Male Consumer Behaviour- a Gender Perspective on Advertising Response and Information Processing

Marketers have long been using sex as a variable in selecting target groups and designing promotional strategies, while gender has received interest only recently driven by increasing awareness of changing social roles of women and men. Starting from largely female-focused literature, this book investigates the importance of gender to men: How do men react to different role portrayals of their own sex in advertising taking into account their own gender orientation? And what influence does gender have on the way they process (advertising) information? The book covers existing knowledge on gender focusing on consumer behaviour. It investigates male roles and the meaning of masculinity in current society. Available expertise on both women`s reactions to female role portrayals and information processing differences between men and women sets the framework for an experiment aimed at answering these questions. The findings suggest that gender does play a role in shaping men's perceptions of advertisements. It might even be able to shape information processing strategies. The results are relevant to marketing researchers and practitioners who want to effectively target a male audience.