“RetroGuy” Gender Bias and the exclusion of large segments of the market
To Note and Discuss:
The name was one concern that came up when reviewing the business. While this may seem like a “woke” move, research has found that outwardly gendered marketing or branding, in most cases, turns many consumers off from considering it as a viable place to spend money. Younger Millenials and Gen Zers have been shown to not respond to gendered marketing strategies. While an all-male team ostensibly started Retroguy, this does not need to be reflected in the name. In terms of positioning us within the current socio-political system, we intend to create a nerd and gaming space that is inclusive of everyone; this is not something that will be achievable with a traditionally masculine name. Gender Non-Binary marketing has shown to be effective when reaching younger audiences and is something we will need to employ.
The thoughts and ideas of gaming and general nerd culture being that of a male dominion are thoroughly outdated. Stats have shown that the audience for video games stretches beyond gender, sexual orientation and race. As an aside, in the modern day, women possess equal purchasing power compared to males. If we were to gender our interactions with customers anecdotally, we could look at our customers, Christine and her husband, who came in to purchase 3ds’ for their sons. I look back at this as one of our most successful customer interactions. The way we were able to help them was multi-layered and had an element of us moving past gendered boundaries while still interacting with their identity as a family unit. We were able to provide them with sound advice on the hardware that they were purchasing. We could talk about popular properties such as Pokemon and Evangelion if it was suitable for their age range. Lastly, we could appeal to Christines, softer, more maternal and feminine side, by providing knowledge on traditionally family-friendly games. In one interaction we had fulfilled our criteria for how we’d want to interact with consumers. We relate to the general, the masculine, and, more importantly, the feminine. Christine then left a glowing review, the result has spoken for itself.
Adapting to the quickly changing social landscape can be difficult, and whatever one's personal views are on these societal changes is, at this point, moot. I do not believe that it’s prudent to exclude large swaths of potential consumers, and having a gendered and very masculine name sets us off on the wrong foot from the beginning. We aren’t a diverse team, but if we work together, we’ll be able to straddle the line between retaining stereotypical male conservative beliefs and the new Gen Z outlook and liberal beliefs. As a modern company, we must have an accepting and inclusive name; this will only bolster our efforts to create a community around the store. Once the target market research has been completed, we can discuss the strategy moving forward. It is essential while the face of the company will do away with gendered assumptions, it is still imperative that it plays a role in our market research; we will not do away with the construct of gender but will instead create a sophisticated look at market segments. I propose a possible rebrand in the future; this will be done in conjunction with a professional graphic designer to create a logo that accurately captures the spirit of our store.
References and further Reading
https://freerange.com/blog/from-mr.-coffee-to-american-girl-on-gendered-branding
https://brandtrust.com/blog/gendered-branding/
https://www.ionos.com/digitalguide/online-marketing/online-sales/gender-marketing-definition-and-implementation/
