The personal care brand, owned by FMCG multinational Unilever, recently held a four day marketing drive as part of the country’s Jaipur Literature festival, in which it encouraged women in India to share their beauty stories on Twitter.
From the Tweets, the company then compiled a book entitled ‘Real Beauty Stories’, which was released on Twitter on the final day of the literary festival.
The marketing drive ran in tandem with a panel workshop at the festival, at which prominent Indian women discussed the influence of popular culture (specifically literature and cinema) in shaping beauty ideals within the country.
The whole four day campaign reached over 17 million users, and confirms that beauty consumers are increasingly keen to engage with brands they consider ‘ethical’ or ‘authentic’.
Real Beauty
Dove’s Real Beauty campaign is one of the longest-running success stories within the beauty branding arena.
First launched over 12 years ago, the campaign has won a host of awards and accolades, along with widespread popularity among consumers and commentators alike.
Sales of the brand have risen strongly alongside the campaign, rising from USD $2.5 billion when it started, to $5.8 billion in 2015.
The ‘Real Beauty Stories’ event in India is just the latest in a long line of marketing drives and adverts from the brand, notable examples of which include its ‘Real Curves’ push in 2003 in the UK, its ‘Onslaught’ ad in Canada in 2007, and more recently, its global ‘Selfie’ campaign in 2014.
Dove in India
Guntas Randhawa, a brand manager from Dove, confirmed that through ‘Real Beauty Stories’, the company was seizing the opportunity to bring its ‘Real Beauty’ campaign to the fore in India.
“Dove has always been an advocate of real beauty. And to take this idea of beauty forward in India, we need people who believe in the same and can initiate the debate,” he explained.
“The Real Beauty Stories book helped us take the conversation to over 17 million women online,” he said, confirming the broad reach of digital branding campaigns that social media users identify as authentic.