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International audience; Brand gender has been suggested to influence consumer’s responses to the brand. The aim of this research was to deepen the understanding of the relationship between brand gender and brand loyalty by developing a research model to test the relationships among brand gender, active consumer engagement with the brand on social media, perceived quality, brand love and brand loyalty. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling. The results support the importance of active consumer brandengagement, perceived quality and brand love in underpinning theunderlying process between brand gender and brand loyalty. Hence, this research complements prior work on brand gender and confirmsthe important benefits of a clear brand gender positioning by showing that a strong gender identity will enhance loyalty towards the brand.

International audience; This research builds on similarity theory in order to understand the key success factors of brand naming strategies for the cross-gender extension of female patronymic brands targeting men. Study 1 demonstrates that the most common naming strategy – adding a “Men” descriptor to the brand name – does not significantly increase brand attitude as the perceived brand masculinity cannot be enhanced for men. Study 2 extends Study 1 bytesting two more distant brand naming strategies: (1) dropping the first name and (2) using brand initials. The results show an inverted-U relationship pattern that reveals the key role of similarity: Dropping the first name has the most positive impact on brand extension attitude, purchase intention, and spillover effect. By contrast, the strategy using brand initials is too dissimilar from the initial brand name to be attractive to men. These findings provide managerial implications for practitioners considering a cross-gender brand extension strategy.

Purpose Mixed-target brands with strong gender identities, whether it be feminine or masculine, are not always successful at targeting both men and women, particularly in symbolic product categories. While attempting to maximize their sales for both targets, managers often struggle to capitalize on a single brand, and they hesitate between different naming strategies. This paper aims to build on brand gender literature and understand these brands’ (i.e. brands targeting both men and women) potential to adopt an endorsed brand strategy rather than a branded house strategy. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a before/after experimental design to examine the effect that introducing a gender-incongruent endorsed brand (i.e. feminine endorsed brand name of masculine master brands and masculine endorsed brand name of feminine master brands) can have on consumers’ brand attitude. Findings First, adopting an endorsed brand strategy increases the perceived brand femininity of masculine master brands, but there is no increase in feminine master brands’ perceived brand masculinity. Second, this strategy has a negative impact on consumer attitude toward the master brand, with a stronger negative effect for feminine master brands than for masculine master brands, which is mediated by the brand gender perception change. Third, a negative feedback effect on the brand’s gender-congruent users is revealed. Research limitations/implications One limitation of this work is that the focus is on one sole extrinsic brand characteristic (i.e. brand name) in our experimental design, which artificially influences the relative brand name importance for consumers. Moreover, the studies offered a short text to introduce the renaming. This may have made the respondents focus on the brand more than they would have in real-world conditions. Practical implications This research provides many insights for masculine or feminine mixed-target brands managers in symbolic product categories, as it shows that changing from a branded house strategy to an endorsed brand strategy appears to be unsuccessful in the short run, regardless of master brand’s gender. Moreover, the study reveals negative feedback effects on the attitude toward the initial master brand, following its renaming, in the short run. Originality/value This research provides a warning to managers trying to gender-bend their existing brands because it can lead to brand dilution. It also emphasizes the asymmetrical evaluation of masculine vs feminine master brands, as manipulating a brand’s perceived masculinity appears very difficult to do successfully.

Purpose– This paper aims to explore brand sexual associations and to understand the antecedents of these associations by drawing from an anthropomorphic view of consumption and a socio-psychological perspective.Design/methodology/approach– An exploratory qualitative analysis based on 18 semi-structured interviews was conducted. Following symbolic interactionism and inter-subjectively reflective approaches, three main methods were used: interviews, projective drawings and a pen-and-paper exercise.Findings– The results of this paper strongly confirm that a brand is perceived by consumers as having a sex, a gender and a sexual orientation. These findings point toward a crucial distinction between these three constructs. Construct conceptualizations are developed and definitions are suggested. Nine antecedents for brand sexual associations are studied.Research limitations/implications– French subjects constitute the sample. Future studies might investigate the transferability of our results to other cultures. The three constructs broadens the existing brand-as-a-person metaphor and brand gender literature.Practical implications– Managers need to consider the construction of their brands’ sexual identities, namely, the sexual associations that brand strategists desire to create and maintain. The study of the antecedents of brand sexual associations provides brand managers the opportunity to manage actively those specific types of associations.Originality/value– This research contributes to the brand-as-a-person metaphor and to the brand gender literature with new insights about the nature and structure of brand sexual associations. This paper moves the conceptualization of these constructs forward.

The bilaterally pedicled V-Y advancement flap was introduced by Pontes in 2002 with clinical applications for facial reconstruction [1]. Here we present the use of a bilaterally pedicled V-Y advancement flap for reconstruction of the nose following excision of a recurring basal cell carcinoma in a 97year-old patient. The bilaterally pedicled V-Y advancement flap is based on two subcutaneous pedicles that vascularize the skin island through subdermal plexus lateral bridges. It differs from traditional V-Y advancement flaps in that it does not rely on the classic subcutaneous vertical pedicle that is sectioned from top to bottom to improve advancement of the skin island based only on its bilateral pedicles. A 97-year-old man presented with a recurrence of a basal cell carcinoma 2.5 cm in diameter and located on the lower half of the nasal dorsum (Fig. 1). A bilaterally pedicled V-Y advancement flap was designed from the frontal region to the upper half of the nasal dorsum (Fig. 2). The recipient site determined the size of the flap and an isosceles triangle resulted when the flap was designed. The height (H) of the triangle which is the length of the V-Y flap, is calculated as follows