Abstract

This case is about consumer giant Unilever’s ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ marketing campaign for its leading personal care brand Dove. Launched in 2013, the ad campaign used an FBI-trained sketch artist to draw women first based on their own self-perception and then based on that of a stranger. The stranger’s descriptions were regularly more stereotypically attractive and similar to what the subjects actually looked like, thereby driving in Dove’s point that women were often overly critical of their appearances and did not see their true beauty. The concept of this ad was to inspire women to recognize their true beauty, and therefore position Dove as quality brand that knew what woman wanted and needed. The case discusses the impact of the campaign and how it generated a buzz and wide media coverage for the Dove brand, resulting in increased sales of its products. Reportedly, in its first two weeks the campaign attracted an incredible 3.17 million shares, which was more than any other ad had managed in the same period. However, the campaign also faced criticism. Some critics felt that the campaign enforced a very narrow perception of beauty based on just physical attributes. It positioned beauty as the yardstick by which women measured themselves. Some called the cause-related marketing campaign corporate hypocrisy on the part of Unilever to pander to women so as to sell more products as it reinforced the very issue it claimed to critique in its other brand related ads.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the factors that contributed to the success of Unilever’s ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ campaign
• Understand the campaign’s strengths, weaknesses, and its impact
• Appreciate the importance of market research and application of consumer behavior insights in the development of a marketing strategy
• Understand the issues and challenges faced in the implementation of a cause-related (societal) marketing campaign

Keywords

‘Real Beauty Sketches’ campaign, Dove, Cause-related marketing , ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’, Unilever, Consumer Behaviour , ‘Beauty Comes of Age’., Viral Marketing