Best in Consumer Insights: Dove Real Beauty Campaign

by Paul M. Banas

It doesn’t take a market researcher to understand that the fashion and beauty industry over the years was selling an ideal on how a woman should look that was completely out of step with the vast majority of women. The industry’s focus on an beauty ideal that only applied to a very small number of women had been criticized and held up for ridicule.
But underneath the jokes, there was also a significant amount of resentment that women felt about all these unrealistic beauty standards being broadcast across all forms of media.
The marketers at Unilever recognized this resentment and turned it into an insight that they outlined in a new brand manifesto for their Campaign for Real Beauty:

For too long, beauty has been defined by narrow, stifling stereotypes. Women have told us it’s time to change all that. Dove agrees. We believe real beauty comes in many shapes, sizes and ages. That is why Dove is launching the Campaign for Real Beauty.
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. A view of beauty that all women can own and enjoy everyday.

Anna x