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Basic Information of Better Than Sex
Author: Qimei Chen, Shelly Rodgers, and William D, WellsPublisher:
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Case Summary of Better Than Sex
Better than SexDistinguishing biological sex, male compared to female, has always been a useful way to classify consumers. However, the dichotomous nature of it has a major limitation, limited in its ability to distinguish beyond “male” or “female”. Many research studies use the term “gender” coded as a dichotomy.
Psychologists have created scales that measure masculinity and femininity. Although these scales are reliable, they are too long for most market research surveys.
To overcome these limitations, we were planning to provide a scale that is expected to be a useful supplement to traditional dichotomous classification for market segmentation.
Method used: Similar to the procedure psychologists use toŸ develop scales that measure masculinity and femininity. Diverse item pool (from a national survey provided by DDB Worldwide Communications selected those most sharply discriminated between men andàGroup Inc.) women,
Final items:Ÿ
I enjoy looking through fashion magazines.²
I like to bake.²
In our family, I take care of the checkbook and pay the bills.²
I am concerned about getting enough calcium in my diet.²
I am good at fixing mechanical things.²
I would do better than average in a fistfight.²
I shop a lot for specials.²
Before going shopping, I sit down and make out a complete shopping list.²
I enjoy getting dressed up.²
The kitchen is my favorite room.²
The scale score is the mean of the 10 six-point responses. Two items (I am good at fixing mechanical things and I would do better than average in a fistfight) are reverse-coded. High scores denote femininity. The range of possible score is 1.0 (extreme masculinity) to 6.0 (extreme femininity). The range of scores in the 1999 DDB survey was 1.1 to 5.9. The mean for women was 4.25 (SD=.58); for men was 3.14 (SD=.77). The variance among men was higher than that among women: .60 vs. .34.
Ÿ Construct Validity: The 10-item scale presented here correlates as expected with biological sex and with other gender-related items.
Ÿ Explanatory Power: Does the gender scale provide useful information All theàafter biological sex has been taken in to consideration? within-sex differences reported here are statistically significant, and all replicate across at least two independent surveys.
Demographic Findings: Underlying some of the psychological and behavioral differences that follow.Ÿ
Personality TraitsŸ
Ÿ Household Activities: Non-traditional Females (NTF) resemble Traditional Males (TM) more so than Traditional Females (TF) on many market-relevant dimensions, although sending greeting cards and attending religious ceremonies are two notable exceptions. (Please refer to exhibits 1 and 2.)
Possession Differences: NTFs wereŸ highest in reporting ownership of a personal computer, corresponding with their high use of Internet and with their desire to explore an interest or a hobby.
These findings indicate that dichotomous measures of biological sex – male vs. female – may not capture instances when females exhibit stereotypical “male” tendencies or males exhibit stereotypical “female” tendencies. Marketers who simply segment or target all males or all females may miss an opportunity to fine-tune targeting efforts and will waste a lot of time, effort, and expense. Ads that promote products and services that are traditionally targeted to one sex may need to be reconsidered.
Unlike other sex scales, this better-than-sex gender scale is short and simple to use, offers a more accurate alternative, and is proved to be useful and valid to identify non-traditional males and females who share some similar characteristics of the opposite sex.
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