The prevalence of social media in today’s society enables ideas, opinions, and the responses to these to be easily made known and exposed. It especially plays a large part in marketing as it adds another dimension of advertising and promotion for brands. However, as Graham Kingma has made clear with numerous examples on his blog post “Why Transparency Is Important On Social Media”, this exposure leads to the need of brands to be honest and sincere in their intentions, otherwise distrust and suspicion can quickly spread throughout their consumers.

https://www.the-cma.org/about/blog/why-transparency-is-important-on-social-media

For example, the McDonalds Photo Shoot video addressing the question concerning the different looks of its products in advertising and in stores, proves to understand and address this issue. This video opens up about the process of the photo shoot, and clearly explains why the differences in appearance occur. It is explained that in the photo shoot, all the ingredients must be pushed forwards to display the contents of the burger, that the heat from the packaging box of the burgers deflate the bun in reality, and that touch ups are made to the burger electronically to erase blemishes. By revealing these facts, McDonalds explains the reasons for the differences and leaves nothing for the consumers to imagine. It shows that the differences are merely in the appearance, and not in the actual product itself, as those in the photo shoot are made with the exact same ingredients as those sold in stores.

This video demonstrates that McDonalds knows how being unclear about the company’s operations and food processes can bring up questions and concerns about its products. Being open about how a company operates and sincere in their promotional tactics can earn the trust of consumers and avoid bad publicity.

Dove is a brand known not simply for its soap and hygiene products, but heavily for its goal to promote self-esteem and self-confidence in women.

Earlier this year, the popular soap brand Dove released its “Real Beauty Sketches” video. This video incorporates a forensic artist to illustrate the contrasting perceptions between how women see themselves, and how they are seen by others. In accordance with the brand’s mission, this advertisement is meant to show women that they are their own worst critics, and that “[they] are more beautiful than [they] think”.

This advertisement is strictly for the brand, and not for the products. Not to say that the purpose of this video is not to promote buying Dove products and generating revenue, but just that it takes a different approach. This video promotes the image of the brand and reinforces the idea that it genuinely cares about its consumers.

This strategy is extremely effective marketing as this market has many direct and indirect competitors and therefore brands need to be able to find sustainable advantages to differentiate themselves from one another. Dove focuses on building its brand, and because the integrity of the brand has become trusted and valued beyond its competitors, Dove’s products have soared as well.

http://realbeautysketches.dove.ca/