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Defense of Master’s Thesis:

Part I: Findings on Why the Marketing to Women of

an Unattainable Ideal is So Successful

Part II: What we can do About It:

The Social Marketing Challenge

By

Iris JumbeThursday, October 11, 2012

Krems a.d. Donau

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This presentation will explore:

Part I

• The problem with the current beauty ideal• Key findings among women based on thesis research and secondary data

Part II

• How women can reclaim the definition of beauty• The 5 P’s: product, place, price, promotion and politics!• Takeaway & Conclusion

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Part I: Findings on Why the Marketing to Women of an Unattainable

Ideal is So Successful

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The Problem with the Current Beauty Ideal

Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuN4KB1xzDU&feature=g-hist

Literature Review

• The Effectiveness of Traditionally And Realistically Attractive Models In Fashion And Beauty Advertising?

• Buyology: An Analysis Of Why And How We Buy• Beauty and Consumer-Generated Advertising• Beauty and Feminism• The Beauty Mirage• Age and the Pursuit of Beauty• The Influence of the Herd• How Advertising and the Media Depict Women• The Role of Men• The Business and Homogenization of Beauty• Regulating Cosmetics Advertising• Beauty and Race

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• Maintaining an attractive appearance through enhancement is a regular and immovable part of women’s lives

• Women get internal and external benefits from beauty

• As women age, the value of B&PC products takes on a more abstract, but equally important, meaning

• When some non-white women picture archetypical beauty, they picture women of a race different to their own

• Race and age affect women’s self-image.

Self-Image, Habits and Current Memory

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Attitudes

• There are some very dramatic statistics which show how some women are held hostage by the idea of beauty.

• Women are fully aware of the unrealistic idea portrayed by advertising and they disagree with digital manipulation

• This condemnation of manipulation of images does not extend to a change in purchasing behaviors.

• Most women consider themselves immune to advertising.

• While women do want more regulation of beauty ads, they do not want the promotion of unrealistic beauty curtailed.

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Motivations, Needs & Values

• Women use B&PC products to achieve multiple aims

• They are driven by different factors to start and stop using certain brands

• There is a gap between expectation of beauty products and satisfaction with it

• Women still perceive beauty and personal care as a gender-specific domain.

• The use of TAMs works because it feeds into wish fulfillment.

• Race and age are the areas where women would like to see more diversity.

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MediaB&PC Co’s

Plastic Surgeons

Fashion Industry Romantic

Interests

When women perceive beauty, they see through the male gazeWomen today are both wary and weary of feminism.

Perceptions, Beliefs, Knowledge and The Role of Men

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Who’s to Blame?

Blame the media. They promote and reinforce unattainable ideals

that lower self-satisfaction and can have other harmful psychosocial

effects

Blame society. The media is only depicting what our tastes are. In the same way that high prices reflect high

demand for products and services, unrealistic media portrayals of beauty

reflect the consumer’s own desires.

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Part II: What we can do About It

The Social Marketing Challenge

“Social Marketing is the application of commercial marketing concepts and tools to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences to improve their lives or the society of which they are a part.”

—Alan Andreasen, Marketing Professor, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown, 2011

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Women Must Change The Way They Perceive Beauty!

• If they are unaware…

• If they are aware but not doing anything to change…

• If they are aware but do not want to change…

Education

Social Marketing

Law

The exact same product can be viewed in a totally different context – by choice!

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How can this be achieved?

Social Marketing:A Model for Interventions that Facilitate Change

What is the health problem?What actions could reduce the problem?

POLICY/RULES THAT INFLUENCE THE ACTION

Policy, rules, legislation

WHO MUST ACT TO RESOLVE PROBLEM

WHAT ACTION MUST BE TAKEN

Product or Behavior

HOW YOU TELL ABT THE WHAT, WHY, WHERE,

AND HOW

Promotion

WHY THEY WANT TO DO IT

WHERE (HOW) THEY CAN DO BEHAVIOR

Place

Social Marketing as a Model for Interventions that Facilitate ChangeSusan D. Kirby, 1995

Price

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Product

Price

PlacePromotion

Politics

• A greater sense of wellbeing• A louder voice in the dialog on beauty• A wider diversity of beauty in society• Higher confidence and self-esteem for

young girls, teenagers and grown women

• Internal recalibration• Narrower range of products • No high end brands for a while• A feeling of downgrading

Every single socialization channel – family, friends, school, media, culture

• Magazine covers• Via a celebrity’s social

media account.• Informal discussion at

home• Group discussion at

school• At the doctor’s• Point of purchase displays

Policies should be put in place that invite voluntary change – not force it. E.g. Schools that initiate and promote healthy lifestyles can get more funding

Anything that emphasizes one specific type of body shape, height, breast size, age, eye color, hair color, hip-to-waist

ratio etc.

A New Definition of Beauty!

Takeaway and Conclusion

• Society places too much value on beauty as defined through a single, very limited standard

• This ideal costs women a lot: economically, emotionally and in terms of physical health

• Having half a population straining under this single standard has its own socioeconomic costs

• The change has to start with the consumer – as individuals and as groups