Identifying the Key Success Factors in Implementing Brand Gender Identity Considering the Consumer Community Using the FCM Method

The key to managing and developing a brand is to understand what benefits customers are looking for. In the meantime, paying attention to the concept of gender identity of the brand and the effective factors in its implementation as a basic solution to obtain the satisfaction of customers who today are more expected than yesterday and are not only looking for functional benefits but also intangible benefits, is considered a necessity. Therefore, the current research was carried out with the aim of identifying the key factors of success in the implementation of the gender identity of the brand by considering the consumer society. This research is applied in terms of purpose and method of data collection. It is also a survey and exploratory study, which has a comparative and inductive research philosophy. The statistical population of the research is made up of clothing industry managers, whose sample members were selected using the purposive sampling method and the principle of theoretical saturation. The data collection instrument was the interview in the qualitative part and the questionnaire in the quantitative part. The validity and reliability of the instruments were analyzed using content validity and intra-coder inter-coder reliability for the interview and content validity and re-test reliability for the questionnaire, respectively. In this study, the content analysis and coding methods were used for the qualitative part of the study and the fuzzy cognitive mapping method was used for the data analysis for the quantitative part of the study. Research findings include the identification of success factors in the implementation of brand gender identity by consumer communities and their prioritization. Considering the results of the research, the appropriateness of appearance and style, emotional and emotional relationships of the brand, and details and attachment to the brand were identified as the most important factors for the success of women's brands. Obtaining values based on power and prestige, obtaining maximum benefits, practical motivations, and generalization were identified as the most important key factors in the implementation of the gender identity of men’s brands.