Gender and perceptual dimensions of TV-advertising

Previous research has shown that gender differences in advertising response do exist and that these can be quite relevant to marketers. The previous research was primarily based on verbal print messages with elaborate product information as stimulus and a cognitive processing perspective. These procedures do not compare well with state of the art advertising and branding strategy that include audio-visual communication and symbolic and emotionally engaging creative strategy. This paper investigates gender differences of advertising experiences. To this end, the authors present and evaluate the usefulness of an ad perception framework, composed of three perceptual dimensions developed from advertising execution theory, genre theory and cognitive film theory. A small empirical study aimed at demonstrating whether the framework is capable of measuring gender differences in advertising perception is presented. Main findings are that the scales based on the suggested framework capture gender differences in ad perception, suggesting that there may be subtle but significant differences in how men and women perceive advertising. The results are discussed in relation to theoretical and pragmatic implications.