They say, Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, and so they believe, but hold on, do they

really?
Right from her discovery of a thing called mirror, a woman is in a constant battle every day to have a
realization that she looks good, more to the world than to herself. Its sad at times, that looking good is
what brings in the varied levels of confidence in a woman inspite of their being unaccountable traits that
make her existence a reason enough for the world to be thankful.
How many times have we come across men whining about not having a pretty face, a toned physique or
for that matter, nicely textured hair? Cant remember? Not surprising. But who do we blame for this
wall of complexities that the women have built around them when they are judged, or so they suppose,
by their disposition?
Having captured this nerve in the human nature, Dove , in 2004,shifted from its traditional advertising
(that it used till 2003)expressing the brands benefits of one quarter moisturizing cream & the Dove
seven day test and launched its Real beauty campaign in order to change the connotations that we have
attached as to what is beautiful & celebrate REAL WOMEN .The campaign arose from the research
that only 2% of women worldwide considered themselves as beautiful and a majority of them strongly
agreed that the media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty. Dove used four genres of
advertising for this campaign while focusing on different TG as well. They used integrated marketing
communication by using print, TV and new forms of media such as real time voting and tabulated
displays of results on big billboards. The first genre was the print medium which showed women of
different shapes and ethnic groups in the advertisement. They also held an online poll asking people
whether the model was Flawless or Flawed? Oversized or Outstanding?, Fit or Fat? Though the
advertisement sparked a little criticism but the PR buzz created was what made the company continue.
The second ad targeted young women and used television as the medium while promoting skin products
like skin firming cream, lotion and body wash. The third ad featured old women and again used print ad.
And the last one was the viral video named real beauty sketches, which also became the most shared
and viewed ad.
The purpose of the ad was to increase the sales for Dove products, seemingly not-so-intended- motive,
and it used pathos and ethos in order to market its product irrespective of the age of the TG; however
according to Doves website, the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is a marketing campaign established
in order to widen the definition of beauty as well as provoke discussion on what our society deems
beautiful.
But we think that Dove has fallen short of their goal of changing womens perceptions for several
reasons. It seems to reinforce the very issue that it claims to criticize.
First is the slogan of the campaign Real women have real curves. The sole idea of the campaign was to
state that every women is beautiful in her own way but tagline actually discriminates between the
women who are naturally thin and the ones who are curvy, which is counterproductive to main focus of
the campaign.
Secondly, in the real beauty sketch video women are shown the difference in the perceptions about
themselves viz a viz a stranger. But at the end they base facial beauty as the source of satisfaction and
happiness and an evaluation criterion. Also finding the difference between the sketches of the women
described by themselves and the one described by the strangers is almost the same as finding a cell
phone in a haystack (nobody searches a pin it seems) . The only differences in the sketches were some
freckles, wrinkles or shadow under the eyes. Does that imply women with any of those are less
beautiful?
How can a Campaign that seeks to abolish the unrealistic standards of beauty but still basis true beauty
on physical attributes and not on their intellect or intelligence change the perception that has been
established and reinforced time and again by the mass media and the society? In the first genre of
advertising it used pictures of women and asked people whether they were fat or fabulous. But isnt it
another way of defining beauty on the physical attributes? Just because somebody is on the heavier side
of the weighing machine makes them fabulous and just because somebody is skinny makes them any
less?
Thirdly, the campaign misses out an important factor for the so called change they seek to make. MEN.
The other half of the population for which, for a long time women have been materialized as things and
are forced to strive for unattainable perfection. Dove forgot that for the society to change it needs to
alter the mindset of the male counterparts as well. By ignoring them any attempt to change the ideology
would be futile. All its marketing till now only focuses on the apparent sheepishness and low esteem
that women have.
The way Doves sales have skyrocketed since this campaign began, one might feel that it is actually
cashing upon the inherent insecurities of women. Also the company Unilever that owns Dove brand is
also the owner of the Deodorant brand Axe which has been the trendsetter for other companies to
follow sexism and to transform women into just eye candies.
That being said the campaign although just another advertising gimmick, Dove is an excellent
executioner of its marketing strategy. It used social media like facebook that is a major part of its
strategy while other brands felt that advertising on social media doesnt pays off. The company was the
first one to launch an ad campaign using normal looking women and not models that brought about a
trust factor and increased the level of association that women felt with the product. The campaign
revised the entire structure of advertising for personal care products which had been typically using
models with unattainable perfections and obviously a little bit of airbrush. The consumers were able
to share their opinion and stories on forums created by the company and as the human nature is, by
reading about others insecurities, they( in our opinion) felt better that they are not the only one who
suffers from such anxieties. Through using social media the company, although had to give up control
over the content, but that freedom helped to increase engagement and develop relationship with the
consumers.
The company has been able to turn itself into something more than just another beauty product
company. It has become a symbol and imagery for the consumers for inner or real beauty. The Dove
example demonstrated how a company makes its space in this cut throat competition by drawing a
unique position . It created a strong, appealing and differentiated position that required the exact
understanding of the consumers needs and desires, the companys strengths and weaknesses and the
competitors as well.
Through its marketing strategies Dove was able to strongly establish its points of differentiation and gain
a competitive advantage and survive in an industry with intense rivalry.


Shivali Jindal
Ritika Yadav
IIM Rohtak