Brand Of Masculinity Research Articles

Visual complexity, brand gender, and ad effectiveness

Visual complexity is an important factor in the design of advertisements. This research systematically examines the interaction effect between an ad’s visual complexity and brand gender on marketing effectiveness in ad practice. Across a series of seven studies, encompassing an Implicit Association Test (IAT), a Facebook field study, a lab experiment with an incentive-compatible design, and four online experiments, the current research demonstrates that consumers respond more favorably to a masculine (versus feminine) brand when presented with a visually simple (versus complex) ad. This symmetric effect is driven by conceptual fluency (i.e., the ease of deriving meanings). That is, a match between masculine (versus feminine) brands and simple (versus complex) ads makes the ad processing more conceptually fluent, which in turn enhances ad effectiveness. Moreover, a boundary condition for the core effect was identified, such that the effect between an ad’s visual complexity and brand gender is attenuated among consumers with an analytic (versus holistic) thinking style when processing ads. This research advances the literature on visual aesthetics, brand perception, and ad effectiveness. Our findings also offer actionable insights to marketing practitioners regarding the strategies of ad design and brand positioning in the marketplace.

Is warmth more critical than competence? Understanding how destination gender affects destination identification and destination advocacy

PurposeThis paper aims to examine a new approach to understanding the interrelationships between destination brand gender, stereotypes, destination brand identification and brand advocacy, as well as the mediating role of destination warmth (vs. competence) in the connections between destination brand femininity (vs. masculinity) and destination brand identification.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative study and literature review were conducted to revisit and refine the items on the scale. Preliminary item reduction was qualitatively grounded in focus groups, a panel of experts, and a pilot study. A follow-up quantitative evaluation of two studies (N1 = 705 and N2 = 472) was conducted to test seven hypotheses using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modeling.FindingsThe findings provide robust evidence for the interrelationships among destination brand gender, stereotypes, destination identification and destination advocacy. The outcomes also reveal that warmth is more important than competence for destination identification. Finally, the results indicated that only destination warmth serves as a partial mediator in the association between destination brand masculinity and femininity, on the one hand, and destination identification, on the other hand.Originality/valueThis article adds to the destination branding literature by using social role theory and the stereotype content model to explore novel connections among destination brand gender, stereotypes, destination brand identification and brand advocacy.

Rural masculinity in protest: farmer’s political movements in modern Poland as sites of rural masculinities’ reproduction

ABSTRACT The article examines how farmers participating in the Polish rural political movement Agrounia (re)enact a certain brand of rural masculinity, opposed to the hegemonic model of urban, political masculinities. Agrounia, a political movement and party, is concerned with economic issues affecting farmers; however, the article poses that its’ members strive to elevate the status of rural masculinity by contrasting it with the hegemonic, urban model. Agrounia uses a discursive dichotomy between rural, ‘true’ masculinity (hardworking, honest, straightforward) and urban, ‘fake’ masculinity (lazy, dishonest, fake, dismissive). A clashing point between the masculinities is the protest esthetic, with hegemonic, urban masculinity opposing Agrounia’s chosen methods of protest, painting them as vulgar, boorish, unnecessary, cruel. These concerns are, in turn, considered to be an expression of the effeminacy of urban men, their delicacy, sensibility. The battle for recognition and status between the two masculinities is fought over the monopoly on honesty and truth, the status of ‘true’ masculinity, with both sides entrenched in the practices that are supposed to ensure their domination. The article aims to analyze how members of Agrounia and protests participants construct rural protest masculinity; second, to analyze how this masculinity is presented and depicted in the analyzed newspaper coverage.

“Feminine = Healthy Food” stereotype: Impact of feminine brand personality on consumer attitudes toward healthier food brands

In recent years, the severity of poor eating habits and health issues related to a poor diet has increased. Brand personality is undoubtedly essential for creating a positive evaluation of healthy foods. Prior research on food stereotypes suggests that people associate healthy foods with femininity. This study investigates the effects of gendered brand personality on healthy food brand evaluation, drawing on food stereotypes, gendered brand personality, and congruency theory. The results indicate that a feminine brand personality enhances consumer evaluation of healthier food brands more than a masculine brand personality. Combining a feminine brand personality and healthier food brands enhances the brand evaluation of healthier foods by reinforcing perceived congruence. From a theoretical perspective, this study expands the literature on brand personalities and healthy foods. From a practical perspective, this study highlights the directional aspects of brand personality construction for healthy food brands.

How brand gender affects consumer preference for sweet food: The role of the association between gender and taste

AbstractAlthough previous studies have provided some exploratory evidence of the gender‐taste association, empirical evidence on the causal relationships and downstream consequences of such an association in the consumer behavior domain is still lacking. To address this gap, the present research empirically documents the association between gender and taste, and explores the spillover effect of brand gender on consumer preference for sweet food. Across four studies, we demonstrate that feminine and sweet are cognitively associated (Study 1), and accordingly, products launched by a feminine brand are perceived to be sweeter than those launched by a masculine brand (Study 2). Furthermore, a feminine (vs. masculine) brand leads to a higher preference for its sweet (vs. unsweet) products, which is mediated by the perceived congruence between brand gender and product taste (Study 3). Finally, we identify brand type as a moderator, showing that the congruence effect between brand gender and product taste holds for traditional brands but is attenuated for innovative brands (Study 4). Our findings advance the understanding of brand gender association and its impact on consumer behavior and offer meaningful implications for market positioning and communication.

Success Is Not Final; Failure Is Not Fatal: How Failure Versus Success Messaging Leads to Preference for Masculine Brands

Marketers commonly use ads that associate brands with success in persuasive communications. Yet, these ads may not be the most effective way to promote brands, particularly masculine brands. The current research examines when and why failure messaging can be an effective promotional approach. Across eight studies using both observational and experimental data from field and lab settings, the authors demonstrate that experiences of failure in achievement contexts, and ads that employ failure (vs. success) messaging, are more effective in promoting masculine but not feminine or neutral brands. An increase in consumers’ hostility mediates these effects. Feminine brands that employ aggressive branding cues (e.g., the color red) can also benefit from failure messaging. Additionally, the benefits of failure messaging are enhanced when people do (vs. do not) take responsibility for their failures, and this moderating effect is intensified (weakened) when failures are attributed to unstable (stable) causes. Finally, the consumption of masculine options was found to assist consumers in recovering from achievement failures.

Poison or remedy? Masculinity in a pathos-based sustainable brand story

PurposeThis study aims to examine the effects of pathos in sustainable brand stories featuring masculinity on brand masculinity and men’s sustainable brand attitude using Aristotle’s rhetoric theory.Design/methodology/approachThree independent online experiments (N = 398; N = 216; N = 247) were conducted to observe how participants responded to a sustainable brand story. Data collected through a post-experimental survey were used to test the proposed model. Research hypotheses were inspected using SPSS.FindingsThe authors reveal brand masculinity is influenced by varying degrees of pathos: participants who read stories with all three pathos elements (metaphor, humor and empathy) demonstrated the highest level of perceived brand masculinity. Male consumers showed more positive attitudes toward masculine sustainable brand stories than feminine ones. The authors also identify the moderating effect of consumer generation: Gen Z (versus Gen Y) consumers demonstrated stronger character identification with hybrid masculinity (versus hegemonic masculinity) sustainable brand stories, resulting in more favorable sustainable brand attitudes.Originality/valueThe study provides a new angle for exploring the relationship between gendered sustainable brand stories and sustainable brand attitudes. It is the first (to the authors’ knowledge) that links Aristotle’s rhetoric theory to brand gender research, and it empirically demonstrates how male consumers from different generational cohorts respond to different masculinity strategies used by sustainable brands.

Politics at the Gun Counter: Examining Partisanship and Masculinity among Conservative Gun Sellers during the 2020 Gun Purchasing Surge

Abstract How does gender shape how conservatives “do partisanship”? This paper draws on interviews with a group of conservative Americans—gun sellers—during a year of record gun sales amid a global pandemic, civil unrest, and democratic instability. In 2020, gun sellers navigated an increasingly diverse clientele, including what they understood as an increase in liberal, progressive, and leftist gun buyers. This unique influx bucked decades-long trends of partisan sorting in America and compelled gun sellers to “do partisanship” as they fielded the new gun buyers in their stores. Integrating the literatures on the gender gap in partisanship with scholarship on hegemonic masculinity, this paper examines how gun sellers mobilized masculinity as a means of expressing and engaging in partisanship. Our analysis details how interviewees (1) embrace a brand of hegemonic masculinity that champions self-preservation and preparedness, (2) define themselves against liberal politics and policies they deem emasculating, and (3) draw partisan boundaries around gun ownership that reinforce conservatives as responsible gun owners while denigrating liberals as emotional, impressionable, and incompetent. We argue that partisanship can be understood as a gendered practice that provides insight into how conservatives make political meaning in their everyday lives.

The Comics of R. Crumb and R. Crumb: Literature, Autobiography, and the Quest for Self

The Comics of R. Crumb and R. Crumb: Literature, Autobiography, and the Quest for Self

Hemingway, Trauma and Masculinity: In the Garden of the Uncanny by Stephen Gilbert Brown

Reviewed by: Hemingway, Trauma and Masculinity: In the Garden of the Uncanny by Stephen Gilbert Brown Sarah Anderson Wood Hemingway, Trauma and Masculinity: In the Garden of the Uncanny. By Stephen Gilbert Brown. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 306 pp. Paperback $69.99. Drawing on bountiful criticism in various disciplines, Stephen Gilbert Brown examines the connection between Hemingway's early relationship with his family to solidify assertions that the wounds of emasculation—well-explored critically in terms of war and romantic experiences—are equally impacted by Hemingway's childhood trauma of androgyny. Hemingway's primary coping mechanisms for post-traumatic survival—nature and narration—are key defensive solutions to gender anxiety. Brown describes Hemingway's childhood gender as "non-conforming" and "transgender" detailing his mother's confounding decision to impose a female identity upon him while encouraging his father's particular brand of naturalistic masculinity (58). Brown connects these traumas to a pattern of cross-gendered personas in his life and writing. "For Hemingway, maleness was a birthright stolen in infancy which had to be reasserted, reclaimed—through acts of imaginative volition" (58). This book offers compelling arguments supporting Debra Moddelmog's claim that Hemingway's work and life are at the "crux of gender and sexuality debates" (qtd. in Brown 6). Brown divides his book along Hemingway's "twin desires": The Love Chase and the Blood Chase, allowing for a wide range of readings about identity and naturalism. In Chapter 1, Brown introduces both early and posthumous works as trauma narratives considering contemporary queer and trauma theory, Freud's theory of The Uncanny, and Otto Rank's work on the artist's creative urges and personality development. Chapter 2 establishes the Love Chase in Hemingway's African camps with his fourth wife, Mary, where tropes of seeking home with an androgynous twin inspire and yet threaten the sense of self in the form of nightmares and threats of death from the natural world. Much like Nick Adams's search for the safety of his Edenic camp in "Big Two-Hearted River," Hemingway's safari camp reveals "transformative and traumatic realities" (Brown 24). Brown explains that "Hemingway uses nature for a searching exploration of the post-traumatic Self—in which nature and narration repair, if only partially, the breach of the self's defenses by trauma. The wound is a Beast that comes calling in the African darkness" (Brown 31). [End Page 136] Chapter 3 draws on psychoanalytic theory to present Hemingway's various personas as traumatic responses to a fragmented identity stemming from his mother's creation of the cross-dressing "summer girl." His later personas include "frontier scout," the "Old Brute," the "Great Hemingstein," and the cross-gendered "Papa-Catherine" persona—all of whom Brown reads as indications of Hemingway's "reinvention of the self through art" (50). Brown connects generations of hereditary determinism of androgyny and transgender behavior in the Hemingway family. Chapter 4 builds on persona theories with Hemingway's coping mechanism of relying on romantic relationships for identity formation. "What [Hemingway] most desired in a lover was an intimate facsimile of the sisterly twin—to fulfill a compulsive merger-hunger (with incestuous overtones) instilled in infancy" (97). However, while this combats his separation anxiety, it "threatened to subsume his own identity" (what Brown calls "identity cannibalism") leading to his tendency to sever relationships, sometimes viciously (Brown 83, 95). Brown reads The Garden of Eden as a representation of these tensions between partner and enemy wherein childhood sibling desire is "displaced into the amorous dynamic of the David-Catherine-Marita triad" (Brown 61). Hemingway's tantalizing but dangerous desire for a sisterly twin/lover is grounded in Michigan's forests, where Ernest often lost his father's challenges of strength and outdoorsmanship to his older sister Marceline. "Hemingway's enjoyment of nature is from earliest childhood informed by the overshadowing presence of a sisterly twin, engendering a desire not only for a sisterly beloved, but for a more submissive version of [Marceline]—fulfilled first by Sunny and Ursula, and subsequently by Hadley, Pauline, and Mary" (77). Thus, creatively, "Nature furnishes and narrative fashions the elbow room he so compulsively seeks: two realms that repair the wounds to his...

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

Four weeks before the 2016 election, I was watching television with my daughter when Donald J. Trump's notorious Access Hollywood tape surfaced. His remarks were repulsive, I told her, but they would also assure his defeat: evangelical Christians, a critical part of his base, would never vote for a man who bragged about sexually assaulting women. I was wrong, of course. But so were the postelection analyses, which derided Trump's loyal evangelical supporters for placing power above principle. As Kristin Kobes Du Mez demonstrates, Trump's aggressive brand of masculinity has been central to evangelical culture since the 1950s. Lionizing film heroes such as the thrice-married John Wayne and the twice-wed Ronald Reagan, white evangelicals reinterpreted Christianity as a “warrior” faith that embodied physical strength more than moral rectitude. Indeed, pastors such as Mark Driscoll routinely mocked mainstream forms of Christian worship as “pussified” and unmanly. From that perspective, Trump's boasts...

It is better with a shade of blue! Consumer evaluation of unisex extension of brands

AbstractLaunching unisex or agender extension of existing brands is being increasingly practiced by marketers today. However, there is limited research that explores consumers’ responses to unisex brand extensions. The purpose of this research was to contribute to the understanding of consumer evaluation of the agender extension of brands. It uses the theory of social identity as an overarching conceptual lens to examine the influence of consumer’s biological gender, gender image of the parent brand, and product type on the evaluation of the unisex extension of brands. Hypotheses are developed and tested across three experimental studies conducted among graduate student‐participants of a management school. Our findings suggest that women compared to men are more favorable towards unisex brand extensions and unisex offerings in general. Additionally, a unisex extension of a masculine brand is preferred over feminine brands by both men and women. Finally, for products that are higher on symbolic value women evaluate unisex extension more favorably, whereas for men the evaluations worsen. The research findings will help managers in taking unisex brand extension decisions.

Understanding the ties between brand gender and brand engagement in online brand communities: the moderating role of consumers’ biological sex

PurposeThis study aims to examine how brand gender (masculine/feminine brand personality [FBP] traits) stimulates brand engagement (cognitive processing, affection and activation) inside online brand communities (OBCs). The authors also explore the mediation of this effect through brand identification and brand personality appeal (BPA). The moderating role of consumers’ biological sex is also investigated.Design/methodology/approachThe theoretical model has been tested with the data collected from OBC members through the structural equation modelling technique. Bootstrapping is used for mediation analysis and multiple group analysis for testing the moderating effects.FindingsResults show that masculine brand personality (MBP) influences brand engagement directly, as well as through brand identification and BPA. However, FBP elicits brand engagement only through the mediation of brand identification and BPA. Consumers’ biological sex moderates the effect of FBP on brand engagement, but no moderation was traced for the effect of MBP on brand engagement.Research limitations/implicationsThe context of the research poses a limitation on the broader replication of study findings. Other limitations include the absence of community-based variables and the focused use of gender centric brands in this study. This research will help researchers to understand the nuances in the underlying relationship between brand gender and brand engagement inside OBCs.Practical implicationsThe managers can emphasize MBP but should not downplay the importance of FBP inside OBCs. To achieve brand engagement, the marketers should curate FBP in a way to affecting consumers’ brand identification and brand appeal. To achieve consumer brand engagement, MBP can be targeted at both male and female consumers, whereas FBP holds more importance among female consumers. Therefore, classifying members as per their biological sex is recommended for better brand engagement from brand gender inside OBCs.Originality/valueThis study explores finer mechanisms in the relationship between brand gender and brand engagement inside OBCs by charting out the powerful mediating role played by brand identification and BPA. The moderating role of consumers’ biological sex is an important dimension to these relationships, not explored hitherto.

Unpacking the complex interactions among customers in online fan pages

Using the theories of complexity and the spiral of silence, this paper aims to understand how combinations of perceived news, brand gender, and participation explain conditions leading to brand love and customers’ attitudinal loyalty within online contexts. Drawing from a two-stage, mixed-method approach, results indicate that passive participation and brand masculinity are necessary to increase love and attitudinal loyalty to a brand, while perceived news informativeness and entertainment, brand femininity, and active participation are sufficient but not necessary. The study offers theoretical and practical insights that may guide further research and strengthen marketing attempts to improve customer engagement with online fan pages.

Brand logo and brand gender: examining the effects of natural logo designs and color on brand gender perceptions and affect

This paper examines how a critical dimension of logo design, namely naturalness, along with logo color, influences brand gender perceptions, and whether brand-design-induced gender perceptions ultimately impact affective reactions to logos. Data were collected from a sample of 260 participants, using a set of 24 unknown, manipulated logos as stimuli. Results suggest that while cultural logo designs effectively convey brand masculinity, organic logo designs enhance femininity perceptions. Using dark blue and light pink logo colors reinforce masculinity and femininity perceptions, respectively. Both logo masculinity and logo femininity have a positive effect on the affective response toward logos. Furthermore, this research analyzed the moderation effect of color on the link between logo design and logo gender perceptions, as well as the moderation effect of consumers’ gender in the link between logo gender perceptions and affect toward the logo. However, none of these moderation effects were supported by the data. This is the first research to empirically test the effect of natural logo designs on brand gender perceptions and, thereby, on affective reactions toward the logo. The findings provide practical guidelines about the design of a gendered logo using the naturalness of logo design and logo color, thereby facilitating gender targeting efforts.

Stay close but not too close: The role of similarity in the cross-gender extension of patronymic brands

This research builds on similarity theory in order to understand the key success factors of brand naming strategies for the cross-gender extension of female patronymic brands targeting men. Study 1 demonstrates that the most common naming strategy – adding a “Men” descriptor to the brand name – does not significantly increase brand attitude as the perceived brand masculinity cannot be enhanced for men. Study2 extends Study1 by testing two more distant brand naming strategies: (1) dropping the first name and (2) using brand initials. The results show an inverted-U relationship pattern that reveals the key role of similarity: Dropping the first name has the most positive impact on brand extension attitude, purchase intention, and spillover effect. By contrast, the strategy using brand initials is too dissimilar from the initial brand name to be attractive to men. These findings provide managerial implications for practitioners considering a cross-gender brand extension strategy.

Blending package shape with the gender dimension of brand image: How and why?

We investigate the congruence of brand image and package shape on product preferences, the moderating role of a creative mindset, and the underlying processes. Across four studies, we show that consumers generally prefer products with curved-shaped (versus angular-shaped) packaging for a “feminine” brand and prefer products with angular-shaped (versus curved-shaped) packaging for a “masculine” brand (Study 1a). This effect is mediated by the perceived congruence between brand image and package shape (Study 1b). We further demonstrate that the congruence effect is reversed when consumers adopt a creative (versus less creative) mindset (Study 2), since a creative mindset leads consumers to perceive curved-shaped packaging as more congruent with a masculine (versus feminine) brand and angular-shaped packaging as more congruent with a feminine (versus masculine) brand (Study 3).

Boys do not cry: the negative effects of brand masculinity on brand emotions

Building on the literature on gender role theory and brand gender, this research examines how gender-based stereotypes regarding emotional behaviors can influence consumers’ response to brand emotions. Three experimental studies demonstrate that consumers hold the same gender-based expectations of brands as they do with human emotions. In particular, they show that masculine brands can suffer from the stereotype that masculinity is typically associated with emotional control. Consumers will judge the emotional expression of a masculine brand less appropriate, which will negatively affect the perceived sincerity of the brand. Downstream negative consequences of brand masculinity include message attitude, brand attitude, and intentions to recommend the brand. Evidence of this effect is provided for emotions that are typically associated with femininity (happiness and sadness) and masculinity (anger and pride).

Queering the stitch: Fashion, masculinity and the postsocialist subject

In my article, I analyse some of the ways in which Gosha Rubchinskiy, Demna Gvasalia and Lotta Volkova might be said to ‘queer’ masculinity. I draw parallels between their work and the modernist, utopian, Constructivist project of Soviet fashion designers of the 1920s such as Varvara Stepanova and Lyubov’ Popova. Most importantly, both groups of artists share a desire to organize their fashion practice within a broader ideological project. At the heart of their respective projects is a fundamental challenge to conventional notions of gender in fashion, and in the fashion industry. In both cases, the ‘queering’ of gender norms, distinctions and hierarchies, both on and off the catwalk, is designed to produce a radical transformation of the relationship between the fashioned object and the fashionable, consuming subject. As far as today’s post-Soviet fashion designers are concerned, by the way in which they either queer masculinity or perform their own, queer brand of masculinity, they produce a new, utopian subject. Far from being the antithesis of the Constructivist project, then, this post-socialist utopian body can be seen as constituting perhaps its most spectacular realization to date.

Police Warriors and Police Guardians: Race, Masculinity, and the Construction of Gun Violence

AbstractThis paper draws on 79 in-depth interviews with police chiefs in Arizona, California, and Michigan to advance sociological understandings of race, masculinity, and policing. While the bulk of scholarship on public law enforcement focuses on urban settings, this paper juxtaposes police’s perceptions of urban, suburban, and rural gun violence. It details how police chiefs construct criminal gun violence according to two overarching tropes: (1) gang- and drug-related gun violence involving black and brown perpetrators and victims in urban spaces and (2) active shooting-related gun violence involving white perpetrators and victims in suburban and rural spaces. The analysis shows that police understand their own guns in part through reference to these tropes, embracing two racially distinct styles of police masculinity: the “warrior” and the “guardian.” Whereas the “warrior” brand of police masculinity emphasizes aggressive enforcement against (black and brown) perpetrators, the “guardian” brand of police masculinity emphasizes assertive protection on behalf of (white) victims. Detailing masculinity as a bifurcated axis along which racialized policing is enacted and amplified, this study broadens scholarly understandings of public law enforcement as a race-making institution and suggests the limitations of police reforms that fail to address whiteness as shaping public law enforcement.