"They may appear to be more masculine or feminine by design, but it’s rare for brands to speak in a gendered voice."
But shouldn't every brand man up to gender?
They short answer: Yes.
Voniatis cites a study by his own firm that asked how customers react to content when blind to its author.
Researchers presented 1,000 adults content grabbed from popular Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. They found that content which typically produces negative reactions produced positive ones when anonymized.
"But the most interesting revelation was how responsive we are to content written by members of the opposite sex," Voniatis says. "We found that women responded more positively to content authored by men and vice versa."
According to the study, women are 2% more likely than men to react positively to content authored by a man; and men, 5% more likely to react positively to content authored by a woman.
The findings suggest brands would strengthen the appeal of their "personalities" by speaking in a gendered voice.
"By attempting to appeal to the opposite sex when writing or gendering the brand voice as the opposite of the majority of our customers, we could find new and interesting ways of engaging with our audience," Voniatis says.
But shouldn't every brand man up to gender?
They short answer: Yes.
Voniatis cites a study by his own firm that asked how customers react to content when blind to its author.
Researchers presented 1,000 adults content grabbed from popular Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. They found that content which typically produces negative reactions produced positive ones when anonymized.
"But the most interesting revelation was how responsive we are to content written by members of the opposite sex," Voniatis says. "We found that women responded more positively to content authored by men and vice versa."
According to the study, women are 2% more likely than men to react positively to content authored by a man; and men, 5% more likely to react positively to content authored by a woman.
The findings suggest brands would strengthen the appeal of their "personalities" by speaking in a gendered voice.
"By attempting to appeal to the opposite sex when writing or gendering the brand voice as the opposite of the majority of our customers, we could find new and interesting ways of engaging with our audience," Voniatis says.
