Dove has historically run a "Real Beauty" marketing campaign aimed at boosting women's self-esteem. However, two ads from this campaign failed and were deemed racist. In one ad, a black woman removed her shirt to reveal a white woman. Customers strongly criticized the ad online as being tone deaf. Dove removed the ad and apologized, but the response was unsuccessful. Their main competitors like Olay also focus on beauty and anti-aging but still retouched photos until 2021, lacking Dove's diversity goals. Moving forward, Dove plans to better listen to customers, provide diversity training, and properly showcase diversity in campaigns to truly represent real beauty for all women.
2. Company
Description
Dove is a beauty brand that sells various cleansing products. Their brand goal is to help all
women realize their personal beauty potential by creating products that deliver real care
1957- Cleansing Bar
They revolutionized
the combination of
cleansing and
moisturizing in one
cleansing bar.
1960- Expansion
Internationally and in
Advertising methods.
From the beginning Dove
based their advertising
campaigns on the needs of
women in that time.
2004- Dove Self Esteem
Project Launches.
This is the start of the Real
Beauty Campaign .
1980- Products Lines
Added
Dove created specialized
hair treatment in addition
to their cleansing
products.
They became a global
leader.
3. Products
DOVE PRODUCTS PROMOTED
● Skin Cleansing
● Skin Care
● Deodorants
● Hair Care
PRICING
● Competitive Pricing
● Cleansing Products are under
$10
FEATURES
● Made for Sensitive Skin
● Advanced Care for dry skin
● Tailored to individual needs
● #1 dermatologist-recommended
bar brand
4. Dove’s Marketing Mishaps
Though Dove has had a multitude of bad ads and strategies, we are focusing on
these two for this project.
5. Their
Marketing
Strategy
Women who struggle with
self confidence related to
their appearances.
Intended Customers
A greater appreciation for
their bodies and an increase
in self confidence. Needing a
new perspective on their
beauty.
Perceived Needs
Target segment comprised of
women who did not consider
themselves beautiful.
Segmentation
6. Value Proposition
Dove’s vision
We believe beauty should be a source of confidence, and not anxiety. That’s why we are here to help women
everywhere develop a positive relationship with the way they look, helping them raise their self-esteem and realise
their full potential.
Confidence Believe
Beauty
8. Why it Failed
Ad deemed as racist, tone
deaf, and problematic
Lacked the ability to express
the real meaning of the
campaigns: Real Beauty
Lack of attention to racial
sensitivities
Dove ruined body
image for women of all
shapes, sizes, and
color
*Note: Still on website
9. Customer Response
"I don't question their intent, but I do question their approval process, their
execution, and general common sense"
"When your ad is being called 'racist' by people across social media, you've
done a lot more than 'miss the mark, It just goes to show that in reality there is a
long way from Cannes to Main Street. Maybe they should have 'real people'
create the ads rather than just starring in them."
#BoycottDove was created by consumers to show their disapproval of
the brand.
10. DOVE BEAUTY
PR Response
“For a company that has professed to
embrace 'real beauty' by showcasing
everyday women, this misstep is
unconscionable."
- Chris Allieri, principal of Mulberry & Astor (PR
Agency)
➔ Dove removed the clip & apologized
➔ Apology was unsuccessful
➔ Media outlets seized on the story
11. Competition
Olay sells similar products with a brand image centering beauty and age. This
brand is often linked with anti-aging images with taglines like ageless and your
best beauty.
While Olay did have a campaign entitled “love the skin your in” in 2001 with the
same objectives, they still used a conventional attractive white model and
continued to retouch their photos til 2021.
12. Actually show REAL
representation in ‘Real
Beauty’ Campaign photos.
Better Diversity
Time Travel
Strategy
Implementation
and analyzation
On the back of every bottle
there would be a woman’s
story of how she learned to be
proud of herself
Story Telling
Show commercials and ads with
mothers, career women, female
artist, etc. to show there is
beauty in us all
Show Women of ALL
Kinds
13. Our Strategy
Today
➔ Dove will continue to focus on their
promise to women around the world,
by actually listening to the voices of
their customers and incorporating it
into their campaigns
➔ There will be diversity training to all
employees throughout the company
➔ More focus will go on properly
showing diversity in campaigns and
the true meaning of real beauty
➔ The Self-Esteem Project will be
integrated into projects for the main
marketing strategy
I found a dif pic feel free to delete it if you like the other better
Companies Description and history- Emma
Also, describe the product you are highlighting, its features, how it works, why it was special at the time, pricing, profitability, importance to company, etc.- Emma
Companies Description and history- Emma
Put yourself in the seat of the marketing managers at the time. Describe the marketing strategy they conceived. Who were the intended customers? Where were they to be found? Were there multiple market segments? What were their perceived needs? Why would they buy the product?
Dove wanted to create a campaign to promote to women to celebrate their bodies and not be ashamed of them. They saw that women surveyed did not consider themselves beautiful. They saw the need that women needed a better perception of their beauty and approached their appearance out of self consciousness rather than confidence. Dove hoped they would increase sales by encouraging women’s general attitudes. The women would be found through any marketing platform, TV, ads, social media.
Amelia
https://www.in-mind.org/article/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-the-dove-campaign-for-real-beauty
Value proposition? Differentiation? Communication? Pricing? Service? Delivery? Channels of distribution? Other observations? - Jinwook
Beauty, confidence and believe are doves main values
Dove focuses on women of all ages that beauty should be a source of confidence as a woman.
Dove wants to help raise self esteem of the women around us to show their beauty they were born with.
Dove invests their time in researching to deliver the most value to their customers, below shows what dove global research has found
Our global research shows:
Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful, and anxiety about appearance begins at an early age.
We want women and girls of all ages to see beauty as a source of confidence, not anxiety.
So we’re on a mission to help the next generation of women develop a positive relationship with the way they look - helping them raise their self-esteem and realise their full potential.
They have also created their self esteem project based on their value.
Also, describe the product you are highlighting, its features, how it works, why it was special at the time, pricing, profitability, importance to company, etc.
Analyze and critique the strategy and the implementation. Why do you think it failed? Where was it lacking? What was the response in the market and in the media? How did the company recover? - Brianna
Failed: started with a woman of color as before and ended with a white women as after…to be “more cleanly” and have “more beautiful skin”
Lacking: ability to use AND keep women of color to depict the campaign as they wanted to. Could still show “more beautiful skin” by end of commercial with the same person, but in a different way
Media and Market response: consumers used #BoycottDove to share what happened and why they do not and should no longer purchase from the brand. Wants the company to stop talking the talk and actually walk the walk
How’d the company recover: encouraged women to share their story,
It makes sense that Dove would cast models of different ethnic backgrounds in their ads. They are, of course, a company that prides themselves on inclusion. But central to the failed execution of this campaign is the order in which they chose to introduce each woman combined with the product they were selling. This lack of attention to detail led to public outcry of Dove being racially insensitive.
The ad was criticized because many people interpreted a black woman ‘changing’ into a white woman to be an inappropriate message – especially for a beauty company. It’s important to note that the reaction to this ad was swift and clear, with almost no one coming to the more positive conclusions that Dove intended
https://www.businessinsider.com/doves-racist-ad-10-9-2017-10
Ana
The popularity of social media allowed this controversy to exceed the control of Dove with many twitter users outraged. The hashtag Boycott Dove was created by consumers to voice their disapproval from the brand. Customers believed that Dove’s absence of inclusion in the boardroom was evident by their blatant lack of common sense. Many voiced how Dove should have 'real people' create the ads rather than just starring in them.
Alice -
Dove received plenty of criticism from PR professionals. Many individuals working in the industry did not question their intent, but did question their approval process, their execution, and general common sense.
Dove took down the video and apologized on Twitter, saying the post "missed the point in thoughtfully depicting people of color."
However, the apology failed to stop a storm of online criticism, with some users asking for a boycott of Dove goods on social media, while traditional media outlets in the United States and Europe developed stories on the subject.
Ana
Olay is an American skin care brand owned by Procter & Gamble. They offer soaps focused on moisture and complexion. They fall right behind dove for the bar and liquid soap industry with Dove taking 24% of market share. While they did have a campaign entitled “love the skin your in” in 2001 with the same objectives, they still used a conventional attractive white model and continued to retouch their photos til 2021. Had Dove’s marketing campaigns been more successful, Olay might have been forced to include more body positive branding to keep up. Instead the Real Beauty campaign’s failure allowed Olay to continue their lack of inclusion.
Continuing to view the market from the seat of the marketing managers at the time, describe the competition and their products. Where were they strong? Where were they vulnerable? How did they respond?
If you were doing it again BACK THEN, what would your strategy be? What would you have done differently? If you were doing it again TODAY, what would you change? - Mikinze
If you couldn’t tell, in a roundabout way, we just took you through a SWOT analysis. What this showed is that we are severely lacking is dove’s ability to actually listen to their customers, and also learn about diversity. This is not only bad from the brand but also great for our competitors. after this analysis, its clear to see that we needed to actually look deeper at what women wanted to see.
then go into the new strategy.
If you were doing it again TODAY, what would you change?- Jinwook
Having a diverse set of people working with us to help better our vision to people from all walks of life
Using their unique experiences to help catch issues that could be seen as insensitive and better understand the broad audience we serve.
What is The Dove Self-Esteem Project
The Dove Self-Esteem Project was founded in 2004 to help the next generation of women grow up feeling happy and confident about the way they look.
The project delivers self-esteem education to young people (primarily girls) aged 8-17 years through lessons in schools, workshops for youth groups, and online resources for parents.
Reaching 20 million young people with self-esteem education
ove has body confidence conversation guides to help parents speak with their kids about body image
As well as videos and activities to go along with this
Another part of the work Dove is doing is the Proud To Be Me project, focusing on lgbtq youth and building their confidence especially for LGBTQ+ youth as well.
Curating a positive social media feed can boost young peoples self-esteem and body confidence.
Help your child overcome unrealistic beauty standards
Dove is using their platform to help educate people about the struggles women face
Helping educate parents about what their kid may be struggling with at this moment
Helping to improve their body image and self esteem
All of our self-esteem resources are developed in consultation with experts: global authorities on the issue of girls’ body confidence as well as those with a very real, practical understanding of girls.
Since 2005, our Dove Self-Esteem Project has reached around 82 million young people, and grown to become the world's biggest provider of self-esteem education.
Focus more on this venture that has already been a success and expand this project to bigger audience of all ages
Continue to inspire and run a successful campaign
