The chosen contemporary marketing issue for the research is the role of sex appeal in marketing communication. The paper investigates the extent to which sex appeal affect receivers. Sex appeal in marketing communication has been on rise and it is synonymous with facilitation of brand remembrance and building of customers’ perceptions. The employment of sex appeals, for instance, the use of overt sexual information and images is popular in the mainstream consumer advertising channels (Dahl and Yeung, 2015, p.55). Advertisers resort to the method while trying to overcome clutter and capture responsiveness of potential buyers to their product. The heightened application of the method as a communication technique prompts secondary queries on its effectiveness amongst customers.
There is a growing social perception that advertisers are perpetually applying the technique regardless of the social harms and negative ethical questions surrounding the model (Mogaji, Czarnecka, Danbury and Farquhar 2017, p.56). They are amplifying their explicitness and possibly contributing to the social behaviour erosion. The research equally tries to investigate the positive and negative impacts of sexual appeals (Curtis, Arnaud and Waguespack 2017, p.57).
The paper is apportioned into various distinct parts including, research question, methods, findings conclusions and recommendations. It reveals overall aims of the study and a specific research question awaiting evaluation. The research method utilizes both primary and secondary research data, findings and include several academic literature resources. The research findings segment entails academic literature review, analysis and interpretation of the data. The research with a conclusion segment and recommendation which outlines recommendation on how further research into the question could be undertaken (Moon 2015, p.90).
Research Question
The research question is: what is the role of sex appeal in marketing and to what level does it influence viewers? The research aims at uncovering the benefits or the successes of employing sexual appeals in advertisement especially in attraction of potential consumers.
Research Aim
The main aim of the research is to expose the essence of sex appeal in marketing and to show the extent to which it affects the receivers. The increased involvement of the technique only confirms of the potential benefits to marketers and massive social negative impact on the particular society which tolerates the marketing approach as not all countries condone such marketing strategies. A significant number of researcher have conducted studies on the topic. For instance, study findings show that utilization of sexual stimulus in advertisement attracts viewers more quickly and their perceptual and processing resources are focused towards the sexual image in the advertisement as opposed to the product brand being marketed (Digout, Salloum, Hajjar and Taha 2017, p.334). The reason for the selection of the topic sex appeal in marketing communication is to examine the extent to which sex appeal affects the receivers who are the viewers and who are also the perceived potential buyers.
Research Objectives
The research objective is to evaluate whether consumers can easily recall a brand name of product or service marketed in the advertisements which utilized sexual appeals and how likely that they would consume it as influenced by the sexual information or image. It examines whether there are benefits of sex appeal in adverts and to what range does it impact viewers. The research further uncovers the degree to which promotion of sex appeal advertisements pose a significant threat (negative harms) or benefits (positive outcomes) to the particular society or consumers. Consumers of products and services respond varyingly to diverse gradings of advert explicitness.
Research Methods
The research adopted two study method approach of using secondary and primary research in facilitating the comprehensive study. The primary research was conducted through online system whereby a random sample was identified in a large population of potential consumers who view daily explicit image and information in the media stream and public publications erected on the roadside banners, print media and several other segments where sex appeals is used in advertisements (Digout, Salloum, Hajjar and Taha 2017, p.334).
Questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 260 respondents in London. The questionnaires inquired on the respondent’s attitude regarding the inclusion of sex-related media in advertisements especially relating to the different cultural groups. The respondents were required to record their names, continent of origin and background culture. They were also to respond if they had viewed sexually explicit contents in the advertisement and for those whose replies affirmed the question where requested to render their opinion whether the adverts triggered their product and service consumption. The subjects were asked if they would recall the brand name while buying their products and services especially for those which employed explicit advertisement strategies. The respondents were requested on whether they supported or opposed employment of sex appeal in the marketing and if they thought that the strategy had an overall negative or positive in the society and product consumption. The questionnaire also asked them to rate degree of sex explicitness in range between 1 and 10 according to how they view sex appeal prominence in their society (Kadić-Maglajlić et al. 2017, p.257).
The research also included a secondary study conducted regarding the topic. The secondary study was performed regarding consumer reactions to sex appeal advertising especially concerning the cross‐cultural system of the world. The purpose of the research was to establish the impact of sex appeal in branding goods and services like it has been applied in many countries. The research discovered that while sex appeal was heavily used in the society, little was known regarding the consumers' responses on the topic. The opinion of the people was sought regarding sex appeal adverts cross-culturally amongst the viewers and consumers of different background origin including Australia, China and United States. The study indicated that people have different comments on sex appeal advertisement depending with their region of origin or even their specific culture (Digout, Salloum, Hajjar and Taha 2017, p.334).
The respondents were informed that sex appeal comprised the use of nudity, sexual behaviour and physical attractiveness to influence viewers to purchase services or products. Sex appeal also entailed employment of the sexual or erotic imagery in conducting advertisement to create specific interest in products or services aimed for sale. Quite often, pretty women or hulk half- dressed men may be used. The images are employed to imply a connection between the images and the particular items on sale. Some other common sex appeals includes employment of facial expressions and pleasing smiles which tickle the viewers, encourage flirting, and entail provocative moving of body. The target of the advertisers is to establish a link between the item and sex appeal image.
Research Findings
Literature review
History of application sex appeal in adverts is traceable over time immemorial from the genesis of advertising industry whereby carvings such as wooden objects were employed in generation of attractive women models. The carvings often represented unclothed women especially from the waist upwards. Early adverts in the forms of posters, signs especially for businesses such as saloons, tonics, and tobacco often contained beauty and sex appeal –oriented ads. Inclusion of sex motivation in advertising has been an active contributor to increased sales and consumer interests in certain products. There are significant number of records which show the impact of sex appeal adverts in the past. For instance, W. Duke & Sons included trading cards in packets of cigarette in 1885 (Engelbart and Jackson, 2016, p.15). The packets portrayed sexually provocative starlets, the cigarette product grew and become a prominent brand in 1890. It means that within five years, the brand was established due to impact of sex appeal ads. Similar progressive trend was notable on Woodbury’s Facial Soap which was nearing discontinuation due to poor market performance in 1910. The decline trend of the soap was eventually reversed after marketing changes which entailed inclusion of ads illustrating romantic couples which promised love, unity and intimacy to couples who used the soap brand. Another similar case was Jovan Musk Oil, presented into the market in 1971(Moses and Charles 2014, p.29).
The oil was marketed using sensual entendre and included exhibition of the fragrance’s erotic fascination features. The marketing strategy propelled the sales of Jovan business triggering growth in sales revenue from 1.5million recorded in 971 to 77 million recorded later in 1978. The application of sex appeal in advertisement can be greatly overt or even slightly palpable and it varies from the extremes of using moderately explicit demonstrations of sexual acts to the simple use of cosmetics to boost eye-catching features of a person (Kim 2016, p.209). Within the past two decades, the use of considerably explicit voluptuous exposures has been increasing especially in the consumer-based print.
Sexuality is an influential and considerable tool utilized in marketing. Post-advertising sales reaction evaluations have shown strong capacity of the sex appeal being very effective chiefly in the attraction, capture and retention of a consumer’s interest. The technique is even more pronounced if the advertised item that holds some level of correlation with sexual advertisement model chosen (Mogaji, Czarnecka, Danbury and Farquhar 2017, p.56).
According to Gallup & Robinson which is an advertisement and marketing research company, after conducting studies in the field for than 50 years especially in testing advertisement effectiveness, it established that application of erotic information was a significantly principal strategy in interacting with the market. The firm also observed that while it is an excellent advertisement approach, the method had dangers and challenges of ethical issues. The efficacy of advertisement approach was contested with several cultural taboos, volatility of attitudes which made it a Code Red advertisement technique and required caution while using it (Wirtz, Sparks and Zimbres 2017, p.168). Cautions such as ‘seller beware’ makes it a special case and considerably intriguing. In several cases have regulating bodies banned certain provocative advertisement and even laid fines on the concerned parties.
In the current mainstream consumer advertisement channels, for instance, magazines, and cable television, sex-motivated advertisement is present massively in the marketing details concerning a huge range of goods that are branded. Adverts featuring sexually provoking imagery of attractively dressed women and even men with revealing cloths and postures are common in the marketing of product like cloths, various brands of alcohol, beauty enhancing products, and even fragrances. Established brands in the market, for instance, Calvin Klein, Gucci and even Pepsi have involved the use of provocative graphics to enhance and cultivate a permeating sex- tinged media manifestation (Kadić-Maglajlić et al. 2017, p.249).
There has been a rise in the use of sex appeal in the sectors that did not customarily involve sex information to attract clients. For instance, Dallas Opera in America reversed its gradual decline in ticket sales after introducing sex motivated adverts in its marketing approach (Vézina and Paul 2014, p.177). The technique allowed it to use contrastingly more lascivious segments of its performances; therefore, attracting more people. The notable reason behind effectiveness of the sex appeal approach is that sex has been a private issue in many societies and cultures. Sexuality topics triggers significant level of curiosity amongst people and the anxiety triggered often lead to people trying to investigate or testing the products of services using the approach (Engelbart, Jackson and Smith, 2017, p.39).
The model of incorporation of sexual strategies in enhancing product successful marketability may involve sexual approaches based on the foundations like biological, human emotions, and even spiritual aspects. The biological segment in sexuality symbolizes the reproductive mechanism and combination with the simple biological drive inherent in people and even in all animal species which operates on under hormonal controls. The emotional segment of sexuality exploited in advertisements involves the bond that occurs between people, and is commonly exhibited through deep feelings and physical displays of love, dependence, trust and caring (Moses and Charles 2014, p.25).
Involvement of sexuality has a spiritual aspect which causes individuals to develop connection with other people and marketers employ the diverse aspects of sexuality in improving the sales of their products. Use of sexuality in propagating in advertisement practices unknowingly markets certain values and attitudes relating to sex in the same conformity with the traded items. Marketers have adopted concepts that suit their missions, for instance, Calvin Klein brand has in the past employed the concept such as ‘innocence is sexy’ (Chiang, Chan and Milan 2016, p.8). The company employed the approach in boosting their target market amongst people. Other advertisement have constantly promoted the notion of existence of connection of pain to violence or sexiness to glamour. The approach was employed by Versace and even run on the beliefs that women enjoyed experiencing domination from men. Brands like Budweiser Beer has ran on promotion of female sexuality. According to historical statistics, women images have predominantly been entailed in promoting advertisements and bringing out the women erotic roles repeatedly than men.
Within the recent years, the young men have been involved increasingly in the sex appealing adverts even though women dominate in the depiction of a sexualized roles in a disproportionate manner. For adverts that employ use of couples, multiple messages is received by the viewers. For instance, the commonest feature received includes sex-roles conducted by each couple (Orme 2015, p.67). The dealings or interaction couples conveys messages of relative domination and power. Such adverts may create stereotype for the responsibility of either one or all the people in a relationship (LaTour, Snipes and Bliss 2015, p. 67).
The application of sexual images in advertisement process have received criticism on multiple grounds. Consistently, the conservatives from the religious backgrounds have always accused the use of sexual images as obscene. Supporters of feminism and masculism argue that sexuality-based adverts reinforces sexism through objectification of individuals (Chiang, Chan and Milan 2016, p.9). The topic regarding the use of sex images in advertisements has been complicated with increasing trends of androgynous and homoerotic themes in facilitating marketing strategies.
In the large list of research findings which show that sex sells, there are new findings which oppose the old age of use sex in adverts. According to research conducted by Professor John Wirtz, who is researcher in the University of Illinois and three other co-researchers, sex does not sell. Their research included around 80 advertising studies which they claimed had been published over period of more than three decades (Wirtz, Sparks and Zimbres 2017, p.169). The research discovered that people remembered adverts showing sexual appeals more multiple times than those that did not use the technique. Wirtz and his co-authors undertook a meta-analysis involving 78 peer-reviewed researches examining the impacts of effects of sexual appeals advertisement. They established that while people were likely to identify the products while doing shopping, they developed a negative attitude on such brands. Their findings indicated that the viewers did not develop serious interest in such brands which would pursued to purchase the products. The study observed zero impact or possibility of participants consuming the goods following sexual appeal (Yu and Kim, 2015, p.267). They noted that the postulation that sex sells was not true according to their study. Wirtz and his co-authors established that there was signs of positive effect towards the use of sex appeal.
According to the study, sex appeals entailed use of models who were partly or completely naked and they acted in sexual touching or exposed varying positions that hinted that sexual act was forth-coming. There was involvement of sexual innuendoes and embeds. Hidden words or even pictures were included which communicated sexual messages to the audience. One of the impeccable findings was that based on average statistics, male respondents liked sexual appeals while female disliked such modes of adverts. The findings unravelled high level of negativity of female respondents towards the adverts (Engelbart, Jackson and Smith 2017, p.37).
According to Wirtz, apart from the analysis of the results based gender separation, there was no considerable effect of sexual pull or push on the participants’ attitudes regarding the adverts. Wirtz argues that application of meta-analysis in the study was more effective and acted as powerful statistical tool in the analysis of the data. The research included an average number of subjects of 225 and through involvement of meta-analysis combined some analysis to entail more than 5,000 respondents. One of the analysis had over 11,000 respondents which they argue that makes their research more valid (Chiang, Chan and Milan 2016, p.2). The outcomes of the research for the advertisement practitioners showed a mixture of findings, given that they discovered adverts having sexual approaches are recollected more easily than others. Advertisers often want their promotions to be remembered. The contradicting segment is that the memory does contribute to the purchase of the products as the ads does not sell the brand. According to Wirtz, adverts receivers would easily love an advertisement but there would be no carryover impact to the product on sale.
Analysis and interpretation of primary research
From the primary study conducted whereby questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 260 respondents in London, only 231 questionnaire were filled and received from the respondents summing up to 88% response rate. From the study findings only 20 percent of respondents from the Asian origin supported the use of sex appeal image in advertisement as long as country laws were not violated. Amongst the respondents of the English and American origin, 40 and 50 percent respectively supported the application of sexually enticing images in ads. The respondents from the Asian culture was more restrictive and confined regarding the exposure of human nakedness and argued that they would not consume products with sexually explicit ads. The research established that the use of sex appeal was more prevalent amongst the western nations. According to primary study findings, businesses that use sex appeal strategy was found to attract more young customers and generate more revenues as the younger generations were not extensively disturbed with the images (Lee et al. 2017, p. 478). Social media and newer models of media are awash with sexually enticing products and regulation is even becoming difficult for the concerned authorities.
The quantitative data in primary research established that out of the 231 respondents, 126 of them noted that there sufficient regulatory checks in market which controlled and defined what would be called ‘unacceptable’ level of sex appeal. The same group argued that the use of sex appeal is good way of penetrating a special segment in the market. It seemed to address the youthful couples and younger people in the society. 151of the respondents signifies 54.54 percent of them (respondents) endorsed the use of sexual appeal as long as existed laws were not violated in the process. Courts and other judicial bodies reserved the authority to measure what would amount to violation of the law.
Pie chart 1: 54.54 percent of the respondents felt regulation supported use of sex appeal ads and noted regulatory bodies to control the industry (according to primary research findings)
Employment of sexual appeals in marketing is an essential segment and strategy for conquering new market. 66 percent of the respondents admitted that they often identified products advertised in the selling shelves and often bought them to try out their experience. On the contrary, 45% of the respondents recorded dissatisfaction with the advertised product since in many cases, sex appeals are either exaggerated or lies aimed at creating a customer purchase bandwagon (LaTour, Snipes and Bliss 2015.p. 59).
According to Richard L. Oliver’s Expectation confirmation theory, satisfaction is an outcome of a person’s expectations, disconfirmation of opinions and perceived performance (Kim 2016, p.205). If a product or service fails to perform to the expected level, customers will experience dissatisfaction. The theory is vital in explaining post-purchase human behavior. Consumers can remember the brand name of items of advertisements while checking out goods to consume in the supermarket shelves or even online. The primary research established that there are both positive and negative effect on consumers and the society regarding the sex appeals. Many respondents believe that government control bodies work well in regulation of the extremity of the different degree of explicitness exposed by the adverts (Mayer and Baek 2016, p.753).
The use of sex appeal in advertisements reveals several fallacies and illogical assumptions which firms utilize in reaching out to the targeted group of clients. The strategy is based on fallacies such as Ad hominem which means addressing the person as opposed to addressing as issue. Other sex images appeal to the human emotions to arrest their attention from arguing out the more critical essence regarding a product (Frith, Shaw and Cheng 2016, p.59). Sex appeal adverts challenge targeted groups to behave like a bandwagon as they avail an impression of people doing similar thing. The strategy equally encourages people to conduct hasty generalization which is like hurrying into a conclusion regarding a population after observation of a small sample. The approach also appeals to the people and utilizes the views and perceptions of the majority people as a persuasive tool to influence people.
The increase in the use of sexually suggestive imagery shows that the approach is instrumental and rewarding to the viewers. A significant number of the consumers of both the adverts and the items advertised are excited by the contents and fail to question the illogical premises behind each of them. By creating the adverts, the firms aim at establishing irresistible attraction linkage between the product and the consumers who are targeted by the product. Association of a sexual ideas to a particular given product, advertisers successfully work in clouding the distinction involving a product and sexual emotion (Rome and Ibrahim 2015, p.298).
Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs tries to explain human needs and how people strive to fulfil them. The theory argues that fulfilment of sexual needs is amongst the human physiological needs which people seek to fulfil firstly before seeking satisfaction of other needs. The theory informs why advertisers exploit the need which is more unique than other physiological needs like food, shelter, and clothing. It is cheaper to influence people through sexual graphics than to provide food or shelter which may have similar impact as other physiological needs.
Fig: showing Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs (Wikimedia 2015, p.1)
Use of the sex appeal strategy is relatable to nearly all grown up people. The approach is considerably unsuitable for the people underage people and may mislead them (Siripai, and Haywood, 2017, p.143). Involvement of sexual information irrespective of the selected format; pictures, stories, sounds and many other forms have the capacity to trigger a wide range of unexpected emotional responses amongst the viewers. The common models of sex appeal employed are elementarily five and they include nude pictures, sexual behavioural acts, human physical charm, sexual objects and embeds. Sex appeal successfully attracts viewers’ attention and harbours their awareness longer in contrast with other forms of adverts and enhances the recall capacity of a person. Thirdly, it prompts emergence of an emotional evocation like perception of arousal and triggering of lust (Wirtz, Sparks and Zimbres 2017, p.168).
Common forms in which sex appeal appear in the adverts
The use of sex appeal in the media adopts several forms, for instance use of nudes, deployment of sexually motivated behaviour, psychical attraction, erotic referents and sexual embeds (Black and Morton 2017, p.331).
Use of nudity
Mainstream media displays some significant levels of exposure of naked parts of the human bodies. Reference to nude does not imply full body nakedness, but refers to certain level of exposure of body parts which people expect should be covered (Reichert and Lambiase, 2014, p.120). It has been more frequent for people to see adverts showing people dressed in considerably short skirts, exposure of brawny men, tight tops for men and women, bikini and lingerie’s. Some instances of dressing deliberately expose undesirable body parts to the viewers who may perceive it as disgraceful. While exposing the body parts, advertisers aim at causing sexual attraction to the viewers (Frith, Shaw and Cheng 2016, p.56). It is very common for audiences to watch women dressed in suggestive dresses, for instance, an open blouse showing partial exposure of cleavage. Tight fitting clothing aim at highlighting the body figure and enticing sexually motivation. Full body nakedness cannot pass through the mainstream media due to the editorial processes involved
Physical charm
Over long time human being have been attracted to certain human physical features and attractiveness. Adverts try to compound the central human physical features to encourage sexual response of attraction from people. People are attracted to other people’s outward look not only for interpersonal attraction but also for the sake of mate selection which they aim at reproducing children with certain identifiable features (Visetbhakdi 2018, p.2). Some of the notable traits which human being work on improving include external appearance, for instance, facial beauty and colour. Other remarkable areas which stand out as vital for enhancement to facilitate sex appeals include women hips, skin colour, skin texture, men’s abs and even muscle or body definition. When adverts shows exaggerated definition of the body parts it contributes to formation of sex appeals (Dahl, Frankenberger and Manchanda 2013, p.269).
Sexual behaviour
While it is rare to view sex acts on the mainstream media, there is a significant level of interpersonal interaction which prompts some perceivable feeling of sexually provocative behavioural demonstrations (Siripai, and Haywood 2017, p.143). Sexual behavior in media appears as the various forms, for instance, as an individual behaviour of a person. For example, it is common for models to show sexual behaviours in varying modes. Adverts may contain models who show people trying to make eye contact in a sexual manner. Media may show differing facial expression and attract smiles from the audience. Other actions such as flirting, and provocative movement may create sex appeals to people. Use of models in advertisement has provided grounds for communication of sexual interest to the viewers which may trigger sexual arousal amongst the audience (Whalen, Harrold, Child, Halford and Boyland 2018, p.562). Audiovisual media like television has been more consistent in portraying the contents that accentuate sexual features, for instance, by showing models eliciting seductive approach. A second approach may entail two or many models in advertisement participating in perceived sexual contacts. The level of explicitness range from an innocent portrayal of affection to extreme level of indirect sexual acts.
Sexual referents
Inclusion of details that generate sexual thoughts is considered as instances of sex appeal in advertisement like sexual embeds including the objects which take representations of sexual acts and may create subconscious perception amongst human beings. Some of the representation of sexual embeds entail the use objects whose shape and positions are similar to human genitalia and indirect message talking about nude people and body parts (Percy and Elliott 2016, p.132).
From the primary research survey, many respondents expressed physical characteristics as the key part of sex appeal. The men respondents identified the use of women having clothing which they considered half naked or even extremely tight dresses. They mentioned physical attractiveness and exposure of upper parts of the body, for instance, cleavage and chest. Men were more likely to define women as ‘sexy’ when they exposed some portions of their body or even wore tight dresses. Women on the contrary, found tall men and hulk men as ‘sexy’. Revelation of wide chest amongst men relayed by several female respondents as having sex appeal (Shabbir, Maalouf, Griessmair, Colmekcioglu and Akhtar, 2018, p.2).
Respondents noticed some people’s movements as exhibiting certain levels of sex appeal. Actions like flirting, certain types of dancing, stimulating demeanours and even fun loving contained some levels of direct or indirect use of sex appeal. Audios adverts were crucial ways of conveying provocative ads, for instance, sounds like singing, moaning and groaning would create sexual feeling (Wyllie, Carlson and Rosenberger III 2015, p.189).
The use of sex appeal and term ‘sexiness’ was closely related. Respondents established another segment of sexiness to include contextual features, for instance, through use of photographic techniques in bringing out indirect or direct sexual appeal. The use of hazy and shadows or even images of black and white generated provocative sense to the viewers. Adverts also uses couple having deep embraces to communicate their product as the cause of unity and love in the family unit. Such embraces had the capacity to trigger sexual fantasy amongst viewer and it affected both genders (King, McClelland and Furnham 2015, p.215).
Findings of the secondary research
The findings of the secondary research included in the methodology segment showed outcomes based on cross-cultural basis. The research established that Australian, US and Chinese had notably different attitudes towards use of sex appeal in ads. The consumer purchase intentions relating to the advertised brands were found not to have considerable variations. In spite of the overriding assumption that Chinese consumers could react least favourably to adverts showing sex appeal, the research established that they have similar approach regarding sex appeal as the US and Australian consumers (Whalen, Harrold, Child, Halford and Boyland, 2018, p.560). The study established that product involvement was found to hold significant covariate properties.
The respondents in the secondary research established that the use of sex appeal in advertising is an effective strategy applicable to attracting customer’s attention and building product brand. Many respondents affirmed having witnessed the marketing strategy as pervasive and widely spread
