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

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