I read this post on Drew’s marketing minute blog about Dove and a marketing campaign they launched going away from their regular advertisements. This was the advertisement used for the campaign.
Drew’s blog post focuses on how marketing executives and senior managers are scared to be different and follow industry norms. He further states many potentially great marketing ideas are never brought to the public because of a fear of doing something that separates them from others in the industry and may be taking a risk. He praises the Dove marketing team for trying something different when they presented their idea which would take the brand into a different direction. As the marketing team used the daughters of the men who they had to pitch their idea to, this really drove home the message of self esteem in young girls and how the Dove brand could capitalize on this.
Personally, I think using the marketing directors/managers daughters to ensure they understand the concept and that it has great potential for the brand is a unique idea but I do not agree with some parts of Drew’s blog. I think most brands and companies know they have to market products differently and take risks to separate themselves from others in the industry. The post seems to hint many marketing directors and senior managers are out of touch and do not want to try knew things. As the Dove ad campaign is focusing on psychographic segmentation I think that the marketing directors would see the potential in the campaign and would not need to be overly persuaded by sneaky gimmicks. This is because if marketing ideas are brought to those that will approve or disapprove them and other factors are effecting their decisions such as using things from their personal lives or preferences it may decrease the objectivity of the decision they make. Even though this technique could help push projects through for some marketers it could also potentially help them get some not so great ideas green lit which could later hurt them and the brand.