The impact of gender-stereotyped advertising of dairy products on the purchase intention of young Azerbaijani consumer

Absztrakt (kivonat)

Acknowledging increasing debates over gender stereotypes in different aspects ofmarketing, there is a need for identifying such oversimplification in the advertising industry in developing countries. Therefore, this paper aims to provide insights about stereotypical gender roles in advertisements of dairy products in Azerbaijan. As clearly pointed out by Eisend et al. (2014), considering the societal impact of advertisements, recurrence of oversimplified and unrealistic gender roles becomes a crucial research topic. Hence, taking into account lack of comprehensive studies on this topic covering Azerbaijan, this research analyzes customer groups in the market. Gen Z is analyzed as their members are becoming actual consumers with purchasing power. Mixed methodology is applied to explore the topic, including a series of interviews and a survey. Interviews were analyzed by content analysis, and the results of the interviews were utilized as guidance to compile the survey. The data was examined by IBM SPSS Statistics software using linear regression analysis. As a result of the qualitative research, it became apparent that although stereotypes and recognizing them cause negative emotions towards brand, it is not always determinant of the purchase intention. Similar conclusion was received from the quantitative part that though the attitude towards the stereotypes in the ad do not influence trust towards brand, trust towards brand itself impacts purchase intention. The main limitation of this study it that it only focuses on one product category – dairy products that is quite traditional and have certain associations with traditional gender stereotypes already. However, exploring this specific issue in other product categories, for instance, gender-specific products or technological devices, can present further insights into non-traditional industries where certain research has not been done yet.