Is Gender Still Relevant in Brand Research?
It’s well-recognized these days that gender is more complex and multifaceted than the binary (male/female) construct most of us were taught as children. (This study found that 1.2 Million adults in the U.S. identify as non-binary). Yet the concept of gender in research has been slower to evolve. Sure, more and more studies are including “non-binary” or “other” as choices when collecting demographic data, but marketers are still very much using gender to define key audiences.
Which begs the question: Should we continue to make marketing decisions about consumers based on their gender?
As brand researchers, we often see gender used as a lazy shorthand to represent a more specific trait that would better define a brand’s audience. So, rather than digging into what interests, values, or personality traits the core audience might all have in common, many researchers just look at whether more men or women buy this product, then collect their age, household income and ethnicity, and bam! The brand now has a demographic profile.
It’s rare in our research that we find gender to be the most interesting or actionable thing about the people we talk to. Yet, we almost always produce a pie chart showing the gender breakdown of our respondents when we present findings. Why? Partially because we’ve all been trained to expect this slice. And partially because it’s a data point that, when taken into consideration with other data points, can help paint the picture of a brand’s core customer.
What’s becoming less and less relevant (or advisable) are gender stereotypes. In fact, multiple studies show that gender-tailored messages can turn consumers away from products.
Gender is still relevant in brand research and marketing as a data point – particularly when you’re trying to reach a certain audience online and can target based on their specified gender. But before defaulting to gender as a relevant factor to consider in your next brand strategy, ask yourself these questions:
Does gender impact the way people use your product or service? How?
Are you making assumptions based on gender stereotypes? Is there a more specific human characteristic than gender that connects the people who buy your stuff? (What a good time to do some more research!)
Is your brand trying to succeed within a certain sub-culture that might have its own gender norms and expectations? Do you understand what those are?
Are you unintentionally excluding people from your brand with your positioning or messaging? (Now would be a good time to check your pronouns.)
The relevance of gender depends on the context of the inquiry. Making sweeping assumptions about large groups of people based solely on any single factor is dangerous, but it’s true that statistically, more humans continue to follow the traditional characteristics of the gender binary than don’t. For example, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that more women than men, on average, shop for dresses. But it would be wrong to assume that all women shop for dresses.
It's essential to approach gender in brand and marketing with sensitivity and nuance, recognizing that it's just one aspect of a person's identity, and that individuals may have varied and complex relationships with gender. Asking the right questions of an audience full of diverse perspectives is the best way to find out whether gender really matters to your brand.
Need a consult on whether your brand could be more gender inclusive? Let’s talk.
