Role of Gender Identity on Consumer's Perception andBehaviors related to Consumption

Abstract

Gender identity, a combination of an individual’s gender psychological traits, social gender roles, and gender orientations, has a dramatic impact on one’s perceptions and behaviors related to consumption. However, the influence of gender identity has been oversimplified in the recent marketing literature by using sex as the sole gender-related descriptor. As a result, the marketing literature has been hampered in its ability to predict gender-related consumer behaviors. This study focuses on how gender identity manifests in itself in the consumers’ product consumption and brand relationship. The focal population of interest was the Generation-Y aged consumers in the U.S. and their relationships with personal care products. Results generated from structural equation modeling indicate that multiple constructs of gender identity have significant and unique impacts on product involvement and brand loyalty and, further, that product involvement serves as a mediator that linking gender identity with brand loyalty