School of Design

Background In today’s modern world economy, businesses and financial institutions often use advertisements to attract customers and to establish brand image. Print ads are one of the important sources of disseminating information, especially in India’s banking sector. However, little is known about gender preferences and their impact on Indian banking print advertisements. Exploring visual metaphors in banking print ads is crucial to understanding interpretation1) patterns and inferences among genders, enabling designers to create more effective ads. The current paper aims to elucidate the exploration of the interpretation of both genders (male and female) towards the banking print ads ‘with visual metaphors’ and ‘without visual metaphors’. The insights gained would further help potential designers know about the preferences and likes of people across genders and use that information to create ads more effectively. Methods A three-month online survey was conducted on 102 participants (51 males and 51 females) to gather data on their interpretations of ads related to car loans, education loans, and fixed deposits in the banking sector. The data was analyzed quantitatively using independent t-tests for ‘advertisement liking’ (‘ad-liking’) and qualitatively using the content analysis approach to gather inferences. Results Quantitative analysis showed that the use of ‘visual metaphors’ in banking product ads affected mean scores differently across genders. Females consistently scored higher in ads ‘with visual metaphors, ’ while males showed greater variability. However, the difference between groups ‘with visual metaphors’ and ‘without visual metaphors’ was not substantial. Further qualitative analysis was needed to determine if any differences lie in interpreting ads by participants from both genders. The results of the qualitative study signify the thematic resonance between the male and female psyche in advertisements. Males, traditionally family breadwinners, portrayed finance and analytics themes more pragmatically. Conversely, females displayed a broader analytical attitude and emotional depth, engaging with the advertisements beyond the financial narrative. Their indirect linkage of education with freedom and opportunity portrayed aspiration and empowerment, reflecting societal demand for change. Conclusions This study uses visual metaphor-based ads and non-metaphor-based ads to examine the design and reception of advertisements in the banking sector. The study highlights the need for advertisers to create messages that resonate on multiple levels, transcending traditional gender roles. The insights inform marketers to create advertisements that capture attention, inspire change, and resonate with human aspirations, ultimately boosting sales and revenue. The study provides a preliminary understanding and encourages further, more in-depth research on the topic in the future. Copyright: This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted educational and non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited.