The promotion element of the marketing mix can be considered from the point of view of subelements of advertising and sales. The gender — based differences give rise to differences in the perception of the advertising messages and their different assessment. For instance, the information processing strategies of males and females are different. When processing advertising messages, females are more interested in the messages’ content and claims and are more sensitive to the particulars compared with males. Males’ processing of the message is driven more by the overall message themes and schema. Consequently, females use a detailed processing strategy, and males use a schema-based strategy (Meyers-Levy & Maheswaran, 1991). This gender-based difference in information processing also means that the information to be provided in the web sites by the e-marketers has to be different depending on the gender targeted. Because the visual depictions are suitable for processing in the right hemisphere ofthe brain, when males are targeted as prospective consumers, the technical information may be presented in graphic form. When females are targeted as prospective consumers, because they process the information in their left brain hemisphere, they may be presented the product information in the form of verbal prose (Rodgers & Harris, 2003). For instance, according to a study done by Putrevu (2004), the reactions of males and females to similar printed advertising were found to be very different. Accordingly, males are more influenced by comparative, simple and product-oriented advertising.
The significant differences between males and females in terms of human relationships also has an impact on the way in which the product is presented or on how and where the emphasis is to be placed in advertising. Females are more involved in human relations compared to males, which means females are more open to empathy (Holden & Holden, 1998). Because females have a tendency to make communication contact and are more human-oriented, in order to attract the attention of female consumers, a strategy of focusing on the user rather than the product and informing the consumer about the benefits of the product/ service rather than its features has to be adopted (Wilson, 2004). Furthermore, because females prefer to interact with other people, community — based strategies will also have an impact on female consumers (Walker, 2001). Therefore, advertising targeting female consumers should portray females in sincere and close relationships with males and females or in a noncompetitive relationship with others (Prakash, 1992). Males and females also have distinct way of regarding and assessing advertising messages and gender descriptions of the opposite gender. For instance, while females welcome the advertising of brands for the male gender, men do not welcome the advertising of brands for the female gender (FitzGerald & Arnott, 1996). There are also some differences in consumers’ reactions to gender descriptions in advertising. While females react positively to gender descriptions, males, on the contrary, react less positively (Orth & Holancova, 2004).
E-marketers use the Internet for online sales promotions as well. For instance, businesses send out digital product samples such as music or software and electronic coupons to consumers, and conduct sweepstakes on various subjects (Strauss & El-Ansary, 2004). Promotional e-mails are extensively used by e-marketers as sales promotion and advertising. There are no gender-based differences in preferences for receiving the promotional e-mails. Both genders illustrate similar types of attachment and awareness for e-mail advertising. However, females, who greatly feel the need to establish and maintain social relationships, forward the promotional e-mails to their friends more than males (Phillip & Suri, 2004).
E-marketers may also use other marketing tactics over the Internet. In order to attract special — interest users, they may create a communitybuilding web site. In this method, the business invites potential customers to chat and send e-mails in their web site in order to direct their attention to the web site. Businesses, therefore, obtain the e-mail addresses of the users of those groups for their e-mail marketing campaigns. Through community building, e-marketers may generate social networks that will enhance the relationship with the customers (Strauss & El — Ansary, 2004). Females are especially targeted in this strategy because females not only focus on maintaining relationships, but also contact and stay in touch with one another more often. Most online communities in recent years have been for female consumers (Garbarino & Strahilevitz, 2004), and females send and receive messages more. For instance, when females under 21 were compared to males in a study in Singapore, Teo and Lim (2000) found that females spent more time on messaging activities. E-marketers, in order to take advantage of this particular preference of females, may effectively utilize online social networks allowing e-mails and the exchange of information and ideas.
In their study on Korean consumers, Kwon et al. (2007) found that the community aspect was better appreciated by the married respondents. The effects of females’ tendency to build communities and establish relationships set them apart from males in terms of giving and receiving advice and recommendations. For instance, Garbarino and Strahilevitz (2004) concluded that there was a substantial drop in the risk perceived by females, in comparison to males, after recommendations from friends. Furthermore, while recommendations from friends had a great impact on the online purchases of females, these recommendations did not have such an impact on males. What these findings mean for e-marketers is that positive word of mouth has to be encouraged in order for these findings to have a positive impact on female consumers. In addition, e-marketers can also generate rewarding programs that will enable existing web site users to recommend it to other potential users. Additionally, the link of “tells a friend about this web site” can be placed on the web site and will enable users to relate their shopping experience to other people. The positive opinions and useful information of family and friends are likely to enhance the level of confidence in consumers, which will, in turn, have a positive impact on the purchasing intention of the consumers (Howard, 1989). Consequently, when e-marketers target online female consumers, e-marketers can utilize online forums and chat rooms and provide incentives for online female consumers to share their experiences with other online consumers to enhance social and interpersonal experiences in online shopping (Zhou et al., 2007; Hasan, in press).
E-marketers should make an effort to establish a relationship through both web sites and customer representatives with existing or prospective customers based appropriately on gender differences. This strategy is necessary because the relationship capital is a strategic value in terms of e-marketing. As Strauss and El-Ansary (2004) stated, e-marketers should attach greater importance to establishing and maintaining a relationship with the customers than to the land, property and financial entities of the business because this relationship capital will constitute the foundation of future business. Because female consumers, in comparison to male ones, have greater numbers of and stronger interpersonal and brand relationships, they are more loyal to the brands of their choice (Ndubisi, 2006). Therefore, it is all the more important to establish long-term relationships with female consumers compared to male ones.
CONCLUSION
In addition to the role of females in the decisionmaking process of making a purchase for the family and as result of females gaining more financial independence as a result of their ever — increasing participation in business life, marketers are forced to consider females an important target market. As the gender-based gap in the use of Internet narrows and as general Internet use becomes less of a male-dominated activity, it is all the more important for e-marketers that carry out some or all of their transactions online to be fully aware of the effects of gender-based differences in females’ online shopping behavior. Gender as a segmentation variable in traditional marketing should be used as an important segmentation variable in e-marketing as well because significant gender-based differences exist in online purchasing behavior.
The attitudes and behaviors towards Internet usage also differ on the basis of gender. In fact, gender-based differences in Internet usage have begun to diminish and disappear in recent years. Therefore, despite the existence of differences in Internet use observed in previous studies (Bimber, 2000; Teo & Lim, 1997; Teo & Lim, 2000), later studies (Jackson et al., 2001; Ono & Zavodny, 2003; Shaw & Gantt, 2002) have found no such differences. This particular finding comprises one of the fundamental reasons why e-marketers in this day and age choose females as well as males as one of the target markets. Accordingly, being aware of the gender-based differences in the use of the Internet discussed in this study and considering the gender differences in online purchasing behaviors will have a direct impact on the success of e-marketing strategies. Both gender-based differences and sub-segments such as working females, mothers and full-time housewives have also to be taken into consideration in e-marketing strategies. For instance, as the time pressure among working females increases, working females turn to online shopping. Therefore, in addition to gender differences, time savings and the convenience aspect have to be taken into account as well.
While e-marketers form their e-marketing strategies, they should provide more detailed information about the products offered as they target females as consumers, and this information should be verbal. The web sites that provide information about the products should have rich content and advanced Internet technologies allowing features such as virtual tasting and touching should be utilized. Moreover, some multimedia features such as sound effects, background music and animation should be used; however, they should not let females feel as if they have lost control as they are browsing the site or as they are conducting the purchasing transaction. When females are targeted as online consumers, the price of the products should not be the sole criterion; rather, price has to be considered together with other purchasing factors. Advertising messages, on the other hand, have to be detailed, verbal and inclusive of social relationships. Therefore, when females are targeted as online consumers, alternative applications such as e-mail advertising, social groups and word-of-mouth advertising could be used.
When e-marketers target males as online consumers, they should offer results-oriented, technical information illustrating the functions and benefits of the products quantitatively and/or offer graphics in a more plain and simple fashion. When males are targeted as online consumers, the prices of products should be used as an important factor in purchasing decisions. Because products may be priced with regard to a competitive method of pricing, such opportunities as price cuts and bargaining over the price should be offered. Advertising geared toward males should be compared with other products and/or with the products of rivals and should be competition-oriented. Moreover, advertising messages should be plain and presented in a quality-oriented fashion.
In this study, the role of gender differences in online purchasing behaviors has been examined, and some important points to consider in terms of gender-based strategies in e-marketing among businesses that conduct part or all oftheir business transactions online have been discussed. Future studies can empirically examine the sensitivity to online prices in reaction to online pricing methods and whether gender-based differences exist in understanding the messages of online advertising and during the process of online purchasing.