The descent of man
Posted by Giles Lury on September 11, 2012
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…was the wonderfully titled article in the Times last week. It was a feature based around a book by Henna Rosin called The End of Men. The premise of her argument is that, as we move to a post-industrial society in which: “Thinking and communicating have come to eclipse physical strength and stamina as keys to industrial success”, men and these masculine traits will decline.
She goes on to say that: “The attributes that are most valuable today – social intelligence, open communication, the ability to sit still and focus – are at minimum, not predominantly male, and in fact the opposite may be true.”
It made me wonder whether there was a parallel shift in the ‘gender’ of major brands. Most successful brands have a strong personality and I’m sure most marketers have played the game of describing their brand as a person. A key question is always the gender of the brand. So my thought is that it would be interesting to track the proportion of major brands that are male and female, and define the trends in ‘gendering’.
And are the most desirable brand characteristics also shifting – from established, professional, powerful and hard-working to open, socially intelligent, focused and patient?
What are your thoughts?
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