CHAPTER 14

CASE 1: Psychology of Global Marketing

It’s no secret that marketers use a good dose of psychology in both designing and
implementing their promotional campaigns—or at least it should not be. But some people,
including Gary Rushkin of Washington, DC–based Commercial Alert
(www.commercialalert. org), argue that parents are being duped. He says that parents do
not realize the sophisticated techniques that marketers can use to entice demand. Rushkin’s
organization was behind a letter signed by 60 U.S. psychologists that was sent to the
American Psychological Association (www.apa.org) that complained of advertising methods
aimed at children.
What was the cause of their fury? Apparently, it was an article by Dr. James McNeal
appearing in Marketing Tools magazine that described what is called a projective completion
test. Suppose a children’s TV program is a hit and boys are buying the company’s toy that is
tied to the program but girls aren’t. To find out why, a company assembles a group of girls.
They are given a picture of a boy and girl watching the program in which the boy is asking
the
girl, “Why do you like watching this program?” The girls’ answers help provide clues to how
the company can modify its marketing strategy to appeal to girls. Dr. McNeal says the
method is common sense and sound science. Critics argue the opposite and say that insights
into human psychology should be used for healing
and not for advertising to kids. The American Psychological Association admits that there are
currently no guidelines for psychologists working in advertising.
Advertising executives are not just busy creating TV ads. Over a recent one-year period, the
number of children’s websites with no advertising dropped from 10 percent down to 2
percent. In what forms do the promotions appear? One tool is games. Roughly 55 percent of
all children and teens’ websites feature games. Ellen Neuborne told her six-year-old that he
could choose a candy at the supermarket checkout. With a pack of Sweet Tarts in hand, he
broke into a little song-and-dance about the sweets. When asked if that was from the TV
commercial he said that it was from the
Sweet Tarts Internet game. With the use of such games, companies get to spend an extended
period of time with kids—far more than they get from a TV ad.
Another tool is e-mail. The U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Act forbids companies from using
e-mail to sell to kids under age 13 without parental permission. But companies get around the
problem by having kids e-mail each other. For example, children can go to the website
(www.sesameworkshop.org) and e-mail a greeting card to a friend that features a Sesame
Street character. And then there are the chat rooms. Brian Rubash is manager for technical
marketing at Tiger electronics (www.tigertoys.com), a division of toy-maker Hasbro
(www.hasbro.com). He says that he regula signed on to a newsgroup he found on Yahoo!
(www.yahoo.com) to offer product news and to answer questions about the i-Cybie robotic
dog the company was launching. European nations have some of the strictest regulations
covering marketing to children. However, nations belonging to the European Union (EU)
have widely va rying rules. For example, Greece bans all TV ads for war toys and bans ads
for all other toys between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. The Dutch-speaking part of Belgium bans TV
advertising within five minutes of the start and end of children’s programs. Sweden bans all
ads aimed at children under age 12. This means that when kids in Sweden watch the
Pokémon cartoon series, they do not hear the closing jingle “Gotta catch’em all” that plays

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elsewhere. But the problem for the Swedes (and others with more restrictive bans) is that they
can only enforce their laws on programs originating from within the country. They have no
power of enforcement over programs broadcast from other nations or from satellite
transmissions.
That is why the Swedes are pushing for a common restrictive policy toward advertising
aimed at children. Although an outright ban like Sweden’s is unlikely, partial bans such as
that in place in Belgium could be implemented. To forestall stricter EU–wide legislation,
advertisers could initiate voluntary limits themselves. Yet, marketers defend their actions.
Advertising executive Geoffrey Roche of Toronto, Canada, dismissed the idea that
psychologists
have the power to alter consumers’ minds to any large extent, especially not one that is
harmful. Dr. Curtis Haugtvedt,
president of the Society for Consumer Psychology, says that although evidence of the
negative aspects of advertising does exist, ads can also benefit kids. Haugtvedt also stresses
the role of parental guidance in helping kids to become responsible consumers and to not
allow them to make such decisions independently.

QUESTIONS:
14-13. If you were Stephan Loerke, of the World Federation of Advertisers, how would you
argue for the EU to not enact more strict advertising laws?
14-15. Thinking of a specific product sold in industrialized nations, do you think it could
create wants more than it satisfies needs if it were marketed in a developing country?
Sources: Ellen Neuborne, “For Kids on the Web, It’s an Ad, Ad, Ad, Ad World,” Bloomberg
Businessweek (www.businessweek.com), August 12, 2001; Brandon Mitchener, “Banning
Ads on Kids’ TV,” Wall Street Journal Europe, May 22, 2001, p. 25; James MacKinnon,
“Psychologists Act against Ad Doctors,” Adbusters website (www.adbusters.org).

CASE 2: Dove's Global "Real Beauty" Campaign

In 2003, Dove was not a beauty brand; it was a bar of soap that was positioned and sold
differently in different markets. Unilever, the company that marketed Dove, was a storied
consumer product multinational with global reach, a strong position in fast-growing
developing nations, and a reputation for customizing products to conditions prevailing in
local markets. In India, for example, woman often oil their hair before washing it, so Western
shampoos that do not remove the oil have not sold well. Unilever reformulated its shampoo
for India and was rewarded with market leadership. But sometimes Unilever went too far. It
used different formulations for shampoo in Hong Kong and mainland China for example,
even though hair and washing habits were very similar in both markets. Unilever would also
often vary the packaging and marketing message in similar products, even for its most
commoditized products. The company tended to exaggerate complexity, and by 2003 its
financial performance was suffering.

Seven years later Unilever's financial performance has improved, in no small part because it
has shifted toward a more global emphasis, and the Dove brand has led the way. The Dove
story dates to 2003 when the global brand director, Sylvia Lagnado, who was based in New
York, decided to move the positioning of Dove from one based on the product to one of an
entire beauty brand. The basic message: The brand should stand for the real beauty of all

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women. Dove's mission was to make women feel more beautiful every day by widening the
stereotypical definition of beauty and inspiring them to take care of themselves.

But how was this mission to be executed? Following a series of workshops held around the
globe that asked brand managers and advertising agency partners to find ways to
communicate an inclusive definition of beauty, the Canadian brand manager asked 67 female
photographers to submit work that best reflects real beauty. The photographs are stunning
portraits not of models, but of women from all walks of life that come in all shapes, sizes, and
ages. It led to a coffee table book and traveling exhibition, called the Dove Photo Tour, which
garnered a lot of positive press in Canada. Sylvia Lagnado realized that the Canadians were
on to something. Around the same time, the German office of Unilever's advertising agency,
Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide, came up with a concept for communicating "real beauty"
based on photographs showing instead of skinny models, ordinary women in their under
wear. The original German advertisements quickly made their way to the United Kingdom,
where a London newspaper article stated the campaign was not advertising; it was politics.
Lagnado was not surprised by this. She had commissioned research that revealed only 2
percent of women worldwide considered themselves beautiful, and that half thought their
weight was too high.

In 2004, the "Dove Campaign for Real Beauty" was launched globally. This was a radical
shift for Unilever and the Dove brand, which until then had left marketing in the hands of
local brand managers. The Real Beauty campaign was tweaked to take local sensibilities into
account. For example, it was deemed better not to show women touching each other in
America, while in Latin America tactile women do not shock anybody, so touching was seen
as OK.

In Canada, the campaign opened with billboard "tick box" advertisements on real women in
their underwear that invited people to call a toll-free number and vote on provocative tickers,
such as "Fat/Fabulous?" The votes were tallied and displayed in real time on the billboards.
This created a huge buzz, and the technique was quicklyadopted in other markets, including
the United States. As the campaign gained traction and a positive groundswell of media
attention occurred (in the United States, for example, the Dove Women were invited to Oprah
W infrey's TV talk show). Unilever soon extended the Dove product line to include skin
creams, shampoos, and shower gels. In 2005, the campaign was followed by the launch of the
Dove "self-esteem fund;' a worldwide campaign to persuade girls and young women to
embrace a more positive image of themselves. Unilever also made an on line video, loaded
onto You Tube, called "Onslaught," which was critical of the beauty industry and ended with
the slogan "Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does." Another video,
"Evolution," showed how the face of a girl can be changed, partly through computer
graphics, to create an image of beauty. The video ended with the tag line "No wonder our
perception of beauty is distorted." Made for very little money, the YouTube videos created a
viral buzz around the campaign that helped to transform Dove into one of Unilever's leading
brands. By its use of such techniques, the campaign has become a model for how to revitalize
and build a new global brand.

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QUESTION: HOW CAN DOVE DEVELOP AND MARKET ITS PRODUCTS FOR
GLOBAL MARKET?