“Consistency of the brand message has been identified as being one of the key determinants of brand success” (Reid, Luxton and Mavondo, 2005, p. 16)
Brands have become an essential part of doing business in the 21st century. Brands allow companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors. It also provides the consumers with shortcuts to keeping track of the different offerings in a very crowded market space (Aaker, 2007). Brands make it easier for the consumer to make a purchase decision by reducing the perceived risk and over time, consumers can learn to associate specific benefits with particular brands (Dawar, 2004). Marketing communications and advertising play an important role in building these associations. Reid et al. (2005) argue that in order to successfully create brand identity, a marketer must “ensure that brand messages are strategically driven, with the synchronization of communication being identified as one of the most important aspects of the brand orientation process” (Reid et al., 2005, p. 16). In other words, when communicating with consumers, companies should make sure their messages are carefully crafted to ensure it is consistency with brand image they wish to portray. Brands should also pay particular attention to ensuring all levels of their campaigns are well integrated and the brand message conveyed is consistent across all touch points. An example of a campaign which did this extremely well was Dove and the Campaign for Real Beauty.
Dove
Campaign for Real Beauty
Agency: Ogilvy & Mathers
Dove
Campaign for Real Beauty
Agency: Ogilvy & Mathers
Traditionally the beauty brands promise unattainable images to consumers and claim that through the use of their products, consumers may just one day achieve the impossible. Through Unilever’s, the parent company of Dove, own research, they found that 72% of women felt worse about themselves after viewing the images typically used by competitors and only 2% of women would call themselves “beautiful” (Robinson et al., 2008). Thus, through this cycle of endless unattainable images and teasing of the female self-consciousness, the beauty industry has the female consumers eating out of the palm of their hands.
Dove set out to challenge this paradigm, defied all rules of the product category and created a campaign which revitalised the brand. Campaign for Real Beauty was an award winning campaign and a real stroke of genius by the agency, Ogilvy & Mathers. Dove wanted to make women feel more beautiful and the “Big Ideal” was, “Dove believes that the world would be a better place if we could make more women feel more beautiful everyday” (Robinson et al., 2008, p. 1). Out of this Big Ideal grew an entire marketing campaign which stretched across many continents and cultures. Dove chose to use “real women” instead of the typical sexier, slim and swirling hair models. Dove celebrated women as they are because being curvy is essential to being a female. This bold move married with a well-executed integrated marketing communications campaign payed off by the millions for Dove.
The objective of the campaign was to emotionally engage with the consumer wherever they saw the brand. The mediums used were vast, diverse yet traditional such as TVC, billboards, magazines, POS materials, online and PR. However, regardless of the medium, Dove was vigilant in keeping their message consistent. Simon Clift, Chief Marketing Officer of Unilever at the time of the campaign, said he wanted to connect with consumers emotionally and consistently “be it walking past a poster or on the supermarket shelf” (Robinson et al., 2008, p. 1). In every country, the same questions about beauty were being asked. In every medium the same Big Ideal was being communicated.
Optus
Give Me the Simple Life
Agency: M&C Saatchi Sydney
Another memorable brand advertisement of recent times is the Optus’ Give Me the Simple Life. The 60 second TVC featured for the first time, animals singing with their own voices (B&T, 2005). The voices used were not just any ordinary voices, they were famous Australian singers such as Kate Ceberano, Tammin Sursok, Human Nature and James Morrison, to name a few. The objective of the campaign was to give Optus character and personality and the key message was simplicity (B&T, 2005).
Optus and animals are almost synonymous. Optus have used animals in their campaigns for many years, this ad attempted to take it one step further and give them voices. Using animals as presenters is an interesting communication strategy. There is no doubt that it helps Optus to achieve the objective of giving them more character and personality. However, it does more than differentiate Optus and build their brand equity.
The use of animals as presenters helps Optus to attract as large of a target market as possible. Optus is casting their net out far and wide. People of all ages, ethnicity, economic and social status can appreciate animals. The animals all appear to be happy and cute which adds to the charm of the ad. The song choice was perfect and carried Optus’ brand message ever so subtly. It was also well integrated with the rest of the ad. It enhanced the light-hearted and fun tone of the ad.
Just as Reid et al. (2005) recommended Optus kept all brand touch points consistent. Animals can be found in their print ads, billboards and point of sale. Their messages have changed over their years, but they have kept their branding consistent. Here is the latest brand ad by Optus. Although humans have been added in recently, animals are still an essential part.
The only improvement I would suggest is to perhaps add a call to action at the end of the ad. However, I am more than certain that it was a deliberate move by Optus and M&C Saatchi Sydney not to.
