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Gender Toy Marketing

In: Business and Management

Submitted By nxmarch
Words 1025
Pages 5
When you think of a gift for a little girl, what comes to mind? A Disney Princess DVD? A mountain of pink cupcakes? A toy convertible for Barbie? These are the things that most of us have come to believe that all girls like. These are also the products marketers have created for girls… Notwithstanding the foregoing, there is an ongoing debate about gender-based marketing and in particular with gender-based marketing being focused on young children. . One of the events that triggered this debate was when LEGO came out with a product line for girls called Friends. The TV ad shows wonderful town of Heartlake where “Stephanie” and her friends get to enjoy “all the things girls love”: interior decorating, getting pedicures and baking cupcakes. The sets feature taller and shapelier feminine figurines that lock into pink, purple and pastel green settings, such as a dream house, a splash pool and a beauty shop.
LEGO has created this product based on four years of behavioral research. This research purportedly led them to the conclusion that girls like everything pink, romantic and cute [5].
The product has generated outrage. The company was accused by many parents of feeding kids the gender stereotypes and locking them in to blue and pink roles in very young age.
Marketing to children is even more of a grey area than marketing to women. When it comes to child psychology the foundation of any debate is the question as to whether their tastes are a product of either nature or nurture. The recent research leads to conclusion that a lot of nature is actually nurtured [6]. Such things as taste, social norms, roles and behavior form as a result of our experiences and observations.
It’s not a secret that to this day, even in western society, gender roles are clearly defined and imposed through approval of conformity to such roles. Girls are nurturing, compromising and

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