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1. Introduction
Brand design elements are names, signs and symbols that identify and differentiate the brand (Walsh et al., 2010, 2011), and include brand name, logo shape, color and type font. The marketing literature suggests that brand design elements influence consumers’ perceptions of brand personality (Batra et al., 1993) – the human personality traits consumers associate with a brand (Aaker, 1997). Brand personality consists of multiple dimensions (sincerity, excitement, sophistication, ruggedness and competence; Aaker, 1997; masculinity, femininity; Grohmann, 2009). Although research on the influence of brand design elements on brand personality dimensions is growing (Grohmann et al., 2012; Labrecque and Milne, 2012; Orth and Malkewitz, 2008), the impact of brand design on brand masculinity and femininity remains unexplored.
The first objective of this article is to examine how brand design elements (logos, type font, brand name and color) influence brand masculinity and femininity perceptions. The second objective is to investigate whether brand-design induced brand masculinity and femininity perceptions ultimately relate to consumer preferences and brand equity. The literature suggests that brand personality contributes to brand equity (Keller, 1993) because it allows consumers to more easily relate to the brand (Fournier, 1998) or express themselves through brand use (Aaker, 1997). Emerging evidence indeed indicates that the masculinity and femininity dimensions of brand personality relate positively to consumer responses to the brand (e.g. attitude; Grohmann, 2009) and brand equity (Lieven et al., 2011). In providing further evidence for an impact of brand masculinity and femininity perceptions on consumer preferences and brand equity, we highlight the importance of brand design considerations in influencing managerially relevant outcomes (Aaker and Keller, 1990; Leuthesser et al., 1995; Salzer-Mörling and Strannegard, 2004).
This research adopts an evolutionary psychology (EP) perspective to explain the influence of physical brand design characteristics on consumers’ perceptions of brand masculinity and femininity. Evolutionary psychology posits that psychological processes that influence preferences and behavior are the result of evolution by selection (Buss, 1995). The recent marketing literature indeed demonstrates that EP-based theories are useful in elucidating behaviors in the consumption domain (Griskevicius et al., 2012).
In examining the influence of brand design elements on brand masculinity and femininity perceptions, consumer preferences and brand equity, this research contributes to the literature in several...