Dove’s ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ is one of the most celebrated examples of brand purpose over the past two decades, successfully transitioning it from a maker of creamy soap to a stalwart of the beauty category.

To come up with the campaign, Dove-owner Unilever dug into the data around how women thought about beauty. What they discovered is what Marketing Week columnist Mark Ritson describes in this video as the “most discouraging and depressing data he has seen anywhere”, which led to the creation of a campaign that aimed to make women feel beautiful by broadening the definition of beauty.

While spots such as ‘Evolution’ and ‘Tested on Real Curves’ built the brand, Ritson explains how Dove was actually running a two-pronged approach. Alongside these emotional and culturally relevant ads for the masterbrand were category-specific ads that boosted mental availability and salience for their products.

The campaign is a prime example of the 60/40 split between long-term and short-term marketing that marketing analyst Peter Field and adam&eveDDB head of effectiveness Les Binet have advocated. And indeed, when Dove pulled back on the brand spend in 2008, it saw sales fall.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.marketingweek.com