Dove's Real Beauty - Case Study Example

Dove “real beauty” campaign analysis: Campaign Introduction Dove is Unilever’s world leading and valuable brand in the beauty industry for over 50 years. In 2004, Unilever launched the Dove “Real Beauty” campaign with the aim of widening the identity of beauty among female consumers of this particular product. The goal of this campaign is to expand the brand awareness and increase the global market share. As such, this paper seeks to critically analyse the effectiveness of this campaign. Aims of the campaign The campaign resulted from Dove’s world based research which showed that only 4% of women consider themselves beautiful. Fernando Machado, the vice president of Dove Skin, states that the mission of this campaign is “to create a world where beauty is a source of confidence and not anxiety.” History of the campaign The first stage of this campaign started in the United Kingdom in September 2004. The company used the strategy of erecting a series of billboard advertisements with photographs of ordinary women instead of professional models. Viewers were compelled to decide whether the particular woman was “Fab” or “Fat”, “Wrinkled” or “wonderful”. This creative and interactive event showed that all regular women presented in the advertisement received more positive feedback than negative feedback. In the same year, Dove published the “Dove report,” which proposed the purpose of this campaign which was related to: “building a new definition of beauty will free women from self-doubt and encourage them to embrace their real beauty.” This was an evolution of creativity in the advertisement used by ordinary figures to communicate with their audiences. It soon archived a remarkable promotion result, media coverage over mainstream news broadcasts, television shows and publications. The media exposure value is over 30-times the cost of advertisement according to the “Dove report.” Inputs and Outputs: In 2006, “Ogilvy & Mather Brazil,” the marketing agency of “real beauty” campaign decided to follow up on the success of the campaign to expand it by creating a series of videos and post their official campaign on the website. All the videos advocated that beauty is not based on subjective standards, but self-esteem and confidence. During the same year, Unilever spent 2.5 million to purchase a commercial break during Super Blow, to play a 30 seconds video – “Evolution.” This bold investment proved to be a smart strategy, the annual sales report showed over 250% increase on Dove Skin caring products in the global market. In 2007, 2010 and 2011, Dove launched a series of relative activities and advertisement tactics. The positive image of Dove is deeply rooted in public. In April 2013, Dove posted the “Real beauty sketch” commercial video online. The video shows a forensic sketch artist drawing a series of women. The first sketch is based on the woman’s own description and the second one is based on the information provided by someone they had just met. The second sketch is more flattering than the first in every instance. This video became a sensation online. Within one week, it reached over 7.5 million viewers and shared more than half million times to different online social platform. However, this video sparked a debate of Dove’s theme in “real beauty.” Unlike the pervious strategy, the standard is provided clearly in this particular commercial – “you are more beautiful than you think.” In the video, the sketch based on description from the stranger is more commonly different compared to the one drawn from their readme. There are few main points in this video that raises certain questions like: Has Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketch” commercial backfired its campaign theme? In Dove’s 2004 billboard campaign, the message was to widen the identity of beauty. For example, a photograph of an old lady should be “wonderful” than “Wrinkled.” However, in this video, when the participants saw the first sketch, they described “dark circles around the eye,” “She looks fatter.” However, when they talk about the second sketch, terms like “fairly thin,” “much younger” and “second one is more beautiful,” are commonly used hence, the yardstick of beautiful is different from Dove’s pervious commercials. The “natural beauty” that Dove encourages is – “You are beautiful as the way you are,” as opposed to the way of this “Real beauty Sketch” video does. However, this does not affect Dove’s marketing tactics. In fact, this kind of debate increases the media attention and coverage. In the popular video sharing website, over 5,000 related videos have been posted within 2 weeks. Media press such as Chicago Tribune, Los Angel Times and ABC News Australia have joined the debate about the article. Whether Dove did this intentionally or not, the public heed is drawn. By using fairly low cost strategy, Dove managed to achieve the most propaganda effect out of it, to reach the media organizations and individuals extensively. Outcomes and Analysis: “Compared to other brands,” Catharine Totten one of the consumers said: “For me, Dove is more natural and personalized, I will rather buy their product than go for some brands which say only super models are beautiful enough.” According the “Dove Annual Report,” in 2012, Dove is the number one cleansing brand, holds over 60% of the market share in Skin Care products and over 2.5 billion euro sales in more than 80 countries in the world. Compared to 2004, Dove only had 24% of the US market share. The “real beauty” campaign’s effect is obvious and tremendous. The success of the campaign is based on comprehensive and credible research. In 2003, before the “Real beauty” campaign started, Dove carried out a large global research which included over 10 countries and 3,000 females in age groups between 18 and 64 years. In 2004, the survey report was published. The results showed that 83% of female consumers did not believe the model in commercial used the product they promote. However, 68% agreed that “The media and advertising set for women and unrealistic beauty standard could not be reached” and 56% of females indicated that they rather see as if the self and the model in advertising have something in common. Also, the other reasons that caused this significant reaction from the public is that Dove has shown the courage of taking the risk of this tactic. When all the other skin caring industries publicized the “prefect” image or standard of women, they make consumers to lack confidence in their appearance towards their products. The “real beauty” campaign of Dove does the opposite way but promoting the “nature” of beauty to encourage consumers to build their self-confidence. Unlike most other skin caring products, Dove uses “ordinary people” in its advertisements rather than celebrities. This not only minimizes the budget of production costs, but also shortens the distance of a large international company to regular individuals hence it helps to build up a sense of trust between the manufacturer and consumers. By showing realistic beauty to the public, this has helped Dove to win more faith and reliance from the targeted audience. This has helped the consumers to explore their products and to appeal to different consumers with different appearances. Back to the input of this campaign, Dove as the mainstream brand of Unilever has gained the full support from them. Therefore, Dove invested large amounts of resources and time to build up this positive image before it started this relatively risky campaign. However, this idea of discovering the “natural beauty” is not groundless. By researching at Dove’s product image before this campaign, it can be seen that the unique selling point of their products has been natural and moderate since 1974. Therefore the “real beauty” campaign is still based on the idea of “natural.” “Real beauty” campaign extends and explores this idea further, “a perfect combination of (campaign in) lost-cost and personalized,” said by Qingyun Jiang, the head of marketing department of Fudan University. The creative way of propaganda provides a “personal experience” impression in the consumer through the use of empathy and shortening the distance of a skin caring industry to every individual. The use of multi-media in this campaign is another crucial element that has led to Dove’s success. Traditional hard media press such as newspapers and magazines are commonly used to get it publicized while on the other hand, online new media such as social networks and official websites are also the key means of propaganda. In 2005, Unilever spent 200 million dollars to build the website – “Women Online.” In the forum of beauty on this website, a topic of “non-traditional image” of nowadays women reached over 3,000 comments within a week. This raised another difference of Dove’s “real beauty” campaign – Participation. As the first billboard campaign of Dove’s, viewers can get involved to vote, to speak up their opinions. Internet also provides a platform for Dove to get in touch with the consumers through providing a two-way communication channel with the targeted audiences. The participation of “real beauty” campaign gives Dove the chance to understand what their consumers want and also build up the image of “customer first” of the brand. Nevertheless, “Real beauty” campaign not only increases the company’s brand awareness and sales, but also builds up a long-term brand acknowledgement in the public. “Its an ad, but Doves Real Beauty Campaign is a gamechanger” wrote by Lianna Brinded, from the online media The Independent. Unlike other commercial campaigns, the evaluation can be only measured in physical value such as market share and sales report. The impact of Dove “Real beauty” campaign to skin care products commercial is stupendous, it expanded a whole new era of beauty industry commercial promotion. For the first time in skin caring products history, Dove initiated that every woman is beautiful. Dove started this campaign in 2004. Within eight years time, they became the world number 1 cleansing brand. The company impression was entrenched into minds of the consumers. Dove also developed a brand that cares and portrays the real beauty of women. This kind of trust and active relationship will lead this brand to develop sustainability. Dove’s “real beauty” campaign is a successful commercial campaign that took the risk of attempting to create a regular pattern as well as to create a new perspective of beauty product to consumer. This has been achieved through the use of people-oriented angle to sale the brand concept, with relatively low cost inputs to attain a huge media coverage and public attention. This has significantly increased the global market shares and sales; it has also established a long-term positive relationship between the company and the customers and achieved remarkable outcomes. Reference: http://www.brandmarketing.com.cn/article.asp?id=130 http://guide.ppsj.com.cn/art/3140/31405/ http://www.dove.us/Social-Mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove_Campaign_for_Real_Beauty http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/business/media/dove-ad-on-womens-self-image-creates-an-online-sensation.html http://www.forbes.com/sites/willburns/2013/04/23/dove-your-sketches-idea-is-more-beautiful-than-your-critics-think/ Read More