Why 2017 Is A Disaster For Dove?

In 2017, people were enraged over a Dove campaign that was posted on their Facebook page. Soon after posting, screenshots spread all over the Internet, accusing the brand of being racist in terms of how they depicted women of colour.

For years in the past, images implied that dark skin isn’t beautiful. Black women were made to feel and believe that there was something wrong with their skin. The images in the 2017 Dove campaign brought those outdated thoughts back – thoughts that women of colour had fought so hard to overcome. 

They further explained that the campaign “did not represent the diversity of real beauty, which is something Dove is passionate about and is core to our beliefs, and it should not have happened.”

People make mistakes, and the same goes for brands. But how can you make sure that you don’t make those same mistakes before they spread all over social media? Here are some ways that you can effectively market to different audiences to draw them in instead of scaring them away.

Always market with diversity in mind

Diversity should never be an afterthought. Anybody can include people of different nationalities and races in their promotional images, and mark promotional campaigns as multi-cultural. However, you need to surpass that superficial level kind of marketing if you want to avoid making mistakes like Dove did.

What you should do instead is always market with diversity in mind from the very beginning. From there, you can build campaigns, products, and services that meet everybody’s needs. One good example of this is the singer Rihanna’s makeup brand Fenty Beauty. Her makeup line consists of 40 shades to cater to people of practically every skin colour. This made people very happy, which resulted in a lot of sales for the brand.

Build a team with diversity in mind 

Your campaigns aside, you should also build your team with diversity in mind. If you work with people from different backgrounds and with different experiences and mindsets, you can hear their ideas and thoughts to help you create better products, services, and messages that will cater to a more diverse crowd.

Try to understand your customers better

It is true that you may never know what a person is going through. However, what you can do is try your best to understand them. The best way to do this would be to converse with your customers. Ask them questions. Find out their likes and dislikes. Ask them how certain things make them feel. The more you talk to your customers, the more of an idea you will get about how to behave in terms of your campaigns.

People in today’s generation are much more outspoken than they used to be. Audiences are growing more diverse as time goes by. If you want to reach these audiences, you need to keep growing and find ways to communicate with your customers that will make them feel understood.

All of this might seem new to you, and you may still commit mistakes every now and then. That is normal for new initiatives, though. All you need to do is stay committed to your goal and it will soon become like second nature to you. In the long run, your customers will love you for it.

The article was written by Soon Koon.