Application Analysis of Diversity Marketing

This paper describes an application analysis of one important topic of diversity marketing ¿ gender marketing. With the help of two surveys and content analyses in two different media sectors ¿ television and print media ¿ the general trend of gender representation in advertising could be located. While most survey respondents are still using characteristics for males and females which were shaped by traditional gender roles, most of them believe that the roles from the 1950s are outdated and that the media should adapt to the changes in societies in regard to gender roles. However, the content analyses have shown that the marketers have already adapted and are primarily presenting the viewers contemporary images of men and women instead of the stereotyped ones from the 1950s. The only issue that has not changed yet is the color coding which starts to differentiate between males and females since childhood. The findings of this paper suggest that the perception and the reality do not always correspond with each other and that, although the adoption of the change of gender roles is advancing, it is still not completed yet.