COP 3 Reading: Gender Dimensions of Brand Personality

Gender Dimensions of Brand Personality - Bianca Grohmann

Masculine and Feminine dimensions of brand personality:

‘Brand personality is ‘the set of human characteristics associated with a brand’ (Aaker 1997, p 347). It is multidimensional and multifaceted construct (Aaker 1997) that enables consumers to express themselves along several dimensions’

‘Consumers associated human personality traits with brands because they relate to brands as they would to partners or friends (Fournier 1998), because they perceive brands as extensions of their selves (Belk 1988)’

‘the marketing literature suggests that the need to express masculinity and femininity through brand choices is based on the notion that gender is part of consumers’ self-concept (Freimuth and Hornstein 1982)’

‘gender dimensions of personality appear to be especially relevant to brands that have symbolic value for consumers attempting to reinforce their own masculinity and femininity’

Construct Definition:

‘Caprara, Barbaranelli and Guido (2001) failed to replicate the Big Five model of human personality (Goldberg 1990) for brands and concluded that human personality characteristics may not translate directly into brand personality traits’.

Summary and Implications:

‘marketers can shape gender dimensions of brand personality through their choice of masculine and feminine spokespeople featured in advertisement’

‘behavioural consumers responses positively when they are congruent with consumers’ sex role identity and thus enables consumers to express an important dimension of their self concept’ 

Managerial Implications:

‘gender dimensions of brand personality affect brand-reflated consumer responses, including brand extension evaluations when the extension category is associated with specific gender perceptions. These effects are especially important to the management of brands that speak to the enhancement of consumers’ sex role identity, such as brands of personal care products’ 

Theoretical Implications and Further Research 

‘brand personality is multidimensional and comprises masculinity and femininity’

‘these dimensions are independent and mirror the orthogonality of masculinity and femininity as human personality traits’

‘consumers indeed map human personality traits onto brands’

Grohmann, B. (2009). Gender Dimensions of Brand Personality. Journal of Marketing Research, 46(1), pp.105-119.