Search results
1 – 10 of 436Lizardo Vargas-Bianchi and Marta Mensa
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect on brand name recall in advertisements with varying levels of female sexual objectification content among young millennials and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect on brand name recall in advertisements with varying levels of female sexual objectification content among young millennials and the effect of distraction on this recall effort. The question arises whether this group evokes those brands that appear in advertisements using different levels of objectification content.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a correlational design that includes two studies with different groups of subjects: an assessment of perceived female sexual objectification levels in a set of ads and a quasi-experimental study that used the assessed perceived levels of female objectification and brand name short-term recall scores of those ads, with and without the intervention of an attention distractor.
Findings
Results suggest that female sexual objectification content exerts a limited influence on brand name recall between participants. In addition, it is not men who remember brand names from ads using sexual objectified images, but young women.
Research limitations/implications
The study had an exploratory scope and used a small non-probabilistic sample. Subjects belong to a cultural context of Western world developing economy, and thus perceived female objectification may vary between different cultural settings. Results refer to graphic advertisements, though this cohort is exposed to other audiovisual content platforms.
Originality/value
Several studies have addressed female objectification in advertising and media, but few focused on young Latin American audiences and its impact on the recollection of advertised brands. Brand name retention and awareness is still a relevant variable that the advertising industry takes in account as one of several predictors toward buying decisions. Even less research has been made on Latin American social and cultural contexts.
Details
Keywords
Elika Kordrostami and Melika Kordrostami
In light of the recent shift in the US culture, this paper investigates the effectiveness of female sexual empowerment as ad appeal in the apparel industry.
Abstract
Purpose
In light of the recent shift in the US culture, this paper investigates the effectiveness of female sexual empowerment as ad appeal in the apparel industry.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 aimed to understand consumers' reactions to female sexual empowerment in ads in terms of their attitudes toward the ad, attitudes toward the brand and purchase intention. Study 2 investigated the role of gender in perceptions of female sexual empowerment in ads.
Findings
This research establishes that consumers display positive attitudes toward female sexual empowerment in the apparel advertisement. These attitudes positively influence attitudes toward the brand, which in turn improve purchase intention. These effects are stronger for women than men.
Research limitations/implications
This research borrows from social power theory to reveal the impact of female sexual empowerment in ads in the apparel industry. Based on the theory of planned behavior, the findings also show that female sexual empowerment can have a positive impact on purchase intention through a serial mediation of attitude toward the ad and brand.
Practical implications
Marketers need to be aware of the impact of female sexual empowerment as ad appeal. Specifically, firms in the apparel industry could benefit from the positive effects of incorporating female sexual empowerment in their campaigns.
Originality/value
This research is the first to investigate the role of female sexual empowerment as ad appeal in improving consumers' responses to ads.
Details
Keywords
– The purpose of this article is to suggest that doctoral student socialization is a gendered process.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to suggest that doctoral student socialization is a gendered process.
Design/methodology/approach
This article uses a qualitative case study methodology, studying engineering students in one university department.
Findings
The author considers how various norms and practices, including competition and hierarchy along with overt objectification of women, point to the masculine nature of the discipline.
Originality/value
Although stage models of socialization are helpful in that they provide an outline of students’ various tasks as they progress through their doctoral programs, they can account neither for the culture of disciplines nor for the identities of students who populate them. The author suggests that students in engineering are prepared to embrace competition and hierarchy, norms that point to a gendered disciplinary culture. Although, certainly, particular interests will lead students to pursue different majors, the discipline serves to reinforce culture.
Details
Keywords
Juhi Gahlot Sarkar and Abhigyan Sarkar
This research aims to investigate if consuming fashion apparel brands for the purpose of social appearance expressiveness may garner calculative brand commitment, through the…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to investigate if consuming fashion apparel brands for the purpose of social appearance expressiveness may garner calculative brand commitment, through the mediation of narcissistic brand love. It also tests moderation of gender for the aforementioned mediated relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
The research has a core qualitative component (Study 1), which focuses on an interpretivist approach using a grounded theory paradigm to analyze data (N = 37) collected from semi-structured depth interviews. It is followed by a positivist survey based enquiry (study 2), and the data (N = 245) were analyzed using Haye’s (2017) process macro.
Findings
Analysis reveals that Indian consumers fall in narcissistic love with those apparel brands that aid their quest for maintaining desirable social appearances and develop a calculative commitment toward the brands, which aid this quest. The effect of social appearance expressiveness of apparel brand on consumers’ narcissistic brand love is moderated by gender, such that female consumers (as compared to males) are more invested in consuming fashion apparel brands as a means to enhance their social appearances.
Originality/value
The value of this study lies in extending self-presentation theory to understand the role of consumer narcissism in shaping Indian consumers’ fashion apparel consumption. The authors investigate the narcissistic consumption orientation that evolves as a result of consumers’ desire for social self-expression, irrespective of possessing narcissism as an enduring personality trait. Thus, the findings are relevant for possibly all consumers who, given certain conditions, may temporarily develop narcissistic brand love.
Details
Keywords
Nina Michaelidou, Nikoletta Theofania Siamagka, Leonidas Hatzithomas and Luciana Chaput
The purpose of this study is to examine how luxury and non-luxury brands portray women in social media advertising shedding light on their femvertising practices.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine how luxury and non-luxury brands portray women in social media advertising shedding light on their femvertising practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative content analysis and multiple correspondence analysis are used to examine female representations in the advertising of personal care products on social media. The sample includes brand posts from 15 brands on two social media platforms.
Findings
The results demonstrate that non-luxury brands use femvertising to a greater extent compared to luxury brands. In particular, this study shows that luxury brands rely more on stereotyped gender expressions and use more sexualisation in their advertising, relative to non-luxury brands.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides an analysis of luxury and non-luxury brands’ femvertising practices on social media. In doing so, this study extends the study of femvertising to the context of luxury and social media, which is currently underexplored. In terms of practical implications, this study sheds light on the extent of the application of femvertising across luxury and non-luxury brands on social media.
Practical implications
The findings drive a number of suggestions for luxury marketers, including the use of more independent gender roles and more racial diversity in their social media advertising and the lessening of unrelated sexuality.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to compare femvertising practices of luxury and non-luxury brands on social media, delineating different facets of femvertising (e.g. gender roles, diversity, etc.) and extending scholarly understanding of the possible facets of this concept.
Details
Keywords
This study aims to explore the impact of women empowerment and gender-stereotypical advertising exposure on consumers’ attitudes and purchase intents.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the impact of women empowerment and gender-stereotypical advertising exposure on consumers’ attitudes and purchase intents.
Design/methodology/approach
The quantitative research approach was used to assess the women-empowerment and gender-stereotypical advertising on consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions, explicating the most effective approach in marketing communication in the Arab context, specifically Egypt. Administrated questionnaires were distributed online cross-gender through the use of convenience sampling. The targeted average sample size sought was minimum of 370. Once the data was acquired, partial least square path modelling of structural equation modelling was conducted to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Results show that male consumers and female consumers react to a certain extent differently to women-empowerment and gender-stereotypical advertisings. For instance, gender-stereotypical advertisings effect attitude for both genders; it effects male consumers’ purchase intentions, but not female consumers. Women empowerment advertising is insignificant on brand attitude and purchase intention among male consumers; among female consumers, it has significant impact on brand attitude, but not purchase intention. Nevertheless, both categories of advertising contribute to male consumers’ and female consumers’ perception and attitude towards gender role portrayal.
Originality/value
This study provides noteworthy insights and perspectives on women-empowerment (Femvertising) and gender-stereotypical advertising effects on cross-gender consumers in the Arab region (a region of strong masculine culture values). The emerged conclusions aid as a reference and guide for scholars and practitioners to develop effective advertising that create prospect depictions and build inspired female customer base.
Details
Keywords
Ayodele Oniku and Anthonia Farayola Joaquim
The study aims to examine female sexuality in marketing communications and how it shapes the millennial buying decisions in the fashion industry. The focus of the study is to…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to examine female sexuality in marketing communications and how it shapes the millennial buying decisions in the fashion industry. The focus of the study is to connect fashion industry and marketing communication to understand how female sexuality influence buying behaviours and decisions of the millennial.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was underpinned by the dimensions of skin colour, brand image and market share in sexual appealing marketing communication, and the millennial in the study comprises youths between the age of 21and 40 years and demographically defined by Wells and Guber (1966) as bachelors, Full nests 1 and 2. Multistage stage sampling was used with a structured questionnaire.
Findings
Findings show that youths, 2019 buying decisions and behaviours are strategically influenced by different manifestations of female sexuality in the context of the study and equally affect market share and patronage.
Research limitations/implications
The study shows what shapes the marketing communication strategies of the rising fashion industry but is limited to the millennial buying decisions and not the larger fashion industry consumers.
Practical implications
The needs for fashion industry to understand the influence of increasing use of female sexuality in marketing communication on male and female consumers and the effects on their respective buying behaviours is strategic to the industry as shown in the study.
Social implications
Female sexuality in marketing communication is strategic to fashion industry in today's market among youths.
Originality/value
The millennial constitutes a larger percentage of the developing economy market with rising income thus the need to understand their buying behaviours in the fashion industry
Details
Keywords
Nina Åkestam, Sara Rosengren, Micael Dahlén, Karina T. Liljedal and Hanna Berg
This paper aims to investigate cross-gender effects of gender stereotypes in advertising. More specifically, it proposes that the negative effects found in studies of women’s…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate cross-gender effects of gender stereotypes in advertising. More specifically, it proposes that the negative effects found in studies of women’s reactions to stereotyped female portrayals should hold across gender portrayal and target audience gender.
Design/methodology/approach
In two experimental studies, the effects of stereotyped portrayals (vs non-stereotyped portrayals) across gender are compared.
Findings
The results show that advertising portrayals of women and men have a presumed negative influence on others, leading to higher levels of ad reactance, which has a negative impact on brand-related effects across model and participant gender, and for gender stereotypes in terms of physical characteristics and roles.
Research limitations/implications
Whereas previous studies have focused on reactions of women to female stereotypes, the current paper suggests that women and men alike react negatively to stereotyped portrayals of other genders.
Practical implications
The results indicate that marketers can benefit from adapting a more mindful approach to the portrayals of gender used in advertising.
Originality/value
The addition of a cross-gender perspective to the literature on gender stereotypes in advertising is a key contribution to this literature.
Details
Keywords
Md. Mahmudul Alam, Ahmed Aliyu and Shawon Muhammad Shahriar
In the current information age, when the attention spans of most people have become very short, marketers are facings serious challenges to grab the attention of their target…
Abstract
Purpose
In the current information age, when the attention spans of most people have become very short, marketers are facings serious challenges to grab the attention of their target audience effectively and fruitfully. From street corner to bedroom, virtually every perceivable location of human traces are littered with activity of marketers, whether they are small or large in scale or the recipients of their information understand the message properly. Studying consumers’ acceptance of the main ethical issues in communication, mainly in advertising, has recently been receiving much attention from scholars. Therefore, to grab the attention of people in the increasing competitive environment, advertisers have resorted to using what they feel can quickly attract the audience. For example, the attachment of attractive women with their physical natural endowments presented in explicit sexually appealing postures to products/services that have no linkage with women. These practices have raised some moral and ethical questions within the society. Therefore, this study aims to focus on discussing marketing communication through presenting women as a sexual object from the morality, ethics and religious perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a descriptive study based on the systematic literature review. Initially, this paper discusses the ethical issues of using women and sexual appeals in the process of marketing communication, as well as the current level of practices in the industry. Then, it discusses the consequences and dimensions of the issues from different types of ethical grounds. Finally, it provides recommendations with the objective of finding a common ground from business and social perspectives. It also mentions the scopes of further research, which could lead the secular world to modify their moral values and come closer to the norms of other civilized societies.
Findings
The position of the paper takes is that considering the negative effects of the prevalent advertising in society, the practice falls short of human moral values; as a result, it is considered unethical.
Originality/value
This review paper examines the ethical implication of using women as marketing tools from the perspectives of morality, business and Islamic principles that will help business groups, as well as the whole religious community, especially Muslims.
Details
Keywords
Edicleia Oliveira, Serge Basini and Thomas M. Cooney
This article aims to explore the potential of feminist phenomenology as a conceptual framework for advancing women’s entrepreneurship research and the suitability of…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to explore the potential of feminist phenomenology as a conceptual framework for advancing women’s entrepreneurship research and the suitability of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to the proposed framework.
Design/methodology/approach
The article critically examines the current state of women’s entrepreneurship research regarding the institutional context and highlights the benefits of a shift towards feminist phenomenology.
Findings
The prevailing disembodied and gender-neutral portrayal of entrepreneurship has resulted in an equivocal understanding of women’s entrepreneurship and perpetuated a male-biased discourse within research and practice. By adopting a feminist phenomenological approach, this article argues for the importance of considering the ontological dimensions of lived experiences of situatedness, intersubjectivity, intentionality and temporality in analysing women entrepreneurs’ agency within gendered institutional contexts. It also demonstrates that feminist phenomenology could broaden the current scope of IPA regarding the embodied dimension of language.
Research limitations/implications
The adoption of feminist phenomenology and IPA presents new avenues for research that go beyond the traditional cognitive approach in entrepreneurship, contributing to theory and practice. The proposed conceptual framework also has some limitations that provide opportunities for future research, such as a phenomenological intersectional approach and arts-based methods.
Originality/value
The article contributes to a new research agenda in women’s entrepreneurship research by offering a feminist phenomenological framework that focuses on the embodied dimension of entrepreneurship through the integration of IPA and conceptual metaphor theory (CMT).
Details