Most of the 3,000 business books published each year are about branding. The great majority of these, as well as academic branding studies, focus their attention on one or a few brands and then work outward to examine competitive positioning, image in the minds of consumers, perceived attributes and benefits and market share trajectory (e.g., Holt and Thomson 2004). But should not brand meaning come from the marketplace itself? Is not consumer culture a brand's ultimate—and necessary—foundation (McCracken 1988)? The present book begins with a key cultural construct—masculinity—upon which several popular brands position themselves, such as Old Spice grooming products, and works forward to identify which brands actually are seen by consumers as being masculine. In the process, I outline a new procedure for creating brand meaning—one that is anchored firmly in consumer culture.
Masculinity in Cultural Context
Definitions and constructions of masculinity vary within popular culture and across the social sciences (see, e.g., Kimmel, Mean and Connell 2004). For example, Shaw and Watson (2011, p. 1) comment, “American popular culture in the new millennium exemplifies how varied, open, relative, contradictory and fluid masculinities can be.” This instability in a core cultural construct can make positioning a brand as representing masculinity a difficult and ongoing task. And yet, there are cultural constancies underlying masculinity as well. For example, Connell (2005) identifies the primary structural foundation of white, heterosexual, western masculinity as social hegemony, which asserts male gender superiority in society. This position is maintained through male control over dominant societal institutions, such as the military, government and corporate organizations. White, heterosexual masculinity tends to marginalize other cultural forms of masculinity, such as those designated by race or sexual orientation (Kimmel 2012).
Kimmel (2012), like Connell (2005), also proposes that there are discernible constancies in the American cultural notion of masculinity—especially that embraced by white, middle- and working-class heterosexual males. McCullough (2008, p. 16) describes this type of man as “a husband [who] comes home every night and sweeps his wife into his arms. … A family [man] who is able to be trusted and depended on. … A wise man who is, in fact, wise … [Such men see a] world in which they set out each day to slay the dragons that seek to inflict hurt and pain on family and society.”
These men also seem to attach their sense of self to the continuously circulating masculine stereotypes that have endured over time: GI Joe, the jock, the macho man, the knight in shining armor, action-hero man, the Marlboro Man, the cowboy, the outlaw (e.g., Holt and Thompson 2004; Mark and Pearson 2001; Reeser 2010). This is significant for marketers, because it reinforces the practicality of utilizing such iconic linkages to help create brand meaning (Mark and Pearson 2001).
The Male Body
There is general agreement within both the popular culture and social science literatures that while gender roles of masculinity (and femininity) are inculcated from an early age, the physical body (i.e., male, female) one inhabits also exerts a large influence on being masculine or being feminine (Watson and Shaw 2011). As Connell (2005, p. 45) states it,
Mass culture generally assumes there is a fixed, true masculinity. We hear of “real men,” “natural men,” and the “deep masculine.” … True masculin ity is almost always thought to proceed from men's bodies …
Or, as Kimmel (2012, p. 238) puts it most recently,
We’re pumping up and working out obsessively to make our bodies impervious masculine machines … while we adorn ourselves with signifiers of a bygone era of unchallenged masculinity, donning Stetson cologne, Chaps clothing, and Timberland boots as we drive in our Cherokees and Denalis to conquer the urban jungle … We spend our leisure time in upscale topless bars and watching Spike TV.
But the mind is a cultural mind and the body is a cultural body. That is, these stereotypes of masculinity are shaped by culture and differ across times and cultures. They are shaped by personal experiences, media and advertising and reinforced by parents, teachers, friends and colleagues. And these same stereotypes are encoded and expressed in the products we buy, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive and the foods we eat.
The Branding of Masculinity
Social science and popular culture commentary might have remained comfortably beyond the direct interest of marketers had it not been for the sea change in the cultural expressions of masculinity that occurred during the 1990s. Several observers noted that it was in the decades of the 1990s and 2000s that masculinity became commoditized and marketed (Kimmel 2012). As women increasingly entered previously male domains of the workforce—in both blue-collar and professional occupations—as well as other traditional male strongholds such as the military and professional sports—masculinity itself became “problematized,” just as it had briefly during World War II when women had also occupied “masculine” professions (Honey 1984). A man could no longer be labeled masculine merely because he performed manual labor, drove a truck, served in the armed forces, held political office, drove a police car or owned a business. Women now did these things too—although not in equal numbers or with equal authority (U.S. Department of the Census 2010).
This provided an entry point for the marketing of masculine-branded products. With the traditional occupational anchors of masculinity eroding, the opportunity was ripe for masculinity to be packaged and promoted (Holt and Thompson 2005; Kimmel 2012), just as femininity had been for a longer period of time (de Grazia 1996; Forty 1986; Kirkham 1996; Sparke 1995). Marketers advertised that one now could purchase masculinity in the form of their brand (Buerkle 2011). Cultural commentators agreed. Faludi (1999), for example, declared that “men are surrounded by a culture that encourages them to play almost no functional public roles, only decorative or consumer ones … [Manhood] is now displayed, not demonstrated” (quoted in Boudreau 2011, p. 37). However, as I shall show, the present study disputes that claim.
But what, exactly, is the cultural masculinity that brands are tying themselves to? It is not enough merely to state or claim that one's brand is masculine or to park it next to an archetypal cowboy. There must be a public perception of resonance and authenticity if the brand-masculinity linkage is to be accepted as valid. Before male consumers seeking to “drape themselves in masculinity” will accept given brands as masculine, there must be cultural evidence that the linkage is genuine. Thus, two key issues confronting marketers are (1) What aspects of contemporary culture are viewed as masculine by consumers? (2) What brands are believed to represent it?
The present book draws upon more than 300 interviews conducted with men and women across two generations—those aged 17 to 35 and those aged 40 to 60. Further, the interviews took place with persons living in two very different areas of the contemporary United States—the urban Northeast and the rural Southeast. What we learn is that there is a fundamental set of product categories, attitudes, activities and brands that are viewed as representing masculinity in American culture. Despite some regional and gender differences—which will be discussed in detail—there is a general cultural consistency in both the meaning and representation of masculinity. It is upon this semiotic ground that marketing efforts intended to construct a masculine positioning in the marketplace are best located.
The study introduces an inductive procedure that moves from the conceptual level to the brand level over a series of stages. By...
