one-line definition
the cultural disapproval that occurs when a product with a strong gendered brand identity is used by the "wrong" gender — so men, especially, resist products coded as feminine, even when the product itself is identical. coined by Jill J. Avery (Harvard Business School).
context
the term comes from a study of the Porsche Cayenne launch (2003): Porsche, a hyper-masculine sports-car brand, extending into the feminine-coded SUV category. existing male owners treated the SUV as a threat to the brand's masculine meaning — and to their own identity, since they used the brand as a marker of masculinity.
mechanism
consumers do "gender work" to defend a gendered brand: they push stereotypes to split the community into a masculine ingroup and a feminine outgroup, erect social barriers gatekeeping the brand's "real" meaning, and thereby reverse the firm's attempt to gender-bend the brand. brand gender is co-created and defended by consumers, not just set by the company.
the canonical case — Diet Coke vs Coke Zero
Diet Coke (1982) built a famously feminine brand image; "diet" became coded as a women's product. when Coke tried to extend it to men, they balked. Coke's fix was Coke Zero (2005) — near-identical sugar-free cola, but with masculine black packaging and the word "diet" stripped out. it sidestepped the contamination instead of fighting it, and unlocked the male market.
other brands ran the same playbook:
| brand | "feminine" original | re-gendered version for men |
|---|---|---|
| Coca-Cola | Diet Coke | Coke Zero (black can) |
| Pepsi | Diet Pepsi | Pepsi Max |
| Dr Pepper | — | Dr Pepper Ten ("It's Not for Women") |
| Dove | Dove soap | Dove Men+Care |
the critical angle
repeated gender contamination reinforces the message that masculine is the default and feminine is lesser. as Iowa State's Cassandra Collier put it: "these moments of masculine products working so hard to bound itself as distinct from femininity... just adds to ongoing messages of values."
sources
- Keenan, E. A. & Avery, J. (2012). "Defending the Markers of Masculinity: Consumer Resistance to Brand Gender-Bending." International Journal of Research in Marketing, 29(4), 322–336. — won the Marketing Science Institute Best Paper Award; the 2008 ACR conference version won that conference's Best Paper Award. HBS listing · SSRN
- What is gender contamination and how does it affect you? — Iowa State Daily
- Why Coke Zero Was Originally Marketed As 'For Men' — Mashed
- That Shape He Can't Forget: The Bittersweet History of Diet Soda for Women — Jezebel
related
- style and fashion