The Unilever Company initiated the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty back in 2004 as an international marketing strategy. The campaign has incorporated several approaches aimed at marketing the products publicized by the campaign ranging from advertisements, workshops, sleepover events, videos to the production of a play and a book. The market segment targeted by the campaign is that which is composed of all women and particularly those in professional jobs. Recently the campaign has extended its scope to capture even the young girls in their teens.
In the past decade, the campaign has been very successful compared to the previous Unilever campaigns due to the fact that it applies what is termed by its proponents as the ‘mission strategy.’ This strategy was built upon a three-year research focused on making women comfortable in whichever skin they are in. it focusses on defining beauty as a resultant of confidence. Prior to the strategy the advertisements only made the women see beauty in the context of insight versus tension which most women would not embrace (Dove Campaign for Real Beauty Case Study: Innovative Marketing Strategies in the Beauty Industry, n.d.).
There is a strong connection between a soap and a woman’s image of her own body. When a woman is making a choice on the type of soap to purchase, they first consider the effect that the soap is likely to have on their particular skin. They are psychologically proactive. They then consider the psychological satisfaction the soap is likely to have on them by looking at the ingredients and the fragrance. This is because women are so sensitive about their scent and comfort. Those who have experience of damaged skin also choosing the soap while considering that which can most likely repair their skin medically.
Following the campaigns the different target customers from different regions have elicited different reactions. Some of the reactions are positive while others are negative. However, the reactions were based on different advertisements. Some of the customers have been highly inspired by the campaign in its efforts to make them feel beautiful without having to worry too much by making them feel comfortable prior to how they were feeling prior to the campaign. However, negative reactions have also been part of these reactions were some of the customers accuse the campaign of not being genuine in promoting beauty. For instance, in the sale of lightening products in regions with dark-skinned people as in the case with ‘dark and lovely’ it is considered contradictory (Roedl, 2010).
The Dove Real Beauty campaign was not a success in some countries such as Taiwan back in 2013 was as a result of what critics termed as the distorted information about what the campaign was advertising. They stated that the Dove campaigns were aimed at making women experience true beauty and confidence from within while at the same time the campaigners are putting up billboards that entailed images of what could be termed as ‘perfect’ depiction of the physical body beauty features. They stated that this depiction was not a reality of what an ideal woman from Taiwan looks like and the depiction was exaggerated.
References
Dove Campaign for Real Beauty Case Study: Innovative Marketing Strategies in the Beauty Industry. Indiana.
Roedl, S. (2010). Campaigning for real beauty or reinforcing social norms?
