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Dove’s Campaign For Real Beauty offers a new definition of corporate social responsibility. Dori Molitor It has been more than four years now, but it is not hard to remember what it was like when Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty first launched. In an instant I knew that this campaign tapped into an intense, emotional issue with women. It was so refreshing to see a brand that actually seemed to care enough to understand women—her self doubts, her conflict with feeling beautiful in the face of stick-thin models held up to represent the ideal of female beauty, and perhaps even the anger she feels about the distorted messages young girls grow up with today. What was really remarkable, though, was that this campaign came from a company in the beauty business. We all knew the purpose was to sell more product, as it should be, but it was so true and authentic and timely. What we didn’t necessarily realize at the time was that Dove was changing the definition of corporate social responsibility. Before Dove came along, corporate social responsibility, or CSR, as the business world calls it, was defined narrowly as a synonym for “cause marketing.” Under that definition of CSR, it was plenty good enough for a corporation simply to donate some money, form an alliance with a not-for-profit foundation or demonstrate some concern for the environment. That kind of corporate social responsibility certainly is worth applauding, but it does not come close to the potential of what Unilever is approaching with its Dove brand. The difference is that the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty didn’t just attach its brand superficially to a charity or cause; it created a deep soul connection with women on the most personal level. In so doing, Dove created a powerful bond between women and its brand, the kind of bond that builds true trust, which can and should be the whole point of corporate social responsibility. Just Ask Janet Very few, if any, brands have connected with women the way Dove has, but just about every one of them could, and should. Just ask Janet. Janet is a meek woman, just under five-feet tall, in her mid 60s. I met her at a gathering honoring volunteers for a local not-for-profit organization. In our conversation I mentioned that I had just spoken at a marketing conference on a panel about corporate social responsibility and she had a message for me: “Tell them to just quit stealing our money!” In a flash, this somewhat timid, small, ordinary-looking woman became an animated figure who stood what seemed a foot taller. This change in her persona made me gasp in silence. I knew that what she had said was significant and yet I wasn’t completely sure why, so I grabbed my notebook and wrote her words down verbatim. I told her she had just given me inspiration and jokingly asked if I could quote her. She said, “You’re damn right,” and said her name was “Janet…J…A…N…E…T.” Janet’s words hung with me for weeks. She had summed it up and her passion conveyed the true feeling of being a female consumer who feels every purchase is lured by marketing schemes and you’re forced to decide which purchase is the least of all evils. Whatever happened to unadulterated goodwill? When did we lose the idea of building a business based on core values and ethics that truly put the consumer first, knowing profits will follow? That’s what CSR was designed to do over the past quarter century, and yet its impact on consumer trust has been minimal. This is partly because consumers don’t trust corporate motives, and partly because corporate motives are mainly focused on cleaning up their reputations after scandals, greed and major environmental disasters. Today, a few CSR leaders are beginning to realize competitive advantage from their initiatives, but many are still focused on pursuing social responsibility as a form of risk insurance. As a result, CSR’s potential has been stunted by corporations employing it as short-term “cause marketing” events, instead of being deeply imbedded in the organic center of their “reason for being” and core values. The good news is that CSR’s potential as a competitive opportunity has never been better because unprecedented numbers of female consumers are demanding it. For example, according to a 2006 report by Fleishman-Hillard and the National Consumers League, 65 percent of consumers “believe that a company’s record of being socially responsible would be influential to their decision whether to invest in a company.” However, that same study also suggested that few companies are earning that kind of investment from consumers, either financially or emotionally. Only one-fifth of consumers rated U.S. companies as socially responsible and just 37 percent rated U.S. companies as living up to consumer expectations. Changing this means looking at CSR in a new way that involves consumers on a highly personal and emotional level. Dove offers a great starting point, although even Dove hasn’t gone far enough. As The Dove Flies Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that, four years in, Dove is reassessing its Campaign for Real Beauty because its link to product sales apparently is not strong enough (see “Dove Dot Com,” page 28). Even though millions of people watched the Real Beauty videos and tuned into discussions about them on Oprah, Ellen and other major network shows, Advertising Age reported in September 2007 that Dove’s sales growth slowed to 1.2 percent, after having grown 12.5 percent in 2005 and 10.1 percent in 2006. There could be any number of explanations for why this is happening. Maybe the Campaign for Real Beauty has lost its punch. Maybe some women have figured out that Unilever also is behind the arguably misogynist advertising for the Axe brand and smell hypocrisy. Maybe competitive pressures have grown stronger or maybe too many women have decided that Dove products aren’t quite as good as they should be. We could speculate all day about the reasons for this sudden and sharp decline, but there is no question that it is real and that Unilever is concerned about it. So, despite that the Dove brand reportedly gained $1.2 billion in value over the past three years, Unilever has now re-vamped the brand’s Real Beauty website to include more in the way of explicit advertisements and direct mentions of specific Dove products. But if Unilever thinks this will solve its problems, it is mistaken. If anything, it will make their problems worse because it will underscore the worst suspicions consumers have whenever a corporation does anything even remotely altruistic—that it really was only about selling products after all. A Movement, Not A Campaign Dove’s mistake is that it never really invited or engaged women to get involved in the cause. And it is a cause. Building self-esteem among girls and women is a social issue, and success can change the world. To date, Dove’s efforts have been extremely one way. Yes, it is a campaign, but largely an advertising campaign, albeit of the 21st century viral variety. But the potential is to be a part of a movement. Dove needs to join that movement instead of defaulting to the same old advertising techniques. A true movement demands an investment of time and effort, and perhaps some sacrifice, because when people do that they automatically become more committed and passionate about the cause. It’s not about whether you should buy a particular product; it’s whether this is a cause worth fighting for and getting involved with. The issue Dove has raised—female self-esteem—is very much that kind of cause. What women want to know from Dove is, how can we help? What can we do with our daughters, in terms of mentoring or conversation? How can I connect with other women to take collective action? What can we contribute to the community? Why isn’t Dove linking into mother-daughter workshops, bringing that to a local level and creating ways for women to join the cause? In fairness, Dove does offer a “parent kit” that has content on how to talk to your kids, but that’s much too passive. They also promote “The Dove Self Esteem Fund,” but have not made it clear how much money has been raised or how donations are being used. They do claim to have impacted 1.8 million girls, but in the scheme of things that’s nothing for a “campaign” of this scale. Dove started a conversation, which is fantastic, but what’s lacking is the depth of involvement, the engagement, the participation and the commitment of moving people to take action. Only when Dove gets more women involved will they be more invested and committed. That is what will directly drive product sales. It’s All About Trust Let’s think back in time to how business was done at the neighborhood grocer. Trust was forged through personal relationships. The grocer’s focus was on his friend, the consumer. He wasn’t distracted by his competitor down the street, by his bank, or by Wall Street. He wasn’t even focused on transactions as much as he was on the conversation he was having with his customer. But if you look at how business is done today, everything is so impersonal. The distance between the customer and the merchant or marketer is so vast today that it’s no wonder we don’t trust them anymore. It’s like we’re talking to a logo or a package. The idea that tacking a cause onto a product will build trust is ludicrous because no one is listening anymore. It’s all so one-way and anonymous. The most immediate and strongest and profitable kind of corporate social responsibility should be to engage the consumer and champion personal issues in society the way Dove has begun to do. Let’s change the world by changing her world, one person at a time. When businesses and consumers are communicating that way, and are working on common ground for a common purpose, that’s where we begin to build trust just as the local grocer once did. But before corporations can be socially responsible in that sense, they need to develop a much deeper understanding of their consumers. Dove is starting from a great place because women are its primary customers. But as you’ve heard so many times in recent years, women are the primary customers of just about everything from consumer electronics to new cars to financial services and travel. The competitive opportunity is wide open but will start closing if CSR remains limited to a platform for brands to support causes and charities. It should instead be a platform for brands and consumers to work together to find a common ground that promotes a mutual purpose at the most personal and human level. Like beauty, this concept starts from within. Henry David Thoreau once said that a corporation doesn’t have a conscience, but a corporation of conscientious people is a corporation with a conscience. That kind of thinking points to an organic, cultural brand of humanity that infuses the entire enterprise. True corporate responsibility starts there because it is about business enriching our lives in a way that has the potential to transform communities, society and the world at-large. n -- DORI MOLITOR is founder and CEO of WomanWise LLC (womanwise.com) a WatersMolitor Company, a hybrid consultancy-agency specializing in marketing brands to women. Dori can be reached at dmolitor@womanwise.com or (952) 797-5000.
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