Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
Marketing Week’s Mary Lou Costa has published an article this week looking at the dilemma beauty brands face in their marketing strategies. She mentions a previous role she held at a magazine that featured models on the cover, frequently airbrushed to remove imperfections.
The widespread use of airbrushing in magazines and advertising has been widely debated in the past and is still a subject many brands must address. Mary Lou mentions a recent study by Credos about women’s attitudes to beauty brands.
75% of young women in the study said they would prefer models in ads to appear un-airbrushed. 61% said airbrushing of blemishes or spots is unacceptable, while 84% said altering body shape is unacceptable.
This week also saw the Swedish fashion chain, H&M in the press for the use of virtual bodies. The brand has been superimposing women’s heads on to the bodies of computer-generated mannequins and simply altering the skin tone in each picture to match the face of the model. Industry and charity figures have criticsied the technique for presenting young women with unrealistic body images.
Unfortunately the survey mentioned in the Marketing Week article also highlights some of the comments from respondents which agree with the use of airbrushing with one woman saying “a really pretty girl would make me want to buy the product more.” Apparently “over half the young women in the study say they take inspiration from adverts for their appearance and over a third want to look like the models they see.”
Mary Lou calls for more “strategic thinking from marketers” to solve the dilemma beauty brands face and interestingly uses the example of a US teen who has gained 2.5 million views on YouTube for her strategy to conceal acne. She’s become a hero to acne-suffering teens and as Mary Lou said “what she has achieved can offer some marketing inspiration to beauty brands too.”
Online video provides a way to shape and showcase a brand’s online message and build trust with its customers. Working with Liz Earle Adjust Your Set has produced for them inspirational and educational videos for their own bespoke online video channel Liz Earle TV. Liz Earle herself offers her own personal guide to achieving healthy, beautiful skin in the videos and includes various how-to and educational insider tips and advice for customers.
Both Boots and Procter & Gamble have already responded positively to the Credos study, committing to use more natural images in their advertising. Hopefully more beauty brands will follow suit and will consider online video as the platform to effectively communicate a positive message to customers.
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