Gender Bender

Between better-educated women, drastic household changes, and shifting collar colors in the workplace, traditional gender roles are fast becoming relics.

background

Marketing must’ve been so much easier in the Mad Men days, when brands only had to be “macho” or “matronly” and nothing in-between. But yesteryear’s tales of controlling males bossing around their kitchen-bound wives couldn’t be further from today’s times. At home, gender relationships in the modern family look a lot more like the characters in Up All Night than those in… well, Modern Family. You can’t say we didn’t warn you, with our 2010 Radical Demography trend predicting the growing number of female-headed households that we’re seeing today. We know this feminization isn’t just a fad because it’s actually the most logical outcome of years of long-term demographic trends. Today’s parents grew up in households that were already shunning traditional gender dynamics, so the prospect of gender-balanced parenting is their default rather than the exception. Factor in the shift from manufacturing to service-based economies, combined with more women pursuing higher education, and you’re heading for a full-on Gender Bender.

market manifestations

• Not Your Mother’s Mother: If there are still rules about what women should or shouldn’t do, it seems that someone forgot to inform the women. They’re increasingly choosing to stay single (even in motherhood), and they’re not too ladylike to enjoy a bit of (cherry-flavored) bourbon here and there. The latter point was caught by the sharp-eyed folks at Beam, who noticed that their Red Stag bourbon (fronted by not-exactly-feminist-icon Kid Rock) was increasingly popular among women hanging out with their girlfriends.
• From “Man Up” to “Mom Up”: So where are modern men investing their energies? Football? Facial hair? Family time? Actually, yes. Whether it’s increasingly adopting the role of primary grocery shopper, divvying up more household chores (74% now do, according to Roper), surfing the web with their kids, or cooking for the family (you did catch our killer infographic on the topic, right?), men are increasingly comfortable with a more progressive interpretation of what it means to be “Man of the House.” Ya think that’s why P&G’s comprehensive ManoftheHouse.com checks off each of those boxes (and more) with original, expert content?

implications

Other than tampons or “male enhancement,” there are few categories where the consumer is still uniformly male or female. If fast-food marketers are targeting women, and brands that enable protective parenting are using football players as spokes-dads, does this mean that gender segmentation is irrelevant in modern marketing? Hell no, and not just because one of us is in Planning. Rather, a closer read of these campaigns shows that nuanced segmentation is more important than ever before. The latter example, in which Vicks VapoRub (and quarterback Drew Brees) celebrates dads’ contributions to household caregiving, complements P&G’s heavy investment in a campaign that jokingly “sponsors” (but legitimately thanks) moms for all of their hard work. Between these two well-targeted efforts, P&G provides the blueprint for messaging that impactfully resonates with each gender while alienating neither.