Clément Bellet, Assistant Professor at Erasmus School of Economics, was asked to present a mini-lecture for Studio Erasmus. There, he presented his research on the impact of social movements on consumer behaviour. This paper saught to examine how social movements influence consumers’ preferences, particularly in relation to gender-stereotyped products.
There are many stereotypes in society that assign males and females to specific roles. Because of the #MeToo movement, many discussions arised on these stereotypes. Advertisers also rely on these stereotypes to target their products to a gender. This is for example visible at Victoria’s Secret. They target females on a specific presentation on what is feminine. The gender targeting is also seen in the use of blue versus pink colours. For women the concept of pinking and shrinking of products is often visible.
Is the movement also questioning the way women and men are targeted as consumers?
To study this the researchers looked at the impact of #MeToo on social media and search behaviour in OECD countries. There was a big difference visible between some countries with regards to the impact. The researchers then created a graph of exposure and looked at the purchase behaviour of stereotypically feminine products. There was a serious drop in sales already one week after the #MeToo movement started. The consumer behaviour after the drop was the equivalent of implementing an 8% tax on the product. This behaviour could be driven because of identity threats, increased empowerment and the value alignment of consumers.
There was a drop in gender-based consumption, but extinction of the concept is not likely in the near future, as there are still a lot of people with the preference for those products.
