Brands must reckon with changing gender dynamics in China

When Mercedes Benz launched its limited edition SLK Passion 08 model for the Chinese market, its TVC featured actress Zhang Ziyi in a Bond-style daredevil spiral through a parking lot, complete with hairpin turns and other jaw-dropping manoeuvres.

But what was most attention grabbing was the way the TVC starts with two thugs asking each other: “Where’s the guy?” and Zhang responding in a placid tone: “I’m the guy.”

The TVC speaks to a new China where gender dynamics and the roles of men and women have changed. And this diversity of new gender codes is challenging marketers and advertisers to revisit their product development strategies and consumer segmentation.

New research by brand development and marketing insight firm, Added Value, identified 12 new gender “types” that broadly showed how women in Chinese society were more transformative, while the men were more regressive. Monikers given for these evolved male consumers include Salvator King, Emperor Fantasist, Adonis-sizer and Retro Man. On the other end of the transformative scale are the Boutique Mum, Karma Preen, Grown-up Cute, Ms Independent, Ava-Narcisist, and Hyper-Auntie.

The key message for brands operating in China, according to the study, is not to make the mistake of assuming that all consumers are forward-looking.

For example, an Emperor Fantasist is a man who retreats to the comfort of patriarchal traditions, according to Added Value's categorisation.

While women’s roles have obviously evolved, given that one in three households has a woman as the primary breadwinner, men are feeling the pressure of these changing dynamics and tend to focus more on clinging to traditional gender understandings. As such, they tend to look for brand messages that give them comfort and reassurance about the evolved dynamics between the genders.

As a result, the biggest downfall with brands operating in China, according to Clode is that “ they cling to stereotypical gender types or comfortable stereotypes of gender, without looking at the dramatic changes, particularly that comes as a result of technology, the one child policy and internationalism.”

That being said, there are certain sectors that are starting to clue in. These include the automotive, fashion and skincare sectors. For example, L’Oreal’s Garnier has been touted as a brand that gets it right. Targeting the Adonis-sizers - men who place increasingly high priority on their beauty and personal grooming - the ads focus on how skincare can be instrumental to good health just like going to the gym to build bigger muscles and a fitter body.

“The importance of speaking to the right gender archetypes is very obvious,” Anna Ng, business director of Publicis, Shanghai who handles the Garnier account says. In speaking about the Garnier campaign she notes that: “Men need encouragement that they are doing the right thing with taking care of their skin as it is still a relatively new concept.” And she says that the brand’s success is largely based on the fact that it can understand and connect to the male psyche. 

Jeff Ma, managing director of TBWA, Shanghai concurs and says that he has certainly noticed an emerging trend amongst the fashion and skincare categories marketing directly to the new ‘urban male’ and ‘metro-sexual’.

“Luxury brands, typically in Asia and now China, are not only selling to women but also a large proportion of men,” he says. And the same goes the other way round, where categories such as automotive which traditionally only spoke to men, they “now put women in the driver’s seat”, Ma adds. That will make Zhang Ziyi's character in the Mercedes ad an Ava-Narcisist - a woman who breaks stereotypes by presenting 'multiple-me's.

With change happening at breakneck speeds in China, Clode warns marketers that it is imperative to explore ways to talk about brands in a more realistic approach that truly reflects the dramatic changes in society.

“For whatever reason, I feel brands in China focus a lot on women, and this is a huge stumbling block with men,” he says. “One of the key recommendations is to avoid blanket stereotypes of gender in China, because you cannot find them. You cannot find the stay-at-home mum or the traditional grandma here... it’s time to think about brands as personalities, or as actual consumers,” he urges.

Boutique mums - mothers who don't see the need to compromise on beauty and lifestyle because they have a child - would agree.