COP Practical: Gender Neutral Branding

In order to gain an understand of successful gender neutral branding I've looked at successful companies who have create a gender neutral aesthetic within there branding. This lead me to look at Nike as I discussed there successful change from a masculine brand to neutral brand within my essay. The successful aspects to this change have been changing the connotations with the tag line 'just do it' as this no encompasses all genders as Nike have changed how its viewed by making more about motivation and achievement rather than gender. Furthermore Nike has lead the way when featuring both men and women as equal within sports showing the strength and ability (see figures 1-2) rather than focusing on looks, both men and women are shown based on ability rather than gender. Therefor they are shown based on strength, endurance, speed rather than masculinity and femininity. In addition Nike have also started to remove gender from adverts looking at the lifestyle clothing (see figure 3) in order to appeal to people regardless of gender. There ability to communicate there brand to the consumer is effective as they look to focus more on the products themselves rather than who will use them (see figure 3).

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

In addition to looking at Nike I also looked at gender neutral skincare brand Aesop to see how they communicate their products online without creating gender connotations. This is possible as they categorise each range based on issues such as hair, skin, travel etc. so gender doesn't need to be mentioned. The use of natural colours and textures taken from the ingredients within the products gives the website a natural and modern aesthetic that appeals to both genders due to the sophisticated nature of the design (see figure 4). This is further heightened by the simplicity within the website which focuses heavily on the reason for use of the product, allowing the website to be universally applicable as its everyday products everyone uses such as deodorant, face wash, shampoo etc (see figures 5-6).  The simplicity and use of product photography allows Aesop's website to be so successful as all your attention is on the benefits of the products, removing gender connotations completely.