A recent study reveals a notable shift in gun manufacturers’ marketing strategies, specifically targeting women as “serious students” of firearms, potentially contributing to the rise in gun sales over the last two decades.
The research, published in the Journal of Macromarketing, points out that from 2007 to 2022, women’s gun ownership in the United States increased from 16% to 22%, with women constituting more than half of the new gun owners between 2019 and 2021.
This trend is particularly intriguing given that women generally show stronger support for gun control than men.
The study, conducted by Michelle Barnhart, Aimee Huff, and Brett Burkhardt from Oregon State University, examined 20 years of gun advertising, particularly focusing on the content in Guns & Ammo magazine.
They observed a clear evolution in how women were depicted in these advertisements over the years. Initially, there were no ads featuring armed women, but this changed dramatically.
From 2008 to 2012, women in ads were typically portrayed in a sexualized manner, aimed more at men purchasing guns for women in their lives.
However, from 2013 onwards, the portrayal shifted towards depicting women as confident, empowered, and feminine, and by 2016, advertisements began to consistently present women as competent, responsible, and capable of using firearms for serious purposes like self-defense.
The “serious student” framing became particularly prominent from 2016 to 2020, being featured in about 45% of the studied ads. This approach portrayed women as dedicated to mastering firearms through focused training, emphasizing practical uses for guns.
Such advertising strategies appear to have successfully tapped into a new consumer segment, diversifying gun ownership in the U.S. and challenging traditional stereotypes associated with gun owners.
The study also highlights the role of “gunfluencers” in normalizing and promoting gun ownership among women through social media, working in tandem with print advertising to change perceptions and behaviors around firearms.
The researchers suggest that these changes in marketing strategies and the growing number of female gun owners could potentially reshape the identity of gun ownership in the U.S., making the group less ideologically homogenous and predictable in terms of voting patterns and attitudes towards gun control reforms.
The research findings can be found in the Journal of Macromarketing.
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