Female Portrayals in Advertising and Its Impact on Marketing Communication—Pieces of Evidence from India

Researchers in different parts of the world have shown great concern on gender stereotyping in advertising. However, very few studies have analyzed the effect of such a message strategy on consumers, more so in the case of India. As per the census data, there is an increase in the literacy rate, education status and work participation rate of women in India. Therefore, it is imperative to assess the consumer responses towards the appropriateness of such a message strategy. A structured questionnaire was administered to 450 respondents comprising males and females in the age group of 20–50 years in the Delhi region. Consumer responses were evaluated to understand the effect of female portrayals in advertising on the dimensions of the following: preference for advertisement, attitude towards the advertisement (with respect to ad liking and believability of the ad), towards the brand (with respect to brand liking, brand recall, brand recognition and brand image) and intention to buy. Demographic factors were also evaluated to assess the impact of female portrayals on consumer evaluations. Several hypotheses were developed and tested in this study. Analysis of variance, T-test, correlation and regression were employed to test the hypotheses. Findings of the study indicate that the portrayal of females in advertisements is associated with ad liking, believability of ad, brand liking, brand recognition, brand recall and brand image, and has a lesser impact on intention to buy. The study also reports new findings on female portrayal and communication impact. Implications for marketing practitioners have also been discussed in the article.