In response to a post by Carmen Nobel titled “Should Men’s Product Fear a Women’s Touch?” on the Harvard Business Review.

In the article, Nobel focusses on Harvard’s Senior Lecturer Jill J. Avery research on gender contamination between a single product that is sold to both genders.

Nobel explains Avery’s take on the effect of gender contamination on brand of three well known companies: Gillette, Coca Cola, and Porsche.

Avery states  that “gender contamination occurs when one gender is using a brand as a symbol of their masculinity or femininity, and the incursion of the other gender into the brand threatens that.” Her her time at Gillette, Avery revealed that Gillette tried extremely hard to distinguish between the Gillette brand and the Gillette for Women brand. Even though the 2 blades are identical but with different colours: black for men and pink for women, Gillette was one of the first to understand the importance of protecting the gender associated with their product.

Avery continues with the issue Coca Cola had several years ago. Coke had trouble with trying to marketing the Diet Cola beverage to men as they typically associated a can of diet pop was for females. In response, Coke introduced Coke Zero which was Diet Coke’s cousin but in a black can. Coca Cola’s sales immediately shot up as a result of attracting male consumers to their lower calorie product.

Porsche has the exact problem with their introduction of their first SUV vehicle, the Cayenne. Many advocate Porsche owners were unhappy with the introduction of the SUV as it was typically for females. Many Porsche owners revealed stating that when they tell others what they drive, they say “I drive a 911” versus “I drive a Porsche.”

I was particularly interested with this article because of Avery’s final tips for future students looking into the field of brand management. She stated several ways to target this issue. She explained the “Not Us” and “Not Real” strategy which explains the tactics her example companies used.