The Impact of Gender-neutral Communication on Brand Equity: A Study on Children Apparel Industry

This work wants to analyze the impact of communication on Brand Equity, by comparing a gendered and an ungendered type of advertising relative to a brand of children apparel. The idea of this work comes from the acknowledgement that, to the current situation, there is little research on the pro/cons of the usage of a type of communication alternative to the traditional one and free of gender stereotypes, and on its objective consequences on brand dimensions. The study was conducted using a posttest-only control group design: participants were randomly assigned to two groups, control and intervention, and were presented with two different stimuli (a gendered and a gender-neutral one). Convenience sampling has been adopted for this research and an online close-ended response questionnaire was used for data gathering. A total of 152 responses were ultimately used in the study. The study challenges the argument that gender stereotypes are efficient tools to be used in communication to elicit a positive response and generate clearer brand associations in the viewer. The results showed how a gender-neutral type of communication has an overall positive effect on Brand Equity dimension, and how this result varies according to the age range of respondents, showing a substantial gap between Gen Z and elderly generations.