Dove Campaign for Real Beauty

Team members

1.Komal Jaswani2.Madhurima Biswas3.Rajesh Dorbala4.Rishabh Khanna5.Shakun Chauhan

What compelled Dove to go for Campaign for Real Beauty

• Conventional advertising set unrealistic standards of beauty that most women can’t ever achieve.

• Beauty itself must be revitalised to reflect women in their beauty as they really are.

• Ads seemed to tell women that they should look like super models who personified beauty.

On September 29, 2004

Dove formally launches

Campaign for Real Beauty

Objective behind this Campaign

• As per Silvia Lagnado

“By questioning the accepted definition of beauty, we hope to help women change the way they perceive their bodies and

encourage them to feel beautiful everyday.”

Hurdles/Roadblocks

• There were several criticisms:Some critics felt that Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’

campaign was contradictory.Accused of being hypocriticalObjectification of womenSkeptical about their intentions of using

young girls in ads

Major issue

• Dove literally narrowed down its marketing strategy, so possibility of expanding their marketing strategy in later stages is very difficult and risky.

• As per some critics “Remodelling consumer’s perceptions and attitudes would be quite difficult”

Recommendation

• They always need to keep media on their side as media had a big role to play in the success of this campaign. Their motto should be “ Grab media attention.”

Minor Issue 1

• Danger of being branded as a product for ‘Fat People”.

Recommendation

• They should eradicate the misconception that normal people are fat. They should underscore that the supermodels are anorexic, which is unhealthy.

Minor Issue 2

• They were sending some contradictory vibes.

(a) On one hand, the campaign was asking women to celebrate who they really were and on the other, the ads were aimed at selling a range of products, that would help women reduce their cellulite.

(b) It was also pointed out that Uniliver idealised images and stereotypes in its other brands like Slimfast, Lynx, Axe, Lux and Sunsilk

Recommendation

• Proper PR strategies to be implemented to clear misconceptions of their product variants, their target customers, and their marketing strategies. The key word should be “transparency” in order to earn faith.

Minor Issue 3

• The whole campaign could be a short term Fanfare.

Recommendation

• They should continuously undertake some sort of fresh promotional campaigns without losing their core values.

Minor Issue 4

• Undermining the aspirational essence in itself is a big risk. Dove is completely eliminating the reference group which kills the aspirational element from the whole ad campaign.

Recommendation

• They need to create some sort of reference groups by using successful professionals who are very common in their appearance rather than celebrities and super models.

Minor Issue 5

• Some nascent competition has evolved which could be threatening for Dove as their whole idea can become stale.

Recommendation

• They have to continuously project themselves as the pioneers of this kind of advertising and to continuously remind that they listen to common people.

• At the same time they need to continuously evolve.

Minor Issue 6

• It is a challenge to sustain the same high levels of loyal customer base that the company has developed for the past 50 years.

Recommendation

• They have to enhance their image by conducting some kind of beauty programs or fitness programs, in order to instill faith among the loyal customers that they still care for them.

• They should invest in R&D

Minor Issue 7

• Can adversely affect the sale of other Unilever products.

Recommendation

• Unilever as a whole should become more involved in their CSR activities so as to create an alibi.

Minor Issue 8• It is unethical to exploit

girls between the age groups of 8-12 on a sole motive to sell them their products when they grow up, putting this under the surreptitious garb of developing self esteem in them.

Recommendations

• In such ads, they should project their motives very explicitly and highlight the good things they are doing.

• Again a strong PR strategy is essential for such accusations.

• Transparency is the key word yet again to diffuse these criticisms.

Minor Issue 9

• They can face the twin challenges of evolving the brand without losing the existing customer base, as well as driving aggressive growth for this mature brand

Recommendations

• They have to invariably enter into the male segment as well.

• They have to be constantly in the eyes of the public.

Minor Issue 10

• Objectification of women as done by Dove can be disastrous for their brand’s goodwill.

Recommendations

• Should be very careful about the demographic sentiments, beliefs, culture etc.

• Whenever women are involved, there are ample chances of controversies, so they should portray women in a very elegant and dignified manner.

Conclusion

• Some element of aspiration has to be incorporated so as to ensure longevity of the brand.

• To put it in the words of Charles Revson, founder of Revlon, “In our factory we make cosmetics. In the stores we sell hopes.”

• Whatever the case is, as of now, Dove has succeeded in empowering femininity.

Dove celebrates “Real Beauty”