MKTG 101

Coursework

MKTG-101 Introduction to Marketing

Group Project Report

Gender Marketing

Abhishek Anand
Kshitij Khandelwal
Rijul Arora
Saarthak Mehta
Toshith Batra
Yeswanth Katragunta

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Gender marketing can be defined as marketing of product on the basis of gender. Products are
marketed differently because there is a disparity between the physical, emotional, psychological and
sociological behavior of male as compared to that of a female. In this report, we would critically
examine the idea of gender marketing. The report will give a brief argument on the need for
marketing product differently followed by analysis of examples. The report will be concluded with
corroborating the facts with the examples analyzed.

Need for gender marketing

Men and women are different from each other, the differences exists in their
psychological, social behaviors etc. and physiological/ physical Characteristics.
This creates different needs for both men and women and different perspectives
about the product. Men display certain common physiognomies that reflect their
sovereign and egocentric nature. This is why men endorse products like cars,
bikes or any other product that reflects the masculinity of the product (Palan,
2001).
On the other hand women are generalized by their typical idiosyncrasies like
concern for others, winsomeness, emotional attachment, tenderness etc. so,
any product which showcases metaphoric peculiarities of women will be
targeted to women, let say Pink version of any product display tenderness,
cosmetics which provides wide range to women than men shows that women
love to be beautiful than men, different products are made to meet the
different physiological needs of gender. For example, a women-shaving razor
can be different from men in terms of sensitivity because women skin is
tender. Likewise, men cant endorse tampons because it is unambiguously
made for women.
The reason why mostly home products are endorsed by women because it is
closely related to their characteristic of concern for others, women most
likely look after home affairs in any part of the world, so they are given
priority to choose the products like Detergents, any wash agents, food like
groceries, vegetables, cleaning material, soaps or any other house hold items
including kitchen electronics (Martins and Yusuf et al., 2012).
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But there is another necessity that had risen up in recent years; women and men had started living
independently especially in metros to aspire their individual goals which is contrary to the old
lifestyle where women is a part of every household to look after men and children, so companies
now have been targeting men with their products which is considered to be womens rolesupporting product and had to come up with different strategies for both men and women.
Now we will critically examine the following example:

Copenhagen by Carlsberg
Gender
marketing
is
taken
as
differentiation in the 4 Ps of marketing
for the two sexes. Even an existing
product in the market, which is
dominated by one gender, can be
marketed for the other sex. For example,
Beer has always been a male dominated
drink according to oxford journals the
ratio in the consumption of beer in
Europe is 3:1. But now the marketers
have realized the importance of
promoting beer as a neutral drink as now
women drinkers are increasing in
number. Carlsberg has introduced a new
beer Copenhagen that is targeted to the modern women who like a refreshing drink. The product is
marketed as a neutral product rather than a guy or dude centric product. Carlsberg has also changed
the color and the packaging of the product giving it a more stylish and fresh looks. The VP
Marketing, Kirsten gidius puts says "Many young people arent keen on the bitter aftertaste of
beer...we have created a highly drinkable beer with a balanced taste a real alternative to white wine
and champagne (Polis, 2014). Molson Coors has also launched a similar beer centered to females.
The beer is named Animee and it comes in three flavors clear filtered, crisp rose and zesty lemon
The company claims that it is lighter than many other beer.

Nestls Yorkie Chocolate Bar

Chocolate bars are liked and consumed by both male and
female. In British Confectionary market, Nestle introduced
its chocolate bar called Yorkie which was a male
dominated product and had Its Not For Girls! stated in
bold on the front wrapper conveying that is made for men
only. The packaging of the bar is designed not only to
appeal to men but also to discourage women from buying it.
According to Andrew Harrison (Marketing Director at
Nestle),"Most men these days feel as if the world is
changing around them and it has become less and less
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politically correct to have anything that is only for males. Yorkie feels that this is an important
element of men's happiness and is starting the reclaiming process of making a particular chocolate
just for men" (Day, 2002).

Dove Men+ Care by Unilever

For years, men used the same skin and beauty care products that were made exclusively for women
or that are unisex in nature. According to Dove's gender expert Michael Kaufman, "they (men) told
us they didn't feel accurately portrayed, that they were stereotyped... that they found it difficult to
relate to images of people and their age in advertisement."

Recently, Dove launched male specific skin and beauty care products. Its ads were premiered during
the Super Bowl matches. Dove Men+ Care started making advertisements which targeted men and
discouraged the use of women products. Dove advertisement showed the activities, which are carried
out by men, and then cleaning themselves with the Men+ Care Products.
One of their advertisement states in the end," Now that you are comfortable with who you are,
Isnt it time for comfortable skin. At last there is Dove for Men". They also show the difference
between the ordinary product and Men+ Care Products. Dove played its cards right by marketing the
product in the successful way and the value of the name, now Dove Men+ Care is present in over 35
countries. (Murray and ↠ 2013).

Floral Kiss range of laptops from Fujitsu

Laptops from Fujitsu were designed to target
business professionals and home users with
neutral gender focus. It has been found that the
laptop was more appealing to male consumers
and it had a user ratio of 6:1 between male and
female customers. Later the brand realized the
potential of female customers that was still
untouched segment for the company. On

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October 2012, the company launched its new range of laptops under the name of Floral Kiss as
personal computers for women. The female engineers designed the product itself so that it should be
more appealing to female customers only and bringing elegance to the PC. The concept of Floral
Kiss was emerged due to desire of female employees of Fujitsu to make a laptop that should be
solely made and more appealing to female customers. The laptop was launched in three colors
keeping in mind of female customers such as feminine pink, luxury brown and elegant white. The
models of the laptop were designed in collaboration with jewelry brand Agete as the brand is
known for its drive to offer stylish new products constantly and reflect the latest fashion and trends
as per the womens lifestyle and fashion (Fujitsu Global, 2014).

Conclusion
In this report we were able to demonstrate the need for gender marketing. We highlighted the
psychology of man and woman when they shop and their natural traits that correlates with their
shopping preferences. We had also critically examined the examples from various industries such
alcoholic beverage industry, confectionary industry, beauty and care, and electronic industry. In
Copenhagen by Carlsberg example, we have observed how the company targeted the male
dominated alcoholic drink beer to women in an all-new avatar. Also, Yorkie chocolate bar aimed the
product to man by clearly writing, " It's Not for Girls" on the product's packaging. Moreover, Fujitsu
was able to differentiate its range of floral kiss laptops by designing the product in woman-oriented
fashion. They were launched in colors that are assumed to be woman centric. Dove man+ care
highlighted the need for exclusive men's beauty and care products. The company was able to put in
the products that were liked by man and their advertisement campaign highlighted the same. By
scrutinizing the examples and corroborating them with the gender's psychology, we can conclude the
need for gender marketing and its advantages. It also shows how different industries are investing
heavily in gender marketing by innovating gender specific products and their ad campaigns.

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Bibliography
Day, J. 2002. Nestle bans women from Yorkie bars. [Online] Available at:
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/mar/27/advertising.marketingandpr. [Accessed: 12 Apr
2014].
Fujitsu Global. 2014. Fujitsu Announces New 'Floral Kiss' Brand of FMV Personal Computers for
Women: Fujitsu Global. [Online] Available at:
http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/pr/archives/month/2012/20121019-03.html [Accessed: 12 Apr
2014].
Martins, J. M., Yusuf, F. and Swanson, D. A. 2012. Consumer demographics and behavior.
Dordrecht: Springer. Pg-151
Murray, J. and ↠ V. 2013. Dove Men+ Care Captures New Market Share Blade Creative
Branding | Blog | Marketing, Design, Trends. [Online] Available at:
http://www.bladecreativebranding.com/blog/index.php/2013/08/29/dove-captures-new-share-withmencare-expansion/ [Accessed: 12 Apr 2014].
Palan, K. M. (2001). Gender identity in consumer behavior research: A literature review and
research agenda. Academy of Marketing Science Review, 10, 128.
Polis, C. 2014. Carlsberg Wants Women To Drink Its New Beer. [Online]
Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/20/carlsberg-gender-neutralbeer_n_864642.html. [Accessed: 12 Apr 2014].

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