van Tilburg, M., Lieven, T., Herrmann, A. and Townsend, C. (2015). Beyond “Pink It and Shrink It” Perceived Product Gender, Aesthetics, and Product Evaluation. Psychology & Marketing, 32(4), pp.422-437.
Focus of article
This research proposes that products with strong gender identification will produce greater affective and behavioural responses
First study:
Demonstrated that the perception of product gender can be influenced by the design elements of shape, colour and material.
Second Study:
Explores the effect of product gender on consumer response in terms of the perception of aesthetics, functionality, affective attitude toward the product and purchase intent.
Research aims to determine if product aesthetics are a crucial source of product gender and to highlight the importance of product gender in terms of consumer response.
‘there is the notion that one needs to ‘pink it and shrink it’; that is, adapt a previously masculine product to a female target audience’
‘associations between design elements and gender are undoubtedly learned, others may be innate’
‘consumers tend to anthropomorphise products, giving them humanlike characteristics and evaluating them in the same way they evaluate other people’
‘much of how a product’s personality is communicated by designers and understood by consumers through it appearance’
‘perception of product gender can be influenced by design elements of shape, colour and material’
‘product aesthetics are a crucial source of product gender’
Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis: Product Aesthetics as a source of product gender
‘respondent gender has been analysed as a moderator of the perception of products using variables such as sex roles, self-concept and biological sex’
‘the determination of a products gender is based on the gender of the product promotor as well as the perceptions of the product’s general consumer group’
‘a products appearance is a major determinant of its personality’
‘this tendency to give human traits to inanimate objects is called anthropomorphism’
‘a products physical aspects should offer a consistant product personalty’
Luchs and Swan: on product design
‘the set of properties of an artefact, consisting of the discrete properties of the form and the function together with the holistic properties of the integrated form and function’ (2011, p338)
‘theories of person perception state that gender is one of the first aspects that toy notice and mentally process when you meet someone new’ (Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972)
‘physical characteristics infer masculinity/femininity and attractiveness, and these principles of mate selection influence human information processing and are deeply ingrained in the human brain’ (Buss, 1994)
Lieven, Grohmann, Herrmann, Landwehr & van Tilburg 2015
‘found that bold, solid, angular, and sharp characteristic of brand logos enhance brand masculinity and that airy, delicate, round, and smooth brand logos enhance brand femininity’
Product Gender as a Source of Product Value:
‘aesthetic value is hedonic and is the result of interpretation and representation’
‘clarity in elements enhances fluency and leads to a more favourable judgement of stimuli’
‘fluency increases error-free processing and effective stimulus recognition’
Results and Analysis:
‘higher levels of product gender resulted in stronger purchasing intent; however by positively influencing affective attitude, aesthetic value, and functionality, these three variables completely mediated this effect’
interpretation: products don’t need to be gendered/gender specific if attitude, aesthetic value and functionality are addressed within the design
‘products that were clear in their male or female appearance were perceived as pleasant, and even more so when the product offered strong characteristics of both genders’
‘high product gender evokes positive consumer perceptions and behaviour’
‘the aesthetic pleasure derived by a highly gendered product leads to higher purchase intent’
‘androgynous products with simultaneously high perceptions of femininity and masculinity showed the highest response’
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