What defines real beauty?

            There are hundreds, even thousands, of consumer products that aim to enhance or improve the women's body. I think that the standards set for women by television, magazines, and celebrities is unattainable and usually unrealistic. The majority of companies market their beauty products with models, while Dove is taking a new approach. Dove offers a diverse line of products for men and women. They have body washes, beauty bars, lotions, hair care, and facial care products. Dove is taking a new marketing approach and developed the Dove Real Beauty Campaign. The campaigns main objective is to widen to definition of beauty. To begin this campaign, Dove conducted an international beauty survey. Dove then chose to feature six "real women" of different sizes and ethnicities to laugh their campaign in print advertisements. The picture below compares the advertisements of Dove "Real Beauty Campaign" against Victoria Secret "Love my Body Campaign".
 

                            

                

            I think that this encourages young and older women
to love their body and love themselves the way they are. Dove plays up the concept of self-esteem and tries to improve individual self-esteem. This refers to the attitude someone has about themselves in a positive manner (Solomon, White and Dahl 2013). There are two aspects of one's self. The first is the ideal self of how someone wants to be and the second is the actual self which is a more realistic perception. In order to help reach this ideal self, women purchase Dove or similar products to enhance their beauty. The marketing campaign focuses on a women's body image. Body image can be described as an individual’s evaluation of themselves. Dove performed a national survey of 3,200 people in 10 countries. The results found that only 2% of women would call themselves beautiful (Dove Inc. 2012). This lead to the second level of the campaign of the Dove Real Beauty Sketches. The video below shows a subject describing themselves in a more negative light, while a second photo is described by a stranger in a more positive light. It is worth the 3 minutes and gets to the core of how people view themselves.

                                  

         Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk

          Dove is trying to widen the definition of beauty by encouraging women to love themselves. Although I think it is refreshing to see this kind of campaign, Dove has also faced much controversy. Unilever is the parent company of Axe and Dove meaning that both brands are under the Unilever umbrella. Both marketing campaigns focused of different things. Axe is focused on attractive women to swoon over a man who wears their products. In many Axe commercials, attractive women are chasing handsome men after applying the products. Dove looks the other way and tries to empower women and help love themselves the way there are. These controversies have been published and Unilever responded with "Each brand talks to its consumers in a way that's relevant. The Dove campaign aims to give women more confidence, where that Axe campaign is a spoof, not to be taken seriously" (Keilla 2012). As a parent company, I think that Unilever might need to rethink their marketing strategies to reduce more potential backlash. From a different perspective, Unilever has over 400 brands in its portfolio so each brand is treated as a separate, distinct unit.

    
           

            What beauty products do you use? Do you think Dove and Axe can continue there separate marketing campaigns? Is Dove effectively changing the beauty and body image market?


References

Dove Inc. . 2012. Real Beauty Campaign . Accessed October 2014. http://www.dove.ca/en/default.aspx.

Keilla. 2012. Fashionably Informed: Hypocrisy in Beauty Marketing. August 1st . Accessed 2014. http://www.collegefashion.net/fashion-news/fashionably-informed-hypocrisy-in-beauty-marketing/.

Solomon, Michael, Katherine White, and Darren W. Dahl. 2013. Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having, Being Sixth Edition. Canada : Pearson.

What motivates you?

            Motivation occurs when a consumer discovers a need and they must find a way to satisfy that specific need (Solomon, White and Dahl 2013). Consumers are driven to purchase products or service that will reduce or complete their need. I think motivation is key to many personal purchases and helps influence behaviour. It helps drive individual actions and it critical for marketers to understand the underlying causes of motivation. There are many different types of needs and one of the most influential approaches to motivation is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (Solomon, White and Dahl 2013). The theory is developmental based meaning that an individual must achieve each level to move onto the next (Solomon, White and Dahl 2013). The first level is physiological needs (water, sleep, food) and the highest level is self-actualization (enriching experience, self-fulfillment) (Solomon, White, and Dahl 2013). This is important to marketers because it can help segment individuals and products based on their overall needs (McLeod 2007). Marketers must understand that consumers have different needs at different times in their life. Below is a diagram that summarizes Maslow's Hierarchy.
 
                        
            When researching motivation, there were many of theories and underlying conclusions derived of why consumers purchase the products and services that they do. In addition to this, I found motivational conflicts quiet interesting. Motivational conflicts can be placed into three different categories (Solomon, White, and Dahl 2013). Within the next paragraphs, I will explain all three conflicts using my own personal examples.
            The first conflict is the "approach-approach conflict". This happens when a consumer is faced with two alternatives that are very similar and both desirable (Solomon, White, and Dahl 2013). A personal example of this is when I must choose between Starbucks and Tim Horton's for my morning coffee. Both have advantages to purchasing their products and both have very good coffee. Because both are desirable options, the conflict is positive.

                              
             The next conflict is "approach-avoidance conflict". This happens when their is a positive purchase decision that is met by a negative consequence (Solomon, White, and Dahl 2013). An example of this is choosing to buy a DQ Blizzard when I know I really should not because of my diet. This conflict is very difficult for me and I constantly try and rationalize my decision. How can you resist these DQ Blizzards?

                   

            The last conflict is "avoidance-avoidance conflict". This happens when consumers a seeking a choice between two products that are undesirable (Solomon, White, and Dahl 2013). An example of this in my personal life would be saving money to purchase textbooks or to put towards tuition. Either way you are stuck paying for something that will take a huge chunk out of your savings. I think it is extremely important for marketers to understand the underlying factors of motivation and how it can influence consumer behaviour. Motivation can help segment the market based on needs or help develop products that help satisfy consumers needs.

            What was the last product you bought because you needed it? What motivates you to choose certain brands over others? Have you ever experienced a motivational conflict?


References

McLeod, Saul. 2007. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Accessed October 2014. http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html.

Solomon, Michael, Katherine White, and Darren W. Dahl. 2013. Consumer Behaviour:
Buying, Having, Being Sixth Edition. Canada : Pearson.

What was the last impressionable advertisment you remember?

            What was the last advertisement you remember watching, hearing, or seeing? Consumers see hundreds of advertisements per day and are overwhelmed with product and company information. Advertisements and marketing efforts can be seen in everyone's daily life. For example, today I heard advertisements on the radio driving to school, print advertisements throughout campus, bus billboards driving home, commercials watching television, and even on my social media accounts. I believe that marketers must effectively reach their consumer base and provide advertisements that offer information about their product or services. In order to retain a consumer's attention, the advertisements must not only be informative but also entertaining and impressionable. What works best in catching your attention? Is it humor, or an emotional appeal or an educational advertisement that will make you stop and pay attention? For me, I find humour advertisements have the longest impression and stay in my memory the longest. Below is an advertisement that is able to provide branding information with a humours approach. 

                        

            A critical element of consumer behaviour is learning and memory (Solomon, White and Dahl 2013). Marketers must create and implement advertisements that help a consumer learn about their product, but also remember the brand. A main goal of marketers is to increase the consumers evoked set so the next time the consumer is shopping, they remember their product or service as an alternative (Solomon, White and Dahl 2013). A marketer's goal is to involve the consumer in the memory process. The memory process is made up of four steps including external inputs, encoding, storage and retrieval (Solomon, White and Dahl 2013). Marketers want to provide consumers with information, in the hopes that they will use the information in later dates when purchasing the product or service. Each step in critical in developing advertisements for consumers and must be analyzed thoroughly (Solomon, White and Dahl 2013). Below is the memory process as summarizes by Michael Solomon, Katherine White, and Darren W. Dahl in the Consumer Behaviour textbook.  


           

            In my personal opinion, some of the funniest and more impressionable advertisements come from the Super Bowl. Huge companies pay millions of dollar for a commercial slot that will be televised during the Super Bowl. Some companies take a humours approach while some try an emotional appeal. Although all the advertisements are very different, I believe they are have one common goal: to stand out and be memorable. They want to increase their brand awareness which will hopefully subsequently increase company sales. A personal favourite of mine is the Budweiser commercials. Since the 2014 Super Bowl, the commercial has been viewed on YouTube over 52 million times. I think it's incredible the reach advertisements can have in this age with the internet and social media sharing. Budweiser successfully created an commercial that was shared worldwide and remembered by consumers. It's worth the watch but you might need to grab a tissue!

        
                      Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQB7QRyF4p4



            What do you think of the Budweiser commercial? Do you think humour or emotional appeal have a more lasting affect? How can companies improve their consumers memory?


References

Solomon, Michael, Katherine White, and Darren W. Dahl. 2013. Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having, Being Sixth Edition. Canada : Pearson.