According to the results of a study by the beauty brand Dove, only 2% of women worldwide would consider themselves beautiful. Dove started advertising their products by emphasizing purity, freshness, and cleanliness. To highlight this, in 2004, they started The Campaign for Real Beauty’, which featured non- prominent women of all shapes, colors, and sizes. The advertisement consisted of two parts. First of all, Dove had a sketch artist draw women only based on how the women described themselves to the artist without actually seeing them.
Then, the artist sketched the same woman based on how another woman described her. In the end, the women got to see the two pictures in comparison and realized that the description made by the other woman, not herself, was always more attractive. By doing this, Dove, wanted to show that women often view themselves more negatively than they really are. Not only does this advertisement have a high social value, but it also created immense value for the brand itself by raising the individual’s perceived value, brand personality and created an award, which honors women, who aligned themselves with this message.
The aim of this work is to shed light on the issue of women who were represented in this advertisement and who are the main consumers of Dove products. Men were not the focus of The Campaign for Real Beauty’, however it should be emphasized in the introduction that men can also feel the same as women.Dove is one of the most popular beauty brands for various products like body lotions and deodorants. Before the launch of The Campaign for Real Beauty’, Dove kept its’ focus on the functional benefits of their products and their moisturizing effects, which set them apart from their competitors. Dove focused on these aspects to reach the consumers on the level of how they perceived their value. The perceived value frames the value on its functional features and shows how this product solved their perceived problems. However, for The Campaign for Real Beauty’, Dove shifted their focus from the product itself towards their consumers, especially women. They spotlighted women of all shapes, colors, and sizes. Through the advertising of women with diverse backgrounds and different body types, they differentiated themselves from many competitors. Since the perceived value focuses merely on the utilitarian parts of a product, this campaign did not affect the brand’s perceived value. Hence, The Campaign for Real Beauty’ could increase or decrease the individual perceived value of their brand, whether the costumers approved or disapproved of the message of the campaign. Because of this, Dove could highly improve the individual perceived value of their brand in fostering this campaign. The perceived value of a brand is essential to the brand personality. Brand personality links the emotive and self-expressive benefits to the consumer’s needs for social acceptance, personal appearance, and self-esteem. The idea of self-esteem is the whole foundation of the The Campaign for Real Beauty’. Dove used the artist’s depictions to show how women really perceived themselves, as well as how they are perceived by others, which clearly captures this concept. Dove wanted to encompass its brand personality image of loving yourself in your own skin irrelevant of shape, size, and color. This concept was not only embraced by consumers but also by media. Also, costumers are more likely to purchase a brand that is quite similar to their personality. In the case of Dove, this was solved very cleverly, as they addressed a wide range of consumers and thus increased their value as well. By using this advertising strategy on their products instead of focusing on the functional aspects, the message changed the personality of Dove and created immense value to their brand. Raising consumer awareness by using awards and initiatives is a very effective tool to increase a brand’s value. Dove created the Dove Real Beauty Award’ as an annual gala. This campaign was used to raise awareness for their products as well as the brand. This also helped honor women, who aligned themselves with this self-declared motto. The prize stands for empowering women in general and spreading their message through prominent figures. This is an excellent marketing technique because well-known personalities have a great deal of impact on the consumer market. The Dove Real Beauty Award’ increased the likelihood of attracting the appropriate women’s demographic. Besides, they also founded the Global Self-Esteem Fund’, which supports the ME! Campaign. Dove also became campaign sponsors for the Girl Scouts of the USA, whose goals include building self-confidence in girls aged 8 to 17. Dove, also advertised on the Girls Scout website as well. The rising media attention through corporate social responsibility campaigns resulted in an overall positive view of the Dove brand and created immense value for Dove itself. Through these massive changes in Dove’s advertising strategies, they created substantial value for the brand itself. Dove achieved this by raising a woman’s individual perceived value, creating a new brand personality and by creating an award for real beauty. Because of this campaign, Dove is perceived as a brand that stands for self-esteem and for promoting a positive body image. One of the major concerns in our society today is having a positive self-body image. In today’s media, beauty is seen as how it corresponds to various beauty standards such as the size, shape, and color of women. Opening up dialogues about self-esteem and the perceived body image along with incorporating the message that everyone is accepted as they are with all their flaws and rough edges can positively change how young girls as well as women perceive themselves.