Running Head: DOVE

Dove

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Tutor
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Critique the Dove campaign

Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” was launched in 2004 and altered women’s belief
concerning the definition of beautiful. The campaign’s four separate marketing phases are the
use of print advertising medium. The second phase targets ethnic groups and young women
through the use of television, commercial advertisements. Third phase is that of older women
giving focus to those on the 50+ age range under print advertisement. The fourth phase is the
viral video spread on social network newsfeeds across. It is the most modern advertisement that
moves across the country.
The phases have shortcomings that do not meet the goals of the company and include the
campaign’s failure in relation to men’s perceptions and how the campaign affects them,
Habermas’ public sphere notion, and male gaze prominence in media. In addition, the campaign
categorizes women invited to participate in online Dove’s forum campaign and exclusion of
those women who are thin naturally. Thus, the tag line, “Real Women Have Real Curves,”
exempts these women and as such, the Campaign for Real Beauty is rendered useless. Here, the
definition of beauty is not widened, but provoked ideas on society’s definition on beauty.
The first impression of Dove’s Campaign is a sense of acceptance that was established by
the models facial and posture expressions. The smiling faces of the models portray bodily
confidence even though the western societies do not embrace them to be models of beauty.
Moreover, this campaign espouses positive messages, with the goal of changing the attitudes of
women towards their perception of beauty. More so, the imperative conflicting goal of the
campaign relates to sales increase.
The strength of the campaign is that it managed to initiate a global conversation
concerning beauty definition. The main issue of the campaign targeted a repetitive use of
unattainable and unrealistic images, which posed restrictions to the definition of beauty. The
culture of advertising challenged beauty stereotypes using Dove’s campaign since they selected
real women in the society. These women’s appearances are outside stereotypical beauty norms
like women with weight and older women with wrinkles. They were liked by their women
audience since they were relatable and provided to the media a “fresh” perspective. The
campaign received tremendous publicity and has been the recipient to numerous awards. For
instance, “Evolution,” the online video, which received over 1.7 million, views in its first month
of launching (Springer, 2009). Accordingly, Vivek, Beatty, and Morgan talk about customer
engagement through the fourth phase of advertising campaign that built on customer trust (2012).
The weakness of the advertisement campaign is that it lowers the self-esteem of young
girls and women in the society concerning their body image. Self-awareness of beauty ideals is
also an issue raised with the advertisements (Anschutz, Engels, Becker & van Strien, 2009). The
negativity gives rise to anxiety relating to body-focused and body weight dissatisfaction.
However, Dove failed to fully widen the definition of beauty because they fail to include a
woman with disability in their ad campaign. Therefore, Dove reinforces on their traditional
understandings of beauty and body (Odell, 2010). It is also said that Dove engages in digital re-
touching of their campaign
From the direct marketing campaign, I would rate Dove to be an eight because it looked
into promoting the welfare of every woman in the society by re-defining beauty through the use
of real women in society. The advertisement incorporated the needs of all their potential
customers in integrating the plus-sized women who also contribute to the face of Dove. The
inclusion also caters for disadvantaged women in the mainstream society because the campaign
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aimed at promoting positive body image. The ideology presented by the campaign is that of
“naïve integration” where it espouses an acceptance of the types of diverse body.
Strengthening the campaign would entail including disable women in the mainstream
society; because they part of the target market for Dove’s products. The other strength related to
Dove is its ability to use models that are “thin” as is misconceived in all advertisements. It is
evident that Dove needs to give their product line a sense of acceptance by promoting a single
product within its line and not the whole brand. The company needs to look into their research
and development to investigate further on their products and reduce the harmful effects
associated with Dove products. Manipulative techniques of advertising should be discouraged
since it will lead to the loss of reputation of the company at a given time due to competition in
the global world market.

Campaign Creation
Your second task is to create a new campaign of your own. Your recommended campaign must
include:
Market segment characteristics
Demographics segmentation will divide consumer groups according to their characteristics like
age, occupation, gender, ethnicity, income, education, and size of the household.
 The campaign will have male and female between 18 and 35 years.
 Upper middle class
 High income groups
Geographic segmentation is where an overall market is divided into homogenous groups based
on their locations.
 Centered on America.
Lifestyle is the decision of people on how to live their daily lives, job, consumer activities, and
includes family.
Psychographic segmentation divides the population into groups with similar lifestyles and
psychological characteristics.
Geodemographic segmentation where potential customers are segmented into neighborhood
lifestyle categories. It also combines with demographic, geographic, and psychographic
segmentation.
Behavioral data considers that:
 The target market is composed of individuals who are outgoing and friendly
 Are aware of their health both emotionally and physically.
Market needs
 Moisturizing products that leave the skin smooth, clean, and soft and rinses cleaner than
the soap products available in the market.
 Ease in buying the product
 High product quality
 Affordable price.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
 Unilever, Dove’s mother group, has a wide variety of brands and products
 High market share
 Stresses on emotional and family values
 Dove’s motto is that beauty is meant for everyone
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 International recognition of the brand

 Dove products are found in half of the homes in US
 The longest-running medical program supports Dove
 Body during the hot or cold weather
 Lotions and soaps seasonal variety to changes in body changes during hot and cold
weather
 Strong media presence on Facebook gives Dove an added advantages program
 Large products variety
 Ad makeover in the social media pushes users to send encouraging messages to loved
ones and friends via Facebook. It will manage to combat negative messaging concerning
girls being surrounded in the media.
 Reward
Weaknesses
 Testing of products is done on animals
 Strong competition
 The target market is the Upper middle class, which does not relate to their motto
 Critics of campaigns in real beauty aspects are increasing
 Marketing has become expensive
 Dove’s credibility and authenticity is affected by Unilever’s portfolio
 The deodorant category has a low market share
 Women buy many Dove products unlike their male counterparts
 Low consumer awareness of funds and tools of self-esteem
 Controversial advertisement among their audience, which includes issues like hypocrisy,
racism, and nudity.
Opportunities
 Through global partners and Girl Scouts of America, Dove hosts self-esteem events
 Has key partners
 Its operations are in more than 80 countries and sales is in more than 150 countries
 The leading segment in the market is the body wash
Threats
 Portrayal of hypocrisy in Dove’s real beauty campaign by the media
 Other competitors do not perform their tests on animals
 Bad economic conditions has had a tendency on people to buy what they need and not
want
 The varieties of products in the market are large and consumers are also willing to change
their brands
 Dove’s disposable products are short-lived
 Majority of the problems faced are contributed by Unilever
 The brand is feared to be for “fat girls,” which is a risk to the company
Media blend selection
The promotion media to use include television, internet, and print advertising.
Television
The television is watched by many people in America at any given point and therefore, the
message of the advertisement needs to be eye-catching and delivers a message that is unique.
The television is also a media that has various subscribers with varying tastes and preferences,
which will stimulate growth patterns in Dove. This is due to the numerous advertisements in the
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media and hence, the message delivered should have a strong message that attracts potential
customers. Moreover, they should be eager to learn more about the products by visiting the web
page in order to learn more of available products. Creativity is a tool that should be emphasized
in such instances because it will look at very many aspects that lead to persuading the potential
consumer about a product.
Print
Under the print media advertising, the company can decide to have competitions that people can
participate in and thus, increases their sales because the first price is winning a house and large
sums of money. The only thing that consumers need to do is buy a newspaper and go to the
section where the advertisement is then fill out the form and wait for the grand draw. This
promotional strategy is bound to increase the sales and market share o Dove products because it
has a variety of products that meets and satisfies the needs of different individuals in the globe.
Internet
The internet is a place or site mostly visited by the young generation and therefore, in order to
attract their attention, an application can be availed in the web page. This app should facilitate
the entry into viewing the variety of Dove products available and should also include video clips.
This will enable the young generation be attentive and keen to finish reading the product
descriptions. Hence, this media should be interactive because many people visit the web page
and it will mean that sales forecast is increased. More so, it leaves the potential consumer feeling
respected, appreciated, and accommodated, which persuades individuals to get the products.
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References
Anschutz, D. J., Engels, R.C.M.E., Becker, E. S., & van Strien, T. (2009). The effects of TV
commercials using less thin models on young women’s mood, body image, and actual
food intake. Body Image, 6, 270–276.
Odell, A. (2010). Dove seeks women with ‘flawless skin’ and ‘no scars’ for its next real
beauty campaign. New York Magazine. Retrieved from
http://nymag.com/thecut/2010/06/dove_seeks_women_with_flawless.html.
Springer, P. (2009). Ads to icons: How advertising succeeds in a multimedia age (2nd ed.).
Philadelphia, PA: Kogan Publishing.
Marshall, C., Lengyel, C. & Utioh, A. (2012). Body dissatisfaction among middle-aged and older
women. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 73, 241-247.
Vivek, S., Beatty, E. & Morgan, R. (2012). Customer engagement: Exploring customer
relationships beyond purchase. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 20, 127-145.
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Appendices

Television advertisements

Video Clips
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Newspaper Advertisements
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