Research Report on Social Media Marketing: Why Cultural Context and Brand Image Matters

Authors: Cherisse Chan Attong & Nina Fides Garcia

Executive Summary

This report examines why communicating in the proper context is vital for social media. On social media, the advertisement messages reach thousands of people in a short time-frame. In this case, an established brand like Dove, made a mistake back in 2017 and had one of their ads perceived negatively or wrongly as "racist" message. This mishap kind can quickly become disastrous for any advertiser which can affect brand image and revenue, and no brand is immune from this damage. Since businesses do not control social media, the fallout can be brutal.

It will also discuss how social media affects brand equity, and this topic follows with subheadings on how the negativity surrounding the Dove advertisement affected its brand image and reputation. Social media allows consumers to connect and interact directly with a brand that can make or break a brand's equity. This research will unpack some of Dove's branding to understand how they were affected by the 3-second Facebook video it posted.

Aside from the topics mentioned above, this research paper will delve into the media, in particular, how advertising can influence an audience. It will touch briefly on how these media ideals can affect the perception of how females can view themselves. It will also uncover why advertising has to be responsible for the messages and meaning they create and why they have to be careful of the things they produce.

This study will also give some conclusions and recommendations on how to move forward in the best way possible in the industry. It will share the best way to approach the target market, especially in the age of social media.

Objectives The objectives that will be addressed in the report are:

• Why is communicating in proper context important for social media marketing?

• How does social media affect brand equity? - How the advertisement affected Dove’s image and reputation as a brand? - Why did an established brand like Dove publish that advertisement?

• How did the Dove racist advertisement affect sales?

• The idea or perception of beauty and the cultural landscape - The feminine aspect, sexism, diversity, and racism in advertisements

• What did Dove do to gain back its reputation with consumers? - How Dove got it right (real beauty campaign)

Introduction

This formal justification report will be discussing how audiences can misinterpret social media marketing communication. It can pose a glaring issue in the beauty industry that uses the social media platform heavily. Identifying this problem will benefit other beauty based companies like L`Oreal or similar competitors because it will allow the company to keep its brand reputable in the eyes of the public. The report will address the marketing failure of the Dove brand by examining what went wrong and what could have prevented the damage to the branding of Dove, and how the company survived.

Scope This report considers the Dove advertisement in detail. Why the audience had the opinion that Dove's 2017 advertisement was racist. The company can then apply what we have uncovered to remove the risk of this happening to a similar company.

Limitations Due to time constants, we were unable to gather primary market research data in the first phase of our data collection to conduct the research report. It is a limitation for our team because if we had the time to collect the primary data first, it would have provided insightful firsthand information on the audience's emotions, opinions, and attitudes about the concept of the advertisement.

Methods The social media marketing report is based on primary and secondary market research. Initially, secondary research would be conducted by gathering information from in-depth articles and peer-reviewed articles and journals. We will also look at the social media comments of the reaction to the Dove article. Then in phase two, primary research will be applied through different methods. It will be completed through face-to-face interviews, including focus groups. Afterward, qualitative research will be used to gain more in-depth information on customers` emotions. As a final step, quantitative data will be also collected to provide more statistical data. Body

Why Is Communicating in the Proper Context Important for Social Media Marketing?

Advertisements communicate information about a product or service that encourages consumers to take a particular action. Communication informs the audience about what the business has to offer, showing the features and the value of the product or service. According to Cathy Habas’ post on Chron, “advertising is persuasive communication sent to consumers by companies attempting to sell products or services” (Habas, 2020). Advertisement messages can be either direct or indirect communication. When companies use the direct strategy, the messages can sometimes cause a feeling of mistrust among the audience if they do not believe that the product or service can do what the message says it can do. Therefore advertisers tend to prefer the indirect approach, hinting at what it communicates, which can sometimes leave space for misinterpretation.

The latter approach is the one that Dove attempted in October 2017 with their body wash advertisement. The advertisement in question was a three-second video on Facebook that showed a black woman removing her top to reveal a white woman who removed her top to reveal a Latina woman. The advertisement intended to indicate that the body wash was for every woman as well as to celebrate the different ethnic groups using the product. However, the audience’s interpretation of the message was unexpected and had disastrous results for the campaign. The audience was disappointed in the fact that Dove, who is known for their Real Beauty Campaign, did something like this. The brand did not portray their ethos in this particular advertisement. Women felt that the ad was saying that being black was a negative thing, and using the Dove body wash promoted being white. On social media, the reach was far more widespread and the negative results were immediate because that is the nature of social media. It is therefore crucial that different forms of ad communication must be delivered in their proper context, understanding the audience, and that there should be no room left for misinterpretation. It applies especially on social media because the results can be disastrous as Unilever learned with the Dove advertisement.

How Does Social Media Affect Brand Equity?

Social media consists of several platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter all of which are global and very far-reaching. Therefore a brand needs to have a presence on social media. An example that Clement stated in Statista is that “nearly 50% or over 3 billion users worldwide use social media” (Clement, 2020). Another example that Aaron Smith said in the Pew Research Center is that “74% of Facebook users check it daily” (Smith, 2018). Refer to Figure 2.

While traditional media like television is still common, social media makes it far easier to reach a target audience because the technology offers ways to do that regarding specific products and services. This means that social media would immediately communicate with a vast audience and resonate with consumers in a brief space of time. Also, it allows for a fast turnaround of messages and, therefore, companies can build their brand equity quickly and efficiently. Social media builds brand equity because it offers a connection to customers by giving them immediate support from the company and the brand, allowing customers to interact with the brand, interact with each other about the brand, and generally generating interest in the brand. Brand equity takes time to create, but the speed of social media shortens the time frame.

Just as social media helps build brand equity, it can also help to tear it down just as quickly. It can be used to punish the advertiser if customers feel that they deserve to be reprimanded for an error e.g. #BoycottDove. This hashtag was created by customers on social media who were offended by the "racist" Dove ad and this quickly grew into a huge movement that damaged the brand equity the brand had built over the years.

How the Advertisement Affected Dove’s Image and Reputation as a Brand?

For 13 years, Unilever ran a very successful campaign called Real Beauty. Dove was applauded for seeing women of all shapes, sizes, ages, and ethnicities as real beauty. However, in 2011, 2012, and 2017, Dove faced a lot of criticism for missing its mark on three particular ads. In particular, The blunder they posted in 2017 was the worst so far, and they received a massive blow from consumers as it seemed that they had not learned their lessons from the previous mistakes. According to Tanya Dua’s article in the Business Insider, “ many people see the ad as just the latest in a string of marketing efforts from Dove that elevate white beauty above that of women of color” (Dua, 2017). It negatively affected their successful 13 years Real Beauty campaign.

The problem with social media is that it is a platform where consumers can quickly gather momentum. A virtual riot can escalate that would possibly not happen instantly on a broad scale compared with other advertising mediums. The fallouts can be difficult for the company to control. According to Dua, “ Dove is the latest marketer to find itself in hot water after it ran what many saw as a racist ad on Facebook” (Dua, 2017).

Why Did an Established Brand like Dove Publish That Advertisement?

Why then did Unilever publish that advertisement on social media? It was not the intention of Unilever to upset their audience. Dove’s “racist” ad was originally a 3-sec clip - showing women of different backgrounds or ethnicity after washing. When making a video ad, advertisers should think of the sequence of images. In the video clip, the Caucasian woman came after the black woman, and people mistook that sequence as “white” comes after “black” after you wash. They misinterpreted that as black, meaning dirty, and you become white, after you wash with Dove. The brand did this instead of showing a range of ethnicities that use the Dove wash. People took to social media to react and posted it on Twitter as specific screenshots of just the black and white woman. People who spread this on social media took out the image of the Latina woman that came after the Caucasian woman.

Often in advertising, practitioners have to be careful before the shoot up to final approval, in this case, they made a slight mistake which blew out of proportion. It was also an easy thing to misconceive because of the glaring and contrasting imagery and the context behind it.

In addition to social media, the process of delivering content and communication is faster, and time is limited to conduct the proper research or advertisement testing that can require the time to review the results and go through the necessary approvals. If these processes are rushed, it would be the reason that the company did not thoroughly think through the various misconceptions of the advertisement. Therefore to communicate effectively with their consumers, Unilever needed to test their advertisements through focus groups or user testers to uncover perceptions of viewers. Companies need to have a rigorous method of approvals of content for advertisements. It would also be a good idea to have an efficient social media crisis communication plan to manage any fallout that may occur.

How Did the Dove “Racist” Ad Affect Sales?

Dove`s sales revenue decreased after the advertisement was posted on social media, and people started to boycott the brand. As mentioned by Olivia Zed in the PR Week, the Real Beauty campaign had done well for Dove as it helped to increase their sales in the first 10 years from $2.5 to $4 billion. After the unfortunate incident in 2017, the sales dropped lower than the company expected (Zed, 2019). The company is still on its way to getting back to where they were before the racist advertisement.

Perception Of Beauty In The Media & Cultural Landscape

Media has influenced how people perceive things. By the time people grow up, ads would have affected them from such a young age. Children are exposed to commercials between those Sunday morning cartoons. Even now, when people do not watch as much television, there are still those from YouTube videos or online platforms. From a certain age, people will form some awareness of what those messages mean and how they relate to our behaviors and society.

A lot of media narratives are thrust upon people. It is prevalent in movies and down to simple advertising we see on television. In Psychology of Women Quarterly, a journal published back in 2006, notes how psychologists have been scrutinizing the "role of idealized media images of female beauty plays in girls and women's often contentious relationship with their bodies.”

The theory was that if one looked like their media ideal, it would have a positive impact on their lives. The study and analysis noticeably suggested that “women associated a wide variety of rewards such as social, psychological, practical benefits with looking like a media ideal” (Engeln-Maddox 2006). Although some women were well aware of issues associated with having perfect looks and satisfaction of appearance, the results swayed more towards the positive side.

This study shows how media ideals and exposure to it can tie to young girls, especially when they are in such an impressionable stage in their lives. There are often beauty “trends” in different timelines that have been evolving according to cultural influence. There was a time in the 80s and 90s when the show "Baywatch" was at an all-time high and Malibu Barbie was the number 1 toy for girls. It would be detrimental to young girls on how they perceive themselves if they compare their looks with something unrealistic, unrelatable, or something completely different from themselves.

The problem with media ideals is that you are beautiful only if you look a certain way. Unrealistic standards of beauty can be a cause of concern because it could affect how someone sees themselves and how a young adult female can feel about themselves. It is why representation in the proper cultural context matters.

Advertising since it has a short time to air tends to compact its messages. It can be efficient for its singularity because it is easy for the audience to understand. However, the messages lose other complexities that can be tied with a deeper understanding of related topics. That is why some ads are considered tone-deaf, like the ad from Pepsi with Kylie Jenner saving a riot by sharing a can of soda. Advertising also has social implications because it pushes messages to the audience that somehow can become part of our culture. Think of Apple Computer's “think different" campaign in the 80s. It can be the other way around too, perhaps it is culture shaping the ads? Either way, it works vice versa.

"Advertising has changed in its culture, due largely to the switch from informational to a more expressive conceptual way of communication with consumers. This change has offered the audience less cognition about products and more sensory orientated heuristics about positions, branding, and ethical standards of companies.” (Bondrea, Ștefănescu – Mihăilă 2014).

There is also the reputation of the industry to consider. People say that advertising tends to exploit or manipulate the minds of consumers. Of course, ads are not entirely loathsome. Ads are necessary for the economy because Bernbach, one of the founders of the global advertising firm DDB, quoted, "Simply when advertising does its job... millions of people keep theirs." Advertising has been an effect for companies to compete with each other, therefore making product or service offerings have better quality, whether that is in the aspect of health, technology, or other consumer goods.

In the cultural context, advertising can have a psychological and social effect. The article (Bondrea, Ștefănescu – Mihăilă 2014) mentions Joseph LeDoux, a top neuroscientist, who started as a marketer. LeDoux did a profound and lengthy study on how emotions affect our brain, memory, and decision making. According to his research, the emotional and physical reaction happens before a thought or rational act. His research denotes that emotions are not disconnected from rationality. Instead, they are synchronous to our minds, think, learn, or memorize, and make decisions.

The clarity in ad messages has always been a priority because of its form in print or media. However, the industry has realized that it is not as effective unless an emotional appeal is applied. An example of this is Coca-Cola's “Taste the Feeling.”

There has been a debate about whether ad companies should be accountable for the messages they make. The answer is yes. Consumer behavior and their responses are reactions to several stimuli which marketers or advertisers have thought through. Advertisers, who sometimes have a background in psychology, have thought about the subconscious analysis of their ads. They have studied the different categorizations and stimuli of the product and how they are positioned in the environment around them, sometimes on an ambient level. They have thought about the buying process and reasoning based on interactions with the brand on different levels. It is why the process of making ads can have analysis paralysis and can sometimes have missteps due to time constraints. Although advertising can sway opinions, let us not underestimate the minds of the viewers who can form their thoughts, especially nowadays.

However, big brands like Dove, should be responsible and be careful of the message it carries, especially when it is trying to communicate the concept of “real beauty”. A study from Women’s Quarterly mentioned that women are “capable of maintaining their own individually formed ideas of beauty, while still recognizing that achieving the standards espoused by the media,” (Engeln-Maddox 200). Despite this, advertising and the media still have an influence related to a person's appearance.

Brands like Unilever's Dove have been around since the 1950s, 1957 to be exact. Since it has been around for a long time, the brand has had to evolve and become more complex. They have to adapt and move with the times or cultural zeitgeist to meet audience appeal. Also, the culture’s perception of beauty has evolved. It has been more accepting over the years or decades. It has become something aspirational. From a marketing standpoint, this sells, but it is also a wonderful message for young women out there. Of course, there are scientific metrics of what constitutes the beauty standards- such as health, symmetry, etc. However, from a feminine perspective, beauty is not only physical but figurative too. The message of Dove is embracing uniqueness because what might not be as attractive or perfect in the typical glossy media aspect, can still be beautiful for another.

History of Dove Ads & How Dove Got It Right

An article in PR Week back in 2019 called “How Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign Won, and Nearly Lost its Audience,” highlighted how Dove’s campaigns since 2004 have been more of a “social movement than gimmicky emotional appeal.” (Zed 2019). It is a valid claim because the ad campaign is about a truth well told and provides women of all ages an altruistic message of embracing their beauty.

Aside from the message it was spreading that was well received, the campaign also nearly doubled Dove’s sales from $2.5 to $4 Billion (Zed 2019). Imagine that just for a bar of soap. It became the no.1 selected bar of soap and Unilever’s best-selling product. It is why people were surprised when the company released an ad that depicted racism back in 2017. What was worse is that it spread so quickly on social media, which tends to amplify things.

According to Business Insider, it happened to be their third mishap (Dua 2017). One back in 2011, then the second one in 2012 where Dove sold a product called “Summer Glow” that claimed to transform your “normal skin to dark skin”. During their first mistake, the company denied any transgression. For the second mistake, they blamed it on product negligence. Dove did not listen to public opinion. This series of bad brand management led to the 2017 mishap. The Dove brand was dismissive of the public reaction in the past years. The ad also did not consider the cultural context and sequence of images

The company started dipping in terms of reputation. It was not until 18 months after the 2017 dove debacle that the company released a new campaign called “Show Us”. The company owned up to its mistake and started listening to its audience. An online article published by Marie Claire mentions that “70 percent of women still don't feel represented by everyday images in the media, and 90 percent of stock photography is shot by male photographers." (Allen 2019). Dove took this problem and turned it around. In the world of advertising, which is about creating noise, Dove, this time, made an effort to listen. It endeavored to reach out and ask people to define what it is to be beautiful and collaborate with them. The project used the hashtag #ShowUs and partnered with Gettyimmages with the magazine Girlgaze "to create the world’s largest photo library created by women and non-binary individuals to shatter beauty stereotypes" (Dove Campaign, 2019).

Conclusion & Recommendations

In conclusion, beauty companies like Dove or L`Oreal should recognize and learn from the mistakes that Unilever made with Dove and avoid following this egregious marketing failure. Communicating in the proper context on social media is very important as it helps to generate and maintain interest in the brand and build brand equity. Clear communication would help to avoid conflict because when the messages are well crafted, there is little room for misinterpretation by the consumers.

Social media does impact brand equity positively, although it can also contribute to the negative impact to a brand when a failure occurs, in the case of the #Boycott Dove movement. The role of advertising and its effect on society is complex (Bondrea, Ștefănescu – Mihăilă 2014). Media and its messages influence society. It is because advertising has studied its processes very succinctly. It knows what it is trying to do to the audience- whether that is through visual or emotional narratives- even if it is just a 3-second video clip like what Dove did in 2017, it can be misconstrued by the audience, whether the viewers are adults or younger women.

Since beauty ideals do affect women and younger women and how they see themselves, there should be different types of representation in beauty standards. If this is applied, it will have a positive impact on the self-image of women who can see similarities of features with what they see on billboards. By having various depictions of beauty based on features and ethnicities, it stops females from having to compare themselves with unrealistic models. It also allows brands to be relatable.

Advertisers and marketers have to be accountable for the things they produce and the message they put out and before they share or publish it. They have to understand the context in culture because it could be misconceived, especially if it is a sensitive topic. Objectively, a brand's main target is to sell and make a profit, which can be generally good for the economy. However, since society, consumers, and people behind them have evolved, in this case, better in acceptance of different kinds of beauty, brands like Dove should live up to what it communicates. “Organizations within a society have some responsibilities for helping to create and maintain social and cultural harmony.” (Bondrea, Ștefănescu – Mihăilă 2014). It includes companies and the brands and people who work on the brand.

The lessons learned can be used as recommendations for beauty based companies and limit future problems from happening as we strive to market the brand positively across all markets. Our team intends to use focus groups and advertising testing to make sure that our communication does not offend or mislead the public. Our organization will improve the process of making our campaigns. It will include the process of carefully monitoring our material and reviewing the content before final approval. We would also recommend the company have a dedicated social media team readily available to oversee campaign feedback by keeping a watchful eye on the comments of our consumers. Due to responses on social media platforms of the company's posts, we can measure sales revenue and from the numbers suggest improvements to target more consumers.

Our study has highlighted the importance of cultural context and resonating with the audience. To do this, brands in the beauty industry have to understand society and gather insights from them. It would make sense to listen first, even if the pace of digital advertising is fast. This process requires building a relationship with the target market and co-creating with them. Brands like Dove or L’Oréal in the beauty industry would benefit from a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system and social listening to gain awareness on how to proceed in making their communications material. Once a brand like this does, it can go beyond emotional tactics but make something more meaningful that can have an impact on society while generating sales, which is both a win.

Appendix Figure 1: The Dove Racist Ad from the article written by Nicole Slawson from The Guardian 2017.

Source : (Slawson, 2017) This image above came from the Dove Racist Ad which is a 3 second video of a black woman removing her brown shirt and changing into a white woman with a white shirt underneath. The advertisement was deemed to be racist.

Figure 2: The Dove 2011 ad.

Source: (Business Insider, Taylor 2017) This image is from the 2011 ad where it depicts a Black woman under the “before” and the woman, and a Caucasian woman under the after”

Bibliography

• Allen, M. (2019, April 5). Marie Claire. Dove’s New Project Shows Women and Non- Binary Individuals Shattering Unrealistic Beauty Standards. Retrieved from https://www.marieclaire.com/beauty/g27052398/dove-project-show-us/

•Bondrea, Aurelian A.; Ștefănescu - Mihăilă, Ramona Olivia. (2014) ADVERTISING – A FACTOR IN THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. BEAUTY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER. International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences & Arts SGEM. 2014, p9-24. 16p.

• Clement, J. (2020, November 24). Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network- users/

• Dua, T. (2017, October 9). The Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/doves-racist-ad-10-9-2017-10

• Engeln-Maddox. (2006). BUYING A BEAUTY STANDARD OR DREAMING OF A NEW LIFE? EXPECTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH MEDIA IDEALS. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30, 258–266. Blackwell Publishing, Inc. Printed in the USA. Copyright C _ 2006 Division 35, American Psychological Association. 0361- 6843/0

• Habas, C. (2020, September 15). Chron. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-communication-advertising- 15349.html

• Slawson, N. (2017, October 8). The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/08/dove-apologises-for-ad- showing-black-woman-turning-into-white-one

• Smith, A. (2018, March 1). Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/

• Zed, O. (2019, April 16). PR Week. Retrieved from

https://www.prweek.com/article/1582147/doves-real-beauty-campaign-won- nearly-lost-its-audience