Bütünleşik Pazarlama İletişimi Bağlamında Toplumsal Cinsiyet Temelli Bir Yaklaşım: Pembe Pazarlama
A Gender-Based Approach in the Context of Integrated Marketing Communications: Pink Marketing

Summary/Abstract: This study examines how pink marketing, as a gender-based approach, is constructed within the framework of integrated marketing communications and which meanings of femininity it circulates. Integrated marketing communications require firms to manage product, price, place, and promotion decisions, along with advertising, public relations, digital, and experiential tools, under a coherent message strategy. In this context, pink marketing is conceptualized as a field in which women are targeted through specific product designs, pricing strategies, store and space arrangements, and emotionally loaded communication campaigns that operate in an integrated way. The research adopts a qualitative case study design and uses purposive sampling to select three campaigns. The global campaign surrounding the Barbie movie, The Estée Lauder Companies’ breast cancer awareness campaign, and the BIC “For Her” product series represent different faces of pink marketing. Slogans, campaign texts and social media posts are analyzed through qualitative content analysis, and posters, product images, spatial designs and photographs documenting user practices are examined through qualitative visual content analysis. The findings show that pink marketing strategies position women within integrated marketing communications, both as influential economic decision-makers and as an emotional, vulnerable target group. Messages of empowerment, solidarity and health often appear within a strongly consumption-oriented frame, and in some cases, traditional gender stereotypes are reproduced. The study highlights the ethical tensions that pink marketing creates for integrated marketing communications and underlines the need for more inclusive strategies that do not reinforce existing gender clichés.

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