Cross-gender Brand Extensions: How will gender of brand, gender of consumer and extension category influence the evaluation of a cross-gender brand extension?

Abstract

Cross-gender brand extension has become a valuable strategy in recent years and grown to be an important component of strategic marketing communication. Previous research has touched upon the topic, however, as far we could see few studies have focused on the cross-gender brand extension on selected masculine and feminine brand. In this thesis, we investigate how strong-gendered feminine and masculine brands will respond to a cross-gender brand extension. To do so, we conducted a 2 (strong gendered brands: Victoria’s Secret (feminine) vs Comfyballs (masculine)) x 2 (extension strategy: brand extension vs cross-gender brand extension) factorial between- subjects experiment. The results show that launching a cross-gender brand extension will significantly reduce the overall brand attitude of a strong-gendered brand.