02.

UNILEVERS REAL BEAUTY CAMPAIGN FOR DOVE

a.
Critically analyze the factors that resulted in the success of the Dove Campaign for
real beauty. Do you think that Unilever can sustain this campaign over the long run
without being considered as a brand for fat women, as suggested by a few critics?
Suggested answer
For too long, beauty had been defined by narrow, stifling stereotypes. Women had told Dove that
it was time to change all that. Dove listened to their customers. It believed real beauty came in
many shapes, sizes and ages. That is why Dove had launched the campaign for Real Beauty.
The Dove campaign manifesto
The message of the campaign: Real beauty could only be found on the inside and every woman
deserved to feel beautiful. The image that Dove wanted to create: Real beauty was portrayed by
women who did not have "runway model" on their resumes and they were the women passing by
in grocery aisles or sitting in the office next door.
But before Unilever committed to the campaign, it secured evidence that the majority of their
consumers would relate to it. "The Real Truth about Beauty," a global research report
commissioned by Dove, reported that no women described themselves as gorgeous, 9% said they
were comfortable and only 2% thought they're beautiful. As for the others, about 29% rate their
beauty as average. Meanwhile, nearly half the women globally and 60% of U.S. women said
their weight was "too high." 68% of the respondents answered that the media and advertising set
an unrealistic standard of beauty that most women felt they could never achieve.
A Revolutionary Campaign
The campaigns mission was to make more women feel beautiful everyday by widening
stereotypical views of beauty. To accomplish this, the campaign deviated from the typical trend
of highlighting beautiful skinny models. Instead, Unilever featured real and average women.
They used a mix of print, TV and billboard ads, along with many social and new media
strategies. The ads were also placed in highly visible spot like major transportation hubs and on
the sides of buses.
This was what set Dove apart from other brands. Its beauty campaigns touched a cultural nerve
by challenging the current super-thin, silky-hair, perfect skin standard. The Dove campaign used
real women instead of professional models. The women in the print ads ranged in age from 22 to
95 and a covered a variety of sizes. In the American ads the women ranged in dress size from 6
to 12. The campaign spurred conversations in the media and among product consumers.
Ultimately Dove's brand image grew because people began associating concepts of true beauty
with Dove and its products.
The website, Campaignforrealbeauty.com, was littered with features such as discussion boards,
interactive advertisements where you could vote on the ads and receive the running tally of the
results, as well as access to the full Global Report, all lending to the campaign a purely

democratic feel which boosted the notion that they were all about supporting women. In addition
Dove had created the Self-Esteem Fund in partnership with Girl Scouts of America entitled
Uniquely Me! which helped build confidence in girls of ages 8-17 years. The Self-Esteem
Fund also supported Body Talk, an educational program for schools to boost their self-esteem.
All this appeared very altruistic.
The success of the Dove campaign had also been its agility in widening scope without increasing
much cost and entering popular culture through new media. In Dove's case, brand images
powered by new media were co-constructed by the company and its consumers. Dove used
billboard to ask their consumers to help create the Self-Esteem Campaign that had brought more
attention to the Campaign for Real Beauty and ultimately transformed a model's features into an
ethereal face. Dove's message and story then migrated to the entertainment media. The spot
played on TV shows such as "Ellen," "Oprah Winfrey"; aired at Super Bowl and published on
the cover page of People magazine. Dove, the brand with a point of view, now had customers
with a point of view through this unconventional approach in the beauty industry. After the
campaign, sales in 2nd business quarter rose by 11.4%.Total sales for Dove brand rose 6% to US
$.5 bn. Number of people visiting Dove website rose by 200%. Number of calls to consumer call
center had also increased.
Conclusion
The Dove competition yielded positive results because the Campaign for Beauty had embedded
the brand's true beauty message in the public mind. Dove's global Campaign for Real Beauty
aims to change the status quo and offer in its place a broader, healthier, more democratic view of
beauty that all women can own and enjoy every day. The campaign differentiated Dove from
others and was successful in generating a huge buzz in the media.