The impact of gender in advertisements on the consumers’ behaviour towards brand image

Abstract

Feminist movements have been undeniably present in today’s society, which has contributed to a slow but steady change in the social values, norms and system. Women are starting to not be portrayed as just housewives and are actually being seen as human beings with their own thoughts, opinions and feelings. As a consequence, consumers are becoming more aware of gender stereotypes and their choices and demands are starting to shift. The purpose of this study is to understand how gender biases work, what is the role of women in today’s advertisements, how the consumers’ behaviour has changed throughout the years and how do they feel when facing ads, stereotyped or not. In order to come to these conclusions, data were collected, coded and triangulated. A focus groups was conducted, as well as structured interviews and observation of advertisements present in magazines. These qualitative data allowed to comprehend the consumers’ feelings and choices behind their actions. Overall, the results confirmed that gender inequality in ads impacts the consumers’ behaviour, nevertheless this impact is mostly seen when the consumer has no or a negative association with the brand itself. Yet, if the consumer has a positive brand image, they will most likely forgive the company, by creating excuses and not overemphasizing with the ad they were just faced with.

Date of Award	26 Apr 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Daniel Fernandes (Supervisor)