An Analysis of the Fundamentals of Marketing (part 25)

Do Men and Women Process Advertisements Differently?

by

Charles Lamson

The levels of processing theory outlined in previous posts has been used to explore the ways in which men and women process advertising stimuli. In the early 1900s there was a belief that men and women differed both in their approach to advertising and in the manner in which they purchased goods. One commonly held view has been that men are more analytical and logical in their approach to information processing whereas women are more subjective among advertising creatives, who targeted women using emotional appeals. More recent research indicates that such stereotypical thinking is some way from the truth. Myers-Levy (1986; Myers-Levy and Maheswaran, 1991) developed the selectivity model to explain the different ways in which men and women process advertising messages. She suggests that men and women differ not because of some subjective/objective divide, but to the extent to which they process information. Generally, the selectivity model suggests that men use heuristics or simple rules of thumb in processing advertising messages. Men tend to process advertisements in a shallow manner by attending to colors and images but do not process them in a way that relates to their deeper meaning or relevance to self. The researcher found that, in contrast to men, women tend to employ comprehensive processing of all information prior to making a judgrment based on an advertising message. This claim is supported by Darley and Smith (1995), who found that, when risk is low, women are equally favorable to objective and subjective claims, and when risk is moderate, that objective claims produce a more favorable response. This finding has important implications for copywriters and advertisement managers who still follow traditional reasoning and highlight the subjective aspect of purchase and use when females are the target market. It suggests that advertisers should be more flexible in choosing writing styles.

Another area for research is the stereotype of whether men are more emotional than women. Fisher and Dube (2005) explored attitudes to advertising, finding that males tend to adjust their emotional display towards what they believe is appropriate or socially desirable expression. The authors link the behavior of males to social approval; in private they can express themselves freely but are much more constrained in the public situation, where they feel they are on show and so must seek to ensure that their emotional expressions fit with the context.

Changing gender orientations are apparent in the development of the 'gay' market in the UK. In a 1995 readership survey conducted by Gay Times, it was found that average income among gays was (US$30,500) a year, while the average gay household brought in (US$84,000. This is considerably more than the typical 'straight' family unit. It must be remembered that while marketers may zero in on the market because of its value to them, the 'gay' market presents a formidable marketing challenge, as it constitutes a diversity not only of gender orientations but also of age, social class and ethnicity.

Attitude

Attitude is an important concept to understand because it divides cognitive from behaviorist explanations of consumer behavior. Behaviorists, such as Foxall, eschew 'within the skin' concepts such as attitude. On the other hand, although the concept of attitude pre-dates Simon's cognitive revolution, cognitive theorists insist that it plays a key role in 'central' processing (Petty et al., 1983). The battle between cognitive and behaviorist explanations, where the former celebrates the importance of attitude and the latter contests it, features in differences about explanations of involvement, of branding and brand loyalty and in the role of advertising.

An attitude is a predisposition to behave towards an attitude object in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way. The notion that attitude is a predisposition to behave is interesting to marketers because, if the situation is right, then a positive attitude towards a product or service should lead to an intention to buy it. Attitudes are considered to be closely linked with self-protection and self-expression. For example, if Jane feels anxious about success then she may well develop positive attitudes towards products that allow her to aspire to it: a fountain pen, designer briefcase, fine restaurants, fashion-brand clothes. Marketers seek to influence personal feelings across a spectrum of products and services, from cars to financial services products to social marketing issues such as drinking and driving. smoking, racism, and domestic abuse.

Attitudes are consistent, but most important they are evaluative, summing up what is believed and felt about attitude objects. The underlying theory is known as expectancy value theory. An'expectancy' is another term for a belief or probabilistic expectation about the future and "value' refers to a feeling or evaluation. This means that when a person has to choose between alternatives which involve the formation of an attitude, she is likely to process these alternatives in a deep manner. She will seek to choose that option which she expects will lead to the most favorable outcomes, i.e. the option with with the highest subjective expected utility (which is the person's subjective judgement of use or value). Consumers do not always seek to maximize subjective judgement of use or value. Consumers do not always seek to maximize subjective value (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 The Theory of Reasoned Action

In the cognitive explanation a key aspect of attitude lies in its ability to predict behavior. As shown in Figure 1, this has grown more complex as the authors have incorporated new elements that improve their predictions. One addition has been the concept of a subjective norm. This was included because it was found that, although a person might personally be in favor of a particular course of action, this was not shared by important people in their peer group and, consequently, the person might not behave as predicted. By including a subjective norm, which measures two aspects: (1) beliefs about other's norms for the behavior, (2) person's motivation to comply with the norm, they found that prediction could be improved. For example, Jane would like to buy a Skoda car because she believes that they are good value and of good quality. However, her friends think that Skodas have a cheap image and are for old people. Consequently, Jane does not buy the Skoda.

Some time later, Azjen (1991) introduced the idea of perceived behavioral control to describe that a person may feel favorable to doing something, and their significant others may also be positive about this, but they may feel lacking in confidence about their ability to do it. For example, Jane's friends think that a Citroen car would be a good choice. She has visited some car dealers and has developed a favorable attitude toward the car. She would like to buy one online because she can save 10 percent and money is critical. However, she lacks the confidence to buy online as she has not done so before. Additionally she has heard that it is not trustworthy. In this respect, the perceived behavioral control is lacking and Jane may not buy online. What factors do you think might encourage Jane to buy online in the future? 

The main objection that behaviorists such as Foxall (2005) have to the above explanation is that these additional variables such as subjective norms and behavioral control are situation variables that are encompassed by the behaviorist explanation.

*SOURCE: FUNDAMENTALS OF MARKETING, 2007, MARILYN A. STONE AND JOHN DRESMOND, PGS. 105-108*

END