Abstract:

The nature of decision making and branding for marketing has been changed among consumers based on the different sex roles in the society. Today sex roles have become a considerable factor to make a purchase decision of male and female counterparts in the market. Studies prove that, purchase decisions are influenced by sex roles. Gender contamination occurs when one gender is using a brand as a symbol of their masculinity or femininity, and the incursion of the other gender into the brand threatens that. However, the effect of sex role on gender bending is still not known. The phenomenon of gender contamination has   been explored and found to exist in different parts of the world but no such study has been done in Sri Lanka. This propose to study whether this phenomenon is prevalent in Sri Lanka and whether this phenomenon has any effect on the major apparel brand. Initially exploratory research design was used, as the problem of gender contamination had to be explored in order to understand the existing scenario. Later the research followed a descriptive research design. The method of sampling was decided, as large number of response had to be collected. Shopping Malls were considered as a place where the questionnaires could be circulated, as it would be convenient to obtain responses from a particularly large number of people. Two sets of factor analysis were done i.e. on Brand Gender Identity Quotient (BGIQ) and on fashion consciousness. Linear discriminant function analysis (i.e., discriminant analysis) performs a multivariate test of differences between groups.   In addition, discriminant analysis was used to determine the minimum number of dimensions needed to describe these differences.  Discriminant analysis was used to model the value of a dependent categorical variable based on its relationship to one or more predictors