gillette). To illustrate, one respondent

quotes on Lancôme: “For women, ultra feminine, images of advertising.. a sophisticated, soft,

refined, tender brand, sensualand graceful also”. Globally these attributes are the same as

those used by our interviewees to define the masculinity and femininity of individuals8,

stereotyping the archetypal woman (“soft, tender, graceful, sophisticated, cheerful,

compassionate, sensual, sensitive...”) or the traditional man (“macho, aggressive, performing,

competitive, assertive, strong, rough...”). They are also similar to the items on the scales

developed by Grohmann (2009) on the masculine/feminine personality of the brand.

3. The gendered attributes of brand communication. A majority of our respondents expressed

gendered associations with brand communication (Table 3) for all our brands. These

associations relate mostly to the gender of the advertising spokesperson (Debevec and Iyer

1986), the advertising baseline (Gillette), or a gendered symbol (such as the Lancôme rose).

In the end, we presented current advertisements for the brands, eliciting a larger number of

gendered associations that can be classified as follows: the gender of the people in the

advertisement, their attitudes (“a macho, forceful, sportsmanlike young man”- Gillette ; “ a

romantic, gentle woman ”- Contrex), the shades, graphics and images (“pastel shades, it looks

feminine, sophisticated”- Dior; “blurred images that convey femininity”- Contrex) or the

sounds (“the bomb explosion at the end of the advertising : that’s so masculine”- Gillette).

These results are in line with past research on advertising (Alreck et al. 1982; Wolin 2003).

8 In reply to the following question: “In your opinion, what adjectives and words define the masculinity or

femininity of a human being? »

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TABLE 3

Gendered attributes of brand communication

Gendered attributes Brand Examples of brand associations

Objects and symbols

People in the ad

Spokesperson

baseline

Lancôme “The rose on the ad : it’s the feminine side” (F), “You get

this feeling of being in a comforting universe, everybody is

tender, kind, beautiful, it’s ultra feminine” (O)

Contrex “Always women in the ad “ (B)

Gillette “The ads show virile men » (G) “Ads with macho men”(K)

Dior “ Sharon Stone cream” (L) “ Dior and Brigitte Bardot,

Emmanuelle Béart in the ad” (I)

Bic “In the ad, footballers, rugby players, Cantona” (Y)

Gillette « The base line of the ad : the best a man can get » (G)

4. The gender of the brand name. The grammatical gender of the brand name emerged in the

first associations for the Nickel brand (three respondents out of five). One interviewee stated

that “the name makes me think of industrial materials, so it’s a masculine name and a

masculine brand”. Another expressed that “Nickel is a chemical element, cold masculine,

evokes a masculine brand”. For the other gendered brands (Gillette, Lancôme, Dior and

Contrex), only three consumers expressed this kind of association spontaneously. For

example, this participant:”With the e at the end, Gillette is rather a feminine name”. Yet when

questioned specifically on the brand name9, all consumers mentioned a gender for the brand

name, related to the sonority: “Lancôme, rather voluptuous in resonance, it sounds round,

secure, soft, so it is feminine”. This result is consistent with previous work (Yorkston and De

Mello 2005). It thus seems appropriate to conceive the gender of the brand name as another

component of the perceived gender of the brand in French language. However, our study

reveals that brand gender is more related to the gender of the typical brand user and to the

gendered personality of the brand, than to the actual brand name. The names Contrex and

Dior have masculine connotations for our French consumers, yet they are perceived globally

as feminine. The Gillette name has feminine connotations for French speakers, but the brand

9 This question was as follows: “And for brand name X: what thoughts and words come to mind? “.

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is seen as masculine. The gender of the brand name helps to convey masculinity or femininity

to the brand, yet other dimensions make greater contributions to the overall perception of the

brand gender.

5. The gendered attributes of the logo. Occasionally, a few interviewees mentioned the gender

of the brand logo. Its colours, shapes, symbols appear to have masculine or feminine

connotations: “The Biotherm logo is red and grey, no special design for the B, just a solid

letter: it looks masculine” (F) or “I recall the rose, the flower on the Lancôme logo, it looks

feminine” (A), or ”Gillette is a neutral and basic logo; I remember Wilkinson looks more

masculine, because of the two swords” (J). This is in line with past literature (Kirkham 1996).

Yet this dimension appears less contributive to the brand gender than previous dimensions,

generating fewer spontaneous associations.

6. The gendered attributes and benefits of brand products. For some brands such as Dior or

Nickel, gendered associations concerning product attributes are expressed by a majority of

consumers. Products are perceived as masculine or feminine due to their colours and shapes,

as previously shown in the literature (Kirkham 1996), and due to the materials used or the

sophistication and subtlety of the design. Hence this comment on Dior: “Magnificent

packagings, such quality in the materials they use, the product textures : a feminine

universe”. Or another respondent on Nickel: “I remember the shape looks like a petrol can, so

masculine, straight, abrupt shapes”. Product benefits are also referred to as gender-specific:

for Contrex, the benefit of being slim is seen as feminine. For the other brands, all consumers

express similar comments on gendered product attributes after being shown the brand

products at the end of the interview, as shown on Lancôme: “a precious cream jar, looks like

a treasure, pearly material at the top of the pack and its curved shape look so feminine”.

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DISCUSSION

This research aimed to understand brand gender and its components. Our results show that

brand gender is a salient and relevant concept, coming first when we ask consumers to talk

about brands. Using the Alceste software with a lexical analysis, we found that brand gender

is a key factor to categorize brands, which seems to overtake the product categories.

Moreover, this study enabled us to define the components of brand gender, which is a

multidimensional concept. We identified six dimensions (figure 4): 1) the gender of the

brand’s main users, the dimension that makes the greatest contribution, 2) gendered

personality traits of the brand, 3) gendered attributes of brand communication, 4) the gender

of the brand name, 5) gendered attributes of the logo, and 6) gendered attributes and benefits

of the products.

FIGURE 4

The six dimensions of brand gender

If we consider that there are potentially four possible brand genders – 1) masculine, 2)

feminine, 3) slightly masculine and feminine, 4) strongly masculine and feminine – trying to

adapt the theories of gender to brand gender (Bem 1981; Spence and Helmreich 1980), we

found brands in all the first three categories but not the last. These results are congruent with

the quantitative research by Grohmann (2009) on gendered brand personality, who found a

Brand Gender marque

Gendered attributes of communication

Gendered brand personality Gendered attributes and benefits of the products

Gender of main brand user

Gender of the brand name Gendered attributes of the logo

Brand Gender

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similar mapping pattern for brands according to their degree of masculine or feminine

personality, but could not identify a brand with a strongly masculine/feminine (androgynous)

personality. The possibility of finding androgynous brands, and how consumers would react

to them, could be addressed by future research. This study also provides support for the

importance of brand gender as a distinct concept from brand personality concept (Aaker 1997)

and from masculine/feminine brand personality defined by Grohmann (2009). Finally our

findings have managerial implications for marketers considering extensions to the opposite

gender. If a brand has a gender, and if this gender is mainly created by the gender of the

typical brand user, how can firms extend a brand with a perceived strong feminine gender to

men? Conversely how to extend a perceived strongly masculine brand to women?

Understanding the gender of brand and its components could help to avoid marketing

mistakes.

However, there are some limitations to this research. We examined ten brands from four

product categories, varying in gender and in their symbolic/utilitarian dimension. It would be

interesting to analyse the gender of other categories of brands: fashion, distribution, services,

high tech brands. For instance, does Apple have a gender? In addition, we identified some

dimensions of brand gender, but it would be useful to measure more accurately the gender of

brands and the influence of each dimension. Another avenue for future research concerns the

effect of consumer gender identity on the perception of the brand gender. Is there a link

between the consumer’s gender identity or gender ideology and the perceived brand gender?

Is it possible to buy a feminine brand if you are strongly masculine? Is perception of brand

gender homogeneous, or affected by certain characteristics of the interviewee? Just as age has

an effect on an individual’s sex role perceptions, it may also affect perception of brand

gender. Specific research could also focus on children and explore their perception of the

masculinity and femininity of brands. Finally, further consumer research could be conducted

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to investigate conditions for successful cross-gender brand extensions, capitalizing on the

recent work by Jung & Lee (2006) or Veg (2008).

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APPENDIX - Description of the interviewees

Brand

Name Sex Age Profession Soc.

Gp Residence Marital status Sexual

orientation

Lancôme

M H 22 Student A Paris Single Heterosexual

O H 41 Computer technician B Paris Cohabiting Heterosexual

F F 22 Student B Tours Single Heterosexual

J F 33 Cleaning lady C Montreuil Cohabiting, 1 child Heterosexual

E H 26 Financial manager A Paris Cohabiting Homosexual

Biotherm

A H 23 Student A Angers Cohabiting Bi-sexual

B F 23 Student B Angers Single Heterosexual

N F 64 Doctor A Concarneau Married, 3 children Heterosexual

F H 26 Professor A Paris Cohabiting Homosexual

C H 33 Professor A Paris Married, 3 children Heterosexual

Dior

I F 27 Teacher A Paris Single Heterosexual

L F 41 Marketing director A Boulogne Married, 3 children Heterosexual

H F 23 Student B Le Mans Cohabiting Heterosexual

F H 40 Sales director A Neuilly Married, 2 children Heterosexual

B H 25 Communication clerk B Paris Cohabiting Heterosexual

Nickel E F 30 Manager A Paris Cohabiting Heterosexual

C F 24 Recruiting assistant B Carrièr/seine Cohabiting Heterosexual

L H 25 Student B Paris Single Heterosexual

P H 46 Sales consultant A Paris Married Heterosexual

M H 46 Make-up artist B Paris Cohabiting Homosexual

Contrex

then Badoit

(or the reverse)

M F 42 Assistant A Paris Widow, 3 children Heterosexual

B F 26 Youth leader B Amiens Married Heterosexual

K H 40 Distribution manager A Paris Cohabiting, 1 child Heterosexual

H H 28 Economist A Paris Cohabiting Homosexual

S H 22 Fish monger C Paris Single Heterosexual

Gillette then

Bic

(or the reverse)

J H 40 Teacher and consultant A Paris Cohabiting, 1 child Heterosexual

U H 33 Consultant A Paris Cohabiting, 2

children

Heterosexual

Y F 22 Student A St Germain Cohabiting Heterosexual

K F 41 Sales manager A Neuilly Married, 3 children Heterosexual

G H 26 University clerk A Versailles Single Homosexual

Jacques Vabre

then

Grand-Mère

(or the reverse)

E F 26 Student A Paris Single Heterosexual

O F 64 Doctor A St Raphael Married, 2 children Heterosexual

R H 40 Consultant A Paris Single Heterosexual

D H 20 Unskilled worker C Paris Single Heterosexual

T H 50 Cheese Shopkeeper C Paris Cohabiting Homosexual