Don't Forget to Take Your Gendered Vitamins

"[This segment of the retail market is] really interesting, because it has [the] legitimacy of being in [the] pharmacy section, but little regulation of what goes into the messaging."

"Thus, while masculine characteristics were presented through building and improving muscle, feminine characteristics were instead aligned with metabolism-- the chemical process of breaking down food that is often positively affiliated with weight loss."

"We found that 'masculine' products are more likely to be marketed through benefits promising muscle function and prioritizing active professionalism and physical health, while 'feminine' products are more likely to promise improvements to physical appearance and prioritize a decorative, passive role."

Study on gender-advertised multivitamins

Supplements for men, women: What's the difference?  Brant Arts IDA Pharmacy

"They're just very restraining gender roles."

"Those are all genderless issues, yet they were predominantly marketed towards men in order to make room, we argue, for this decorative performance of women."

 Sydney Forde, Penn State University

"[Gender difference reflects an assumption that it is] easier for consumers to make sense of things when they are divided by oversimplified categories of gender appeal."

"[Mundane it may be, but it demonstrates] how we are told by marketing to exist in the world."

Brittany Melton, Brock University

"All men deserve a supplement that can keep up with their daily active lifestyle": men's version.

"Ladies this one's for you!": packaging in pink.

It's likely that shoppers in a pharmaceutical setting wouldn't have much trouble discerning vitamin packaging meant for men and those designed for women; that old traditional colouration identification; blue and pink. If it's good enough for distinguishing the gender separation in babies, then it's good enough for advertisers making a distinction between their products ... even if the distinction is all imaginary. A sales gimmick, in other words; a personal address to the purchaser; men we've got you covered; women this is a reflection of your needs.

Two researchers undertook a comparison in the packaging of two versions of the very same vitamin by the same manufacturer, one meant for men the other for women. It's not only the colour distinctions but the description of what the product will do for men, or for women; same product different angle set to appeal to the buyer's notion of what is important to them as a male, as a female. Without doubt before embarking on this double-pronged-and-separate messaging, a study in gender preferences and appeal was made and then the producer embarked on their gender-separate messaging for the very same product. Making sales by giving the client what they want.

Men are sold multivitamins with the emphasis on energy; pills they are told will work to build their muscles. Women on the other hand are informed that the multivitamins work as metabolism boosters, weight-loss aids that will give them healthier hair, improving their appearance. Neither gender has any idea that the vitamins they each select by colour code and variant performance descriptions are one and the same vitamin, just boxed differently with a different presentation and explanation.

They're also priced differently; the women's version has a slightly higher price tag attached to it. Marketing at its most sophisticated. Both researchers, Melton and Forde undertook a catalogue of 25 multivitamin products, ten geared to men, and fifteen packaged for women. Coding the information provided on the packaging and the product description given online by the manufacturer. Their purpose was to measure gender stereotypes in advertising that proliferate in a 'grey area' of regulation; somewhere between drugs and personal care products.

Megan Madden

As an example, muscle function was front and centre on 50 percent of men's vitamins, but represented just 20 percent of women's vitamins, and metabolism featured large on 60 percent of women's vitamins, in contrast to 40 percent of men's. The variance of emphasis presents men as "professional" and women as "decorative", points out Ms.Melton. While men's vitamins claim an improvement on eye function, muscle performance, cognitive function and the immune system, women's claim improvement of hair, nails and skin.

Mention of bone health does appear on women's vitamins, but as the exception to the general trend that focuses on beauty. As example, 33 percent of women's vitamins feature hair while no men's vitamins mention it at all, and 67 percent feature skin, in comparison to 30 percent of men's, their research clarifies. Comparable mentions of energy appeared on both men's and women's vitamins, but still greater emphasis on energy as a matter of metabolism related to weight loss distinguished women's pills.