Karissa Rafferty

Karissa Rafferty

Professor Rolfe-Redding

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

COMM 302

Media Final Paper

Research question: What were the goals in Dove’s “Real Beauty Campaign?” And were they successful?

Thesis: Dove’s Real Beauty campaign goals were to raise self-esteem in women as well as promote global awareness of their brand. According to my media content analysis and research on the Real Beauty campaign qualitative and quantitative data, Dove did meet both their goals as demonstrated by an increase in overall sales as well as a rise in confidence levels in women. In this media content analysis I will analyze this media campaign using statistics, personal testimonies, and online surveys.

Dove company background

Dove, a brand well recognized and respected on an international level, is owned by their parent company, Unilever, a partner of Ogilvy, Inc. Their products consist of hair and skin care merchandise, ranging from soap, lotion, deodorant and hair styling lines. In 2005, the “Real Beauty” campaign was launched in Brazil by Ogilvy & Mathers with the tagline, “You’re more beautiful than you think.” Ogilvy’s head of marketing in Brazil was inspired to raise self-esteem in females and geared the campaign towards promoting the acceptance of different body types, or determining your own “real beauty” in a contemporary society where women hold themselves up to unrealistic standards of beauty, as dictated by the media.

Not surprisingly, the campaign was widely accepted in Brazil and quickly went viral on a global scale within several months of the initial launch. The “self-esteem” movement focused its’ media efforts on social media avenues such as Youtube, Facebook and Twitter, encouraging viewers to “share” the inspirational and moving videos.

Now, even eight years after the first introduction of Dove’s Real Beauty campaign, it is still relevant in the media. The two videos, as focused on in this analysis, with the simple yet effective titles “Sketches” and “Evolution,” are still being passed around & viewed today. “Sketches,” which has a 3 minute version and 6 minute version on Youtube, was released around 8 months ago in April 2013, and shows women describing themselves to an artist behind a curtain who is drawing how they depict themselves. The women are critical of themselves, and use words such as “droopy eyebrowns,” “bad skin,” “big nose.” Then, a stranger sit behind the curtain and describes the physical features of a person they had met for the artist to draw, and most describe others with positive attributes such as “pretty eyes,” “bow-shaped mouth,” and “cute nose.”

The two sketches are then compared to one another, and every single one of them that are self-described are uglier, exaggerated versions of their appearances. The sketches that are described by a stranger are more attractive, more realistic and true depictions of how they actually look. The video evokes emotion using slow music and showing the people’s real emotions in viewing the two versions of themselves. Dove’s message, loud and clear is this: accept yourself, for who you are, because you are the biggest critic of yourself, and how you view your features is not the same as how everyone else sees you.

The second video, “Evolution,” is a one minute video portraying a relatively attractive woman’s face up close, without makeup, at her most basic appearance. As the video goes on, the viewer sees the woman’s face’s transformed by heavy makeup and photo-shopping her eyebrow shape, jawline, eyes, mouth, and skin color into a starkly different looking person, with unrealistic “perfect” features. The campaign message is this: What you see is not what is actually true in the media.

Media Content Analysis & Coding Scheme

According to Miles & Huberman, in their content analysis study, a qualitative data analysis in media content can be done in 3 major ways to capture the “telos,” meaning, or the essence of an account (1994). In the case study conducted on Dove’s Real Beauty campaign, their media content “essence” contains both “manifest content” (aka surface structure of a message) as well as “latent content,” which is the deeper of hidden meaning. Data analyzed includes words, themes, and concepts. The Real Beauty campaign uses words such as “beauty, worth it, natural, think and body,” which are all tied to the consumers view of self as well as what Dove’s sells: hair and body products.

The manifest content includes Dove’s merchandise, which at its most basic level is just soap. Everyone who practices fundamental hygiene needs to wash themselves, both men and women. Dove products are affordable and easily accessible to inherently everyone. Basically, Dove’s desire is this: buy our product. Although this message is not obvious, due to today’s modern shift in consumerism, media and marketing in regards to the choice of the public. The “latent” or deeper, hidden “schema” meaning in this campaign gives Dove that extra “edge” in competition: We accept you, no matter what. And that you (the viewer) are beautiful, no matter what. Their campaign message is consistent, stands out above other health product companies, and best of all, appeals to emotion, or the pathos of audiences (which zooms in on women in particular, all who, at varying degrees, struggle with body image, self-worth, and self-confidence.

This universally accepted message provides for a “key linkage” in the data analysis, by gearing campaign efforts towards specific demographic groups (women) who are influential in purchasing decisions and media choices. In Bandura’s research on media content’s effects on audiences, the social cognitive theory applies well to Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign, which applies the patterns of “media coding schemas” (the medium used to make a message relatable, relevant and significant to a viewer). The motivational processes concept is used throughout Dove’s media campaign as a tool to motivate the public with observed benefits (higher self-esteem) that outweigh observed costs (2011).

The social prompting of human behavior in media content is applied to the Real Beauty Campaign because Dove serves as a motivator and emotion arouser, which “shapes the values and creates social diffusion” (Bandura, 2001). Bandura also states that “the mass media, especially television, provides the best access to the public through strong drawing power…it is increasingly used as the vehicle of justification.” (2001, p. 279) The Real Beauty campaign effectively uses its widespread developed credibility to reach its public by way of You Tube videos and television commercials, which in turn serves as an efficient “vehicle of justification” in their campaign efforts.

Unit of analysis: You tube video views, survey, and personal testimonies

Quantitative:Dove’s success in meeting goal to increase brand awareness is proven by increase in number sales

Content analyzed: Dove sales numbers have increased since launch of Real Beauty Campaign

Evidence: According to the IRI data, Dove’s sales in the U.S went up by 1% in just one month as of May 2013. Overall, Dove’s product sales went up by 3% totaling $1.5 billion for the 2012 fiscal year.

Qualitative: Dove’s success in promoting self-esteem in women is proven by an increase in numbers as well

Content analyzed: online poll, # of You tube views, and Dove’s own study of statistical increase of self-esteem in women

Evidence:

From Dove’s research and study listed on website:

• Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful (up from 2% in 2004)

• Only 11% of girls globally are comfortable using the word beautiful to describe themselves

• 72% of girls feel tremendous pressure to be beautiful

• 80% of women agree that every woman has something about her that is beautiful but do not see their own beauty

• More than half (54%) of women globally agree that when it comes to how they look, they are their own worst beauty critic

Personal testimonies: from online poll that asked viewers the broad question: “Was Dove’s Real Beauty campaign successful?” (yes or no) Out of the 5 people that answered the survey question, the results were 100% yes.

“I think that this ad is SO successful, it made me feel better about myself and i wanted to buy more dove products.”

“I believe Dove's beauty campaign is successful with a targeted marketing approach that is both original and consistent.”

“Dove's products are also affordable and accessible to everyone, to indicate that every woman can feel beautiful every single day.”

In addition, based on my own research, I calculated that Dove’s “Evolution” video had a total of 3,468,546 views on You Tube as of today. The You Tube video “Sketches” generated approximately 27 million views at first release in April 2013, and has grown by a 73% increase in views, totaling at 64,101,515 views as of today.

The units for analysis, as researched from a variety of different sources, prove reliable and credible, and unbiased. Dove has successfully received mass amounts of positive attention in the media, constructed their brand-equity, and created a solid public relations campaign on a global scale. According to the personal testimonies given, from this self-esteem boosting campaign, women have both increased their confidence levels as well as developed brand loyalty in purchasing Dove products due to their positive message.

The “Evolution” of beauty video relied solely on being shared and promoted by the public, with no company paid media efforts (Neff, 2013). “Sketches,” on the other hand, earned all their media attention through paid advertising on You Tube, Facebook, and Twitter, which accelerated the spread of their campaign on a global level; from being viral in only 4 countries to 25 countries in a few days. In one day, the campaign made a media appearance on “Today” as well as two stories on the Real Beauty campaign published in the Huffington Post, two very credible and reliable sources by audiences. According to an article in the online publication “Advertising Age,” Jack Neff reported that, “the campaign generated 43 billion public relations impressions in less than a month” (2013).

Conclusion

In conclusion, based on my media content analysis on Dove’s Real Beauty campaign, their goals, as examined in both qualitative and quantitative data analysis were successfully met. This media content analysis demonstrated an increase in overall product sales as well as a rise in levels of self-esteem in women by way of unit coding processes of statistics, personal testimonies, and online surveys. The importance of the Real Beauty campaign was exemplified by a consistent, positive message theme geared towards influencing the public to both buy more of their product as well as think more positively of themselves.

References

“Real Beauty Sketches”

“Evolution of Beauty”

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