Gender Segmented Marketing

One aspect of advertising that often gets over looked is the concept of gender marketing and how it dictates individual consumerism. From a young age boys are told to play sports and girls are expected to act like young ladies and our society has in fact always been accustomed to the idea that men and women are different and in most cases must be segmented in order to market successfully.

Dominantly this ideal can be visible in the hygiene and health product industry as distinguished brands (i.e. Lynx for men & Impulse for women) compete with competitors in their own segmented markets.

Then we come to unisex brands like Dove who market to both genders, the question is does this company segment based on gender? The answer is yes.

Below shows two advertisements from Dove where the campaigns for both advertisements are quite contrasting with male being black and bold and the female being very white and light. Considering that there products are virtually identical the packaging and presentation is vastly different, which supports the theory that gender marketing is present in these developments.

In conclusion it is clear that gender segmentation for products is definitely present in the world we live in and raises the wonder into whether it is based on consumer needs or culture.