Author Name: Saira Abid

TITLE

An investigation on the effectiveness of e-advertising in achieving profitability in the FMCG industry – A case study on Unilever’s Dove Real Beauty Campaign

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to find a relationship between e-advertising and profits

generated by FMCGs. To keep the scope of the research specific and focused, the study

considered the Dove Real Beauty Campaign as reference. The study intended to evaluate the

effectiveness of e-advertising in the success of the campaign so as to identify a direct effect and

cause connection between the two. The previous studies in this field have revealed the

complexity of this problem, as many direct and indirect variable affect the sales and revenue of

an organization. However it has also been learned that online advertising has become an

essential component in today’s business promotion strategies due to the boom of E-commerce

industry. Along with the case of Dove, the researcher conducted a online survey to collect both

quantitative and qualitative data on the impact of e-advertising. The methodology used for the

analysis and interpretation of the data is the deductive approach. The study builds a hypothesis

claiming the positive affect of online advertising towards the uplifting of revenues in FMCGs and

intends to generalize the conclusion to other FMCG industry if the validity of the hypothesis is

proved. The study provides the conclusion of the research after analyzing the discussing each

component highlighted from the results of survey. A chapter on recommendations and further

research has been added at the end.

ContentsAbstract.......................................................................................................................................................2

Table of Tables............................................................................................................................................5

Table of Figures...........................................................................................................................................5

Chapter One-Introduction...........................................................................................................................7

1.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................................7

1.2 Research Study Background........................................................................................................8

1.3 Research Rationale....................................................................................................................10

1.4 Research Aim.............................................................................................................................10

1.5 Research Objectives...................................................................................................................10

1.6 Problem Statement....................................................................................................................11

1.7 Research Questions...................................................................................................................12

1.8 Organizational Context..............................................................................................................12

1.8.1 About Unilever...................................................................................................................12

1.8.2 About the Dove Beauty Campaign.....................................................................................13

1.9 Research Methodology..............................................................................................................13

1.10 Research Study Structure..........................................................................................................14

Chapter Two- Literature Review................................................................................................................15

2.1 Marketing by Fast Moving Consumer Goods Companies..........................................................15

2.2 Marketing Mix...........................................................................................................................16

2.3 Relationship Marketing..............................................................................................................19

2.4 Advertising and Promotion........................................................................................................22

2.5 Conceptual Framework..............................................................................................................28

2.6 Literature Review Gap...............................................................................................................30

Chapter Three- Research Design and Methodology..................................................................................32

3.1 Introduction.....................................................................................................................................32

3.2 Deductive vs. Inductive Approach...................................................................................................33

3.3 Research Framework.......................................................................................................................34

3.3.1 Variables...................................................................................................................................35

3.4 Research Approach..........................................................................................................................36

3.5 Research Sampling Method.............................................................................................................37

3.5.1 Selected Sample........................................................................................................................39

3.6 Data Collection Tools.......................................................................................................................39

3.6.1 Primary Data.............................................................................................................................41

3.6.2 Questionnaire....................................................................................................................41

3.6.3 Secondary Data..................................................................................................................42

3.7 Accessibility Issue............................................................................................................................42

3.8 Ethical Issues..............................................................................................................................43

3.9 Data Analysis...................................................................................................................................44

3.10 Validity, Reliability, and Limitations...............................................................................................45

Chapter 4 Results, Analysis and Interpretation of Data.............................................................................47

4.1 Introduction.....................................................................................................................................47

4.2 Presentation of findings...................................................................................................................49

4.3 Data Analysis and Interpretation.....................................................................................................52

4.3.1 Quantitative Analysis................................................................................................................52

4.3.2 Qualitative Analysis...................................................................................................................71

4.4 Conclusion of analysis......................................................................................................................74

Chapter Five - Conclusions and Recommendations...................................................................................77

5.1 Conclusion......................................................................................................................................77

5.1.1 Conclusion as per Research Objectives..............................................................................78

5.1.2 Conclusion as per Research Questions...............................................................................82

5.2 Recommendations.....................................................................................................................82

Recommendations for Further Research...........................................................................................84

Bibliography...........................................................................................................................................85

Appendix 1- Questionnaire........................................................................................................................92

Appendix 2- Response Table......................................................................................................................96

Table of TablesTable 1: Responses of Q1, Q7, Q8 and Q9.................................................................................................48Table 2: Responses of Q3 and Q4..............................................................................................................49Table 3: Responses of Q2, Q5 and Q6........................................................................................................49Table 4: Responses of Q11, Q12 and Q13..................................................................................................50Table 5: Analysis and Interpretation of Q1................................................................................................51Table 6: Graphical representation of responses for Q1.............................................................................52Table 7: Analysis and Interpretation of Q2................................................................................................53Table 8: Graphical representation of responses for Q2.............................................................................53Table 9: Analysis and Interpretation of Q3................................................................................................54Table 10: Graphical representation of responses for Q3...........................................................................55Table 11: Analysis and Interpretation of Q4..............................................................................................56Table 12: Graphical representation of responses for Q4...........................................................................56Table 13: Analysis and Interpretation of Q5..............................................................................................57Table 14: Graphical representation of responses for Q5...........................................................................58Table 15: Analysis and Interpretation of Q6..............................................................................................59Table 16: Graphical representation of responses for Q6...........................................................................59Table 17: Analysis and Interpretation of Q7..............................................................................................60Table 18: Graphical representation of responses for Q7...........................................................................61Table 19: Analysis and Interpretation of Q8..............................................................................................61Table 20: Graphical representation of responses for Q8...........................................................................62Table 21: Analysis and Interpretation of Q9..............................................................................................63Table 22: Graphical representation of responses for Q9...........................................................................63Table 23: Analysis and Interpretation of Q10............................................................................................64Table 24: Graphical representation of responses for Q10.........................................................................65Table 25: Analysis and Interpretation of Q11............................................................................................66Table 26: Graphical representation of responses for Q11.........................................................................66Table 27: Analysis and Interpretation of Q12............................................................................................67Table 28: Graphical representation of responses for Q12.........................................................................68Table 29: Analysis and Interpretation of Q13............................................................................................69Table 30: Graphical representation of responses for Q13.........................................................................69

Table of FiguresFigure 1- The Four P's of Marketing (Ivanov, 2012)...................................................................................15

Figure 2- The 7 P's of Marketing (Ivanov, 2012)........................................................................................16Figure 3- Relationship marketing: the transition curve; (source: Strandvik and Storbacka, 1996)............19Figure 4 The Conceptual Framework to measure effectiveness of E-Advertising......................................26

Chapter One-Introduction

1.1 Introduction

Advertising in this era of technology is no longer about informing your customers about your

services or selling a new product idea, it has become an art of generating needs and developing

user experience about the product and how it is different from millions of products out there in

the market. Marketers, professionals with the aim to reaching public with information about

their company’s product or service, now have to build strategies to retain their existing

customers as well as to target new ones by understanding their needs in a better and more

appealing way. Information technology, especially the social media has played a vital role in

bridging this gap between customers and the businesses via e-commerce. It has helped them in

establishing a direct connection to customers and has one to one interaction with them.

According to a research, in 2012 more than 1.4 billion people using internet accessed social

media and the number of social logins has grown exponentially in the last couple of years

( (Statista, 2015)

Another research revealed that an amount of 7.52 billion US dollars was spent on social media

marketing by businesses in the United States for the year 2014 (Statista, 2015)This shows how

technology has impacted the business practices and gives insights into how online advertising

helps build marketers a competitive edge over others, uplifts the sales and hence positively

boost business’ finances. Research has shown that online advertising has been most effective

source of elevating company sales as compared to other forms of advertising (Balakrishnan, et

al., 2014))Online presence of a company speaks a lot about its standing in the market while it

also help build customer e-trust through live interaction and feedback. If a consumer trusts an

organization, one is more comfortable to make online transactions and help increased e-loyalty

(Rahimnia & Hassanzadeh, 2013)Consumer is the defining element in how effective an

advertising campaign can become and how a company can challenge the traditional ways of

advertising by bringing new and creative ways for customer engagement (Pavlou & Stewart,

2000)

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the internet advertising revenue for the year

2014 was increased by 16% from year 2013 revenues ( (Marshall, 2015)This shows how

effectively internet advertising has been catering the business market needs and helping them

earn high profits. Moreover, this has opened ways for other businesses to solely base their

business model on advertising. Today advertising has become the largest source of revenues of

numerous search engines and E-commerce websites (Ghose & Yang, n.d.)In the Google’s annual

revenue for year 2014, online advertising contributed to the 89.5% of the company’s online

revenue ( (Investor.google.com, 2015)Google has verified the increase in sales through electronic

or online advertising only to be at 41% whereas an increase of 9% combined has been recorded

from the rest of the marketing mediums (Hamidi & Safabaksh, 2011)

1.2 Research Study Background

In this day and age, technology has changed drastically, and as a result it has revolutionized

with it numerous practices people have been accustomed to. E-commerce, also known as E-

business was started in 1970s. Initially the idea was used by large firms and business to interact

with other businesses and share information (Haegele, 2001)With the evolution of technology,

today E-commerce industry includes e-retailers, community providers, content providers,

portals, transaction brokers, market creators, service providers and many more (Laudon &

Traver, n.d.)The boom in E-commerce has transformed the way people perceive businesses and

it has made people more aware of their needs. It has made consumers more powerful and

informed. Now businesses focus on getting to know the needs of their audience before they

themselves realize them. They have become more customers oriented, now customer chooses

what to buy, how to buy and what price to pay. (Laudon & Traver, n.d.)

This highly competitive market has pushed the marketers to invent new ways of reaching out to

their customers and keep them connected to their products. Online Advertising, like the local

advertising, aims to reach out to a maximum number of people and create awareness about a

product or service being offered. However, as the consumers have become more informed and

critical about their buying needs, the advertising needs to be more personalized and consumer-

centered. The whole idea of business success is shifted to targeting the right customer at the

right time in the most effective way possible. Consumer behavior has therefore become a vital

part of studies done to develop marketing strategies. Companies spend thousands of dollars to

gather information and shopping patterns of their consumers. A lot of analytical tools are now

freely available in the market and online that can help maintain records and analyze data about

consumer buying patterns. These tools keep track of every action each customer takes on an E-

Commerce site. They provide statistics on business sales, number of views, and number of

people visited the website etc. All these applications help business to boost sales, increase

traffic and uplift business performance (Google.com.pk, 2015)FMCGs also known as Consumer

Packaged Goods is an industry of everyday use packaged goods that we usually buy when we go

shopping; these include daily essentials, grocery items or local pharmacy products. Hence they

are everyday use products; they are high in demand but cost much less. This study is focused on

the case of Dove Real Beauty Campaign which was hosted by the parent company Unilever and

how it has benefitted the company.

1.3 Research RationaleCompanies use various strategies to increase their profit margins, along with various marketing

techniques, the emerging technology has revolutionized the way companies approach their

consumers. The Study is focused on how the online advertising is contributing to the revenues

of FMCG firms and is focusing on the Dove Real Beauty Campaign by Unilever as Unilever is one

of the largest multinationals operating in many countries. The research results will be able to

help future researchers and marketers in the use of effective e-advertising, particularly in the

FMCG sector. The impact of e-advertising needs to be studied with widespread use of the social

media, this strategy is now the best way for marketers to reach their consumers.

1.4 Research Aim

This research is aimed at measuring the impact that e advertising has, as a promotional tool, on

the bottom-line of brands in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods industry. In cross-media

advertising, today, e-advertising plays a very important role and the example given here is that

of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign that used e advertising as a pivotal tool for their promotion.

The study hopes to determine the effectiveness of that advertising have over consumer buying

and company’s revenues.

1.5 Research ObjectivesBy conducting this study, it is hoped that the following research objectives are achieved:

To study the effects of e-advertisement on the profitability of FMCG’s.

To determine the relationship between advertising and customer retention

To study the effect of customer retention on profitability

To study the impact of e-advertisement on Unilever’s Dove Real Beauty Campaign.

To analyze the effectiveness of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign.

Provide recommendations for the FMCG sector in relation to e-advertsing.

1.6 Problem StatementThe matter under consideration is the effectiveness of online advertising and how it helps Fast

Moving Consumer Goods companies towards profit expansion. The transaction of goods,

services against payments in a market plays a vital role in hosting economic development

(Hanafizadeh & Behboudi, 2012). The top FMCG’s retain customers by producing high-quality

products and building up trust among its consumers. Since these are the low-cost products and

switching brands does not have a high opportunity cost for the consumer, advertising is a

powerful tool to build customer loyalty and can bring about high returns through customer

engagement in the product. A study done on the FMCG’s residing in India showed the

relationship between advertising expenditure and its impact on the sales and profits of the

companies. It concluded that the both are mutually dependent and advertising can

complement company’s profits ( (Mahendru & K De, 2015)One of the main techniques is to keep

reminding the customer about the brand or product through interactive campaigns; as relation

building is a major trait to beat the notch.

1.7 Research QuestionsThe main question on which the whole research is based upon is as follows:

“How effective is e advertising in achieving the profitability in the FMCG industry? In particular,

how effective was it in the case of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign?”

The research question will be divided into the following sub-questions for research purposes

1. How effective is the tools of e advertising in achieving profitability in the FMCG

industry?

2. How effective was the Dove Real Beauty Campaign?

3. What factors contributed to the effectiveness of a campaign?

4. What are the recommendations, based on the study that can help FMCG’s improve the

effectiveness of their e-advertising campaigns?

1.8 Organizational Context

1.8.1 About Unilever

Unilever is one of the top Fast Moving Consumer Goods providers with market catering

the needs of people around the globe by selling products in more than 170 countries in

the world (Unilever.pk, n.d.). It is the fastest growing company with a very wide and

diverse range of consumer goods. According to its website the turnover rate of the

company in 2009 was 42.73 billion dollars. (Unilever.pk, n.d.)

1.8.2 About the Dove Beauty Campaign

Dove started its beauty campaign in September 2004, with the idea to broaden the

definition of beauty and not to limit the definition and perceptions to color, race or face

features. Dove pitches the idea of beauty as a source of confidence; as beauty should

not make one feel anxious .Unilever tried to break the norm of what real beauty is and

tried to make individuals feel good about themselves (Dove.us, 2015)

The recent campaign has launched a short film by the name of “Dove Real Beauty

Sketches”. The Video showed a comparison between how women perception of their

looks and beauty is compared to how others see them. They hired an FBI- Trained

forensic artist, in the beginning he draws composite sketches of different women

without seeing them based completely on how these ladies described themselves. Each

of the women, whose sketch was made, was asked to spend some time with a total

stranger. Once the sketches were done the stranger was asked to describe the women.

Surprisingly the sketches drawn with the stranger description of women were more

beautiful, lively and alike to their real faces. The ad was very powerful and makes people

change the way they look at themselves (Unilever.com, 2015)

1.9 Research MethodologyThe paper studies the impact of e-advertising in achieving profitability in the FMCG industry.

The study focuses on the effectiveness of online campaigns constituted by various companies in

general and then will discuss in detail the example of a campaign run by one of the leading

FMCG companies Unilever. For this research, both quantitative and qualitative approaches will

be used. The primary source of data collection will be the survey responses collected through

an online survey and the data about the Dove campaign. However for the qualitative data case

studies and other academic journals would be the main source of data. The researcher has used

a random sampling method to collect first 50 completed filled online surveys. All privacy

policies have been considered; the identity of the people participating in the survey will be kept

confidential and data collected will be solely used for academic purposes with the informed

consent of the participants.

1.10 Research Study StructureThe following table shows the structure of study of the research paper:

Chapter Number DescriptionChapter 1 Introduction-Initial Description is provided in the first chapter, it explains the

research purpose, objectives and aims, the problem statement, description of the title and explanation of the main concepts. It also provides the structure of the whole study.

Chapter 2 Literature review- This section gives a brief introduction, the body of the review includes various articles, research papers, and case studies with a critical analysis on the results of these studies. This section ends with a conclusion of the review

Chapter 3 Methodology – Provides a detailed description of what methodology will be used for research study and how the results will be deduced.

Chapter 4 Analysis and discussion - In this section, the author has attempted to critically evaluate the gathered information and provide complete overview of the study derivations

Chapter 5 Conclusion, findings, and suggestive recommendations-In the last part of this paper, conclusion, and recommendation is provided. Research findings are provided to help the interested parties understand the context broadly.

Chapter 6 References and appendices-The sources that have been used while conducting the research have been presented here.

Chapter Two- Literature Review

This chapter gives the summary of the literature that was consulted for this research. Each

section explains the general idea or concept and then the relevant case studies are discussed.

The main headings describe some generic marketing concepts and the structure of this chapter

is divided into four major headings. First is the Marketing by FMCG Companies; this part

explains the practices of marketing in FMCG’s and what factors are considered while developing

marketing strategies, the Marketing Mix; this section talks about the famous four P’s of

marketing and the extended seven P’s version, it then discusses some research examples where

these mixes apply and have impacted the marketing techniques of the companies. Third is

Advertising and promotions; advertising and promotion is the soul of marketing, this section

discusses the new practices of online media integration with advertising, customer engagement

and its effectiveness, and the conceptual Framework. At the end of this chapter, the gaps in the

literature review have been explained; this part also suggests some of the abridging factors that

will allow this particular research to fill this void.

2.1 Marketing by Fast Moving Consumer Goods Companies

The FMCG’s market is not just physical, but a substantial portion of it has now gone digital with

e-commerce businesses springing up everywhere and grabbing a substantial chunk of the

market. It is not surprising though, that the big players are limited to a few names in the

industry while the remaining ones don’t enjoy the same profit margins or the spotlight as their

counterparts do. The FMCG’s do not market as a company but instead they tend to market as

brands as there are several in-house brands related to different segments and having entirely

different brand personas (Calder, et al., 2009). So the marketing for brands is done based on

their brand equity because that is how their contribution to the bottom line of the company is

calculated. Several major brands in the FMCG sector include Proctor & Gamble, Unilever,

Reckitt Benckiser, Colgate Palmolive etc. hosting brand names such as Johnsons, Colgate, Lux,

Dove, Dettol, Ariel, Tide etc. For each brand, the marketing is entirely different and so are the

campaign and the marketing mix selected (Hooley, et al., 1992).

2.2 Marketing Mix

The Marketing Mix is an important concept that is fully implemented in the marketing of FMCG

products. The broad concept of the marketing mix comprises of four P's that define the

combinations that an organization has to make in order to sell to a target market. The most

widely accepted and recognized four P's of marketing include Product, Price, Place and

promotions, as ideally marketing would include the right product sold at the perfect price at the

right place with just the right amount of promotion (Ivanov, 2012) as shown in Figure 1. The

same strategy also applies to online marketing as the competition on the online markets is very

tough and proper strategies and game plans have been developed over the better part of the

past decade in order to reel in more customers (Shankar & Batrab, 2009).

Figure 1- The Four P's of Marketing (Ivanov, 2012)

Marketers have now further elaborated the four P's to introduce 7 P's for more specific

marketing, more factors come into play as shown in Figure 2. In the seven P’s marketing

approach, people, process and physical evidence come to play. It focuses on the important part

of target audience and customer awareness. Many times companies neglect that the business

process and their physical presence can impact the marketing strategies they are using.

In a recent study by (Crawforda & Gary D. Gregoryb, March 2015), the researchers have

highlighted an important misconception about companies tend to be using humorous

advertising expecting to cater larger and cross cultural markets. Moreover US$119 billion have

been spent by companies on supposedly humorous advertising in the year 2013 (Barnard,

2012). The study suggests that the claims of humorous advertising to be effective and helps

create brand awareness does not have any factual basis rather it is an intuitive claim. The study

however concluded that due to lack to study and experimentation on cross-cultural impacts

and a large number of variables affecting the user behavior it is very difficult to claim the

effectiveness of humorous advertising towards companies’ profits.

Figure 2- The 7 P's of Marketing (Ivanov, 2012)

With the ever advancing technology and pressure of online presence, companies have become

very critical about the use of Marketing Mix variables. The online media has given a lot of

power to consumer. It has increased the ubiquity of product information; consumers now

decide what the product does for them and how it should be doing through ratings and blog

reviews. It has given consumer a lot choice and comparisons between the products have

become much easier. This e-Word of Mouth can both positively and negatively impact a

business. And hence businesses have become more socially active trying to influence how their

products are perceived over the social media. (Laudon & Traver, 2014). A study conducted by

Sen & Lerman has revealed that on average people are more likely to weigh negative reviews

they read online about the products or services higher as compared to the positive ones while

evaluating the product. The study makes an interesting argument that the utilitarian readers

are more prone to classify the negative reviews of a reviewer as product relevant and hence

more useful. (Sen & Lerman, 2007). Similar results have been reduced by another study which

concludes that consumers with goals to prevent consumption find negative reviews more

persuasive (Zhanga, et al., December 2010).

2.3 Relationship Marketing

With the changing market trends and the advancing technologies, many businesses have been

struggling to keep up with the changing trend. The recent changing in the technology has made

it vital for business to tailor their business practices to fit in the technological tools. With all that

coming, a trend of needed change and revolutionary ideas has been observed in the literature

around the late 90s.

One of the scholars; during the post marketing mix era, identified that relation building and its

sustainability have long term implications of companies, and they affect the strategic and

planning practices of a firm. He suggested that the concepts and practices which are present in

current literature in the form of books, journals, and articles are impractical and require new

perspective. One of the reasons he highlighted was that the past concepts are outdated and

are not able to mingle with the new technology and changing trends. He concludes by

suggesting the development of “new” marketing concepts that are practical and applicable to

the current technological practices (Gummesson, 1987).

A lot of authors and market researchers had started talking about terms like “Relationship

Market”, although the description of the term varied across writers and the concept was a bit

vague but what was meant to communicate was the idea of bringing new idea to marketing

practices (Grönroos, 1999).

In another paper Gronroos, discusses the loop wholes and limitation of the traditional

marketing tools used to build business marketing strategies. The paper throws light on the

nature and impacts of the current marketing practices that are dominant in the business

practices. He explains how the traditional marketing mix management can negatively affect the

growth of current businesses. He then proposes the idea of development in this sector by

introducing new marketing approach that can handle not only the commercial marketing but

also complement the customer relationship management. However he explains the changing

strategies may demand businesses to evolve their processes to meet ever emerging market

requirements. He suggests the new strategy should focus on building relationships with

partners, consumers and expanding networks. As second in another study, the relationship

marketing approach enroots to the basic marketing tools through revolutionary practices

(Strandvik & Storbacka, 1996). The study by Gronroos concludes that the traditional Four Ps of

Marketing mix is no more relevant in the increasing complex market structure. And hence

serves a small portion in understanding consumer needs and developing ideas to cater those

multifaceted demands. And hence introducing revolutionary ideas can save us the trouble of

losing our consumer interest. (Grönroos, 1994)

In the cloud of a lot of theories and description Gronroos have tried explaining the concept of

Marketing in essence of relationship management as a process of recognizing and forming,

sustaining, and improving, and cutting off the relationships with the consumers when and how

needed along other stakeholders, to generate at revenue, hence to satisfy the needs and wants

of all entities involved in the process; and this is can be achieved by sincerity of promise and

developing mutual dependency (Grönroos, 1997)

Another scholar during the same era have explained the importance of relationship marketing

and how it can contribute in developing long term, trust worthy relationship among the

consumers and the companies.

Figure 3Relationship marketing: the transition curve; (source: Strandvik and Storbacka, 1996)

The above figure highlights the difference between the traditional marketing approach and how

it was limited to the product features only versus the new relationship marketing approach

which the competency oriented. As the figure depicts the relationship marketing approach has

increased the resource base. Similar views are expressed by Gummesson in one of his articles

where he mentioned that the successful adoption of relationship marketing requires a

revolutionary mindset compared to the traditional marketing management approach

(Gummesson, 2002).

2.4 Advertising and Promotion

The area of marketing has developed rapidly in the past two decades as more companies have

sprung up, and everyone has been scramming to obtain their share of the market. Due to this

reason, the marketing tools have been developed over the years with varying effective impact

depending on the product, industry and the target consumer base (Ellis-Chadwick & Doherty,

2012). Some of the most common types of online advertising techniques are (Boundless.com,

n.d.):

1. Banner Advertising (PrettyGoodPlan.com, n.d.)

The banner advertising refers to the graphical images of ads; they are subdivided into the

following categories:

a. Floating Ads- includes ads that float or move over the screen and the content on the

webpage

b. Wall paper advertisements-these ads appear as a background to the current site

c. Pop-up Ads- These ads appear in a new window that pops up in front of your existing

window

2. Semantic Advertising- This type of advertising uses different search engine optimization

techniques to target their customers with more personalized ads.

3. Blog Advertising- Blog advertising is a very effective form of advertising especially in the

professional business settings (Laudon & Traver, 2014). People write blog articles

providing general tips and guidelines and along with that promote their products by

suggesting possible benefits and usage procedures.

4. Promotional Advertising- This type of advertising is used to engage customers in buying

products through promotions, which may come in the form of discounts, coupons,

flyers, complementary tokens etc.

5. Pixel Advertising- The pixel advertising is a new concept where the cost of your ad is

determined by the number of pixels it occupies on the window screen.

6. Affiliate Advertising- This type of advertising is used by advertisers to run campaigns

with publishers who have access to a large group of audience.

7. Social Networking- Companies use different social networking sites including Facebook,

Twitter, and LinkedIn etc. to keep their customers engaged and up to date.

8. Mobile Advertising- Mobile advertising has become an amazingly essential tool for

marketing and promotion as mobile users are exponentially increasing.

There are many variables which define the success of any marketing campaign and three of the

most widely used measures include campaign efficiency, channel value and media interaction

as these three commonly five an overview of how successful the tools applied can be in

delivering the company’s message to it consumers (Whan Park, et al., 1998).

Any company can reach its consumers through several forms of media including television,

press, outdoors and online are the four major categories. The Return on Investment on each of

those tools varies according to their implementation and usage (Hadadi & Almsafir, 2014).

Companies keep a regular check on the reach, the conversion rates and thus calculate the ROI

on different tools regularly. Using that feedback, the advertisers create a different promotional

mix for each subsequent campaign to achieve the maximum benefit and to drive sales (Joy, et

al., 2009).

With the advent of E-Commerce, companies who have physical presence have become live, this

dual presence have complemented these offline store and saved them the effort for promoting

a completely online business (Laudon & Traver, 2014). Moreover, E-commerce has completely

revolutionized the business transactions, with the ease of online payment, home delivery, and

the combination of two, i.e. online payment, store-pick up and vice versa people are more

comfortable with their buying accessibility (Laudon & Traver, 2014). It has reduced customers’

search cost, saved time and reduced retailers’ overheads (Chan, et al., November-December

2011). However the increasing online trend and lower barriers to online commerce have made

the revenue generation highly competitive. The study by Chana, Chengb & Hsiena attempts to

provide some strategies for businesses to sustain in the market. the study suggest to divide the

customers into various segments and target each segment based on its pricing preferences. The

price listings are established on the basis of CRM and customer classes and hence the

promotions would than be made in pricing to reincline purchases. The same approach was

used for an elctronic store and its before and after promotion sales were compared. The results

showed a significant increase in the sales. However the study is limited to one online electronic

store case, which brings the effectiveness of this strategy to question. Also there are is a

limitation to the product category, the same strategy in clothing or home furniture category

might not produce similar results (Chan, et al., November-December 2011) .

There has been a growing trend in the promotion and discount advertising in the recent years.

Companies have been utilizing the opportunities of promotional sales by introducing them

during various cultural events and social movements (Laudon & Traver, 2014). Many regions of

the world celebrate days of special discounts and sales especially in areas like United States and

United Kingdom. A study highlights the rising fashion of price promotions in USA and UK

(Bogomolovaa, et al., July 2015). The study identifies that there have been a dominating

increase in price promotions after the Global Financial Crisis. The national brand industry

seemed to be more prevelant in the inception of these pricing promotions (Bogomolovaa, et al.,

July 2015).

One of the important factors in devising advertising strategies in the consumer behaviour and

background. It is important for company to understand if the consumers have sound

understanding of internet and it’s sources, how much of its customers are users of online media

and how much time they spend browsing through the internet (Laudon & Traver, 2014). A study

was conducted to analyze and compare the reaction of experienced and new users of internet

to various promotional ads and discounts. The results suggested that experienced users are

more likely to be inspired by the online discounts and gifts and indicate greater purchasing

intention. However the display of web promotions impact both the groups in similar way that’s

is about their attitudes and perceptions about the brands. There is no significant difference

between a new user and an experirnced user response to a promotional advantage (Crespo-

Almendros & Barrio-García, February 2015).

In the research (Calder, et al., 2009), the authors have discussed the customer engagement

over the virtual media and how can it be a possible factor towards the effective advertising. The

article proceeds with the idea of “engagement” and how its definition differs among various

advertising research experts. The paper is structured in two parts; the first part talks about the

consumer engagement over websites and their respective experiences whereas the second part

deals with analysis and comparison of the diverse views and findings. It has been suggested

that consumer engagement comes with the series of experiences they have with the websites.

The study highlighted Uses and Gratification theory which reasons the people’s use of social

media is for Information, Personal identity, Integration and social interaction and

entertainment. Although a number of other writers have given critical responses to this

approach but what everyone agrees upon is the fact that websites may provide a different type

of experience than the traditional media sources. One of the reasons for why customer

experience affect the website advertising is “Affect Transfer” as suggested by Broniarczyk in his

article “The importance of Brand in Brand Extension”. (Broniarczyk & Alba, 1991). The study

(Calder, et al., 2009), have identified two types of customer engagements; personal

engagement which gives the user almost the same experience as reading a blog or a newspaper

magazine, social interactive engagement differentiates the traditional engagement by providing

an interactive and communicative platform over the web.

Another aspect that advertising caters is the consumer ability to recall and relate their products

when making purchasing decisions. In the study by (Herrewijn & Poels, July 2015) an

experiment has been conducted to analyze the effectiveness on In-game Advertising (IGA). The

selected sample of people was made to play online video games which contained IGA in various

social media interactions. The results had highlighted two major components contributing

towards brand recollection and brand awareness; social presence and player’s interactivity.

(Herrewijn & Poels, July 2015)

A study suggests that the boom of business to business commerce over the internet will each

trillions in the next few years. This exponential growth in the electronic commerce brings to

questions various traditional commerce practices. And hence made the marketers concerned

about their online visibility and the usage of technological mediums to keep up with the market

trends. Manufacturers are concerned about that practices should be adopted to cater the

communication and market needs of business by reaching a wide range of consumer market.

The marketing communication includes electronic advertising, sales promotions, public

relations and direct marketing. The online media has been personalized access easier and

effective. The research under discussion took the sample size of 188 from the 500 online

Fortune manufacturer websites which use various forms of marketing communication. After

careful study and analysis, the research produced the following conclusions. One, that the

online platform provides manufacturers a lot of opportunity to build constructive and

interactive communication strategies using the website presence and the second important

result of the study was the emerging competition; e-commerce have opened various

opportunities for the business people giving lower market entry barriers and little investments

to set up a website. All this have made the commerce environment very competitive and

consumer oriented and as a result e-businesses demand a lot of effort to cut through the edge

to meet the business profits and beat both the small and large competitors (Perry & Bodkin,

2002)

2.5 Conceptual Framework

Figure 4 The Conceptual Framework to measure effectiveness of E-Advertising

On the basis of the literature review, the above figure-3 depicts the conceptual flow of this

research. The study intends to describe some of the promotional tools that have been used by

Unilever for the Dove Beauty Campaign. It will then explain the actual message that was

Effectiveness of the campaign

Reaching the target audience

Combinations of promotional tools used

The brand repuation and

message

intended to send across to the audience. It also talks about how the idea was generated and

why the above campaign was used. Later it explains how the campaign was formulated and

recorded; how were the people who became the part of this video selected. The issues and

critical scenarios faced during its development. And finally it reaches the market, receives the

audience reaction and finally the results of the campaign are deduced. Some of the key terms

used in the above figure are described as follows:

Terms Description

Promotional Tools Promotion is a way of delivering a company’s message to its

target consumers. The tools used for promotion include:

advertising, sales, public relations, direct marketing, word of

mouth, print media, online media, events, influencers etc.

(ManagementStudyGuide.com, n.d.)

Brand Reputation Brand Reputation deals with the customer perception of a brand

or a product. It is generally organization’s perceived status which

it wants to achieve. (Kotler & Armstrong, 1991)

Target Audience Target Audience is that intended segment of people or market for

which company has made or offered a particular product. (Kotler

& Armstrong, 1991)

Effectiveness Effectiveness is defined as the level to which the desired objective

or aim is achieved. (Laudon & Traver, 2014)

Campaign Campaign is a group of promotional activities design to get across

an idea, theme, thought, or business product. (Kotler &

Armstrong, 1991)

Relationship Marketing A type of marketing strategy which focuses on building flourishing

customer relationships. To build long term relationships,

companies tend to study customer buying patterns and activities

over the social media (MarketingSchools.org, 2012).

Brand Awareness The recognition of a product or brand by its potential customers.

Brand awareness play vital role to promote company’s sales

(Investopedia, n.d.)

Brand Loyalty It’s the level of likeness or trust a customer shows in a brand by

repeatedly buying products from the same brand (Investopedia,

n.d.)

Consumer Retention The process of keeping consumer engaged in the products or

services a company offers through reminders, emails, promotions

and other interactive activities (Jao, 2014)

2.6 Literature Review Gap

There is a substantial amount of past research available for use by the researcher regarding

advertising, promotion and the Fast Moving Consumer Goods industry but all the available

research is either contextual with no experimental basis or the research is too narrow to predict

the overall effect of e-advertising in businesses. They try to convince that online advertising can

impact a business with regard to brand awareness, brand relevance, brand recognition and

building consumer trust. But none of the research implied the case to be just. The case studies

discussed have the limitations of their own and are narrow in scope. It has been suggested that

the experimentation could be made more realistic by devising real time scenarios where

consumers are naturally tested over their reactions rather than being intercepted. Another

limitation highlighted in the previous studies was the sample size was smaller in number, it was

recommended that larger sample size can ripe pure and less biased results. There is a lack of

relevant literature available regarding Unilever’s products or even the Dove Real Beauty

campaign, which is being used to present the case in this research study. This gap does not

provide the researcher with enough insights in this case, so as to develop the perfect

methodology. Instead the researcher has to formulate a plan of action to simulate the research

and to analyze its findings so as to serve the research purpose. This study intends to fill that gap

by analyzing the variables of e-advertising and companies’ revenues. It throws light on the

factors which influence the relation between the two. The study takes a more realistic sample

size by rotating the survey online; hence like previous work, the sample size in not related to a

specific group or focused to a particular area. Moreover it studies the direct impact of

electronic advertising on sales and revenue, previous researches do consider advertising as an

important factor but none tends to relate its effectiveness toward revenue generation specially

discussing the electronic form of advertising.

Chapter Three- Research Design and Methodology

3.1 Introduction

This chapter provides a framework, design and structure of the research conducted and how

data in intended to be calculated. The chapter explains two major research approaches namely

deductive and inductive. It further explains the research framework and the hypothetical

approach the study intends to take. This section also explains the usage and impact of

dependent and independent variables on research results and help defining patterns. The

Research approach section has brought to light both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of

the problem under consideration. The next section talks about different research sampling

techniques. The study intends to use probability sampling methods or more specifically the

simple random sampling technique. The sample size for this study has been discussed further.

The data collection tools section follows next. It explains to the reader various types of data

collection tools used for both primary data collection and secondary data collection. For the

case of this study the primary source of data is a questionnaire survey and secondary sources

consists of case studies, research articles, books and journals. The next section throws light on

ethical matters and data accessibility complexities followed by data analysis section. The

chapter concludes by discussing the validity, reliability and limitations of the collected data.

3.2 Deductive vs. Inductive Approach

There are two types of approaches that are commonly used to find knowledgeable results from

a research or experiment; the deductive approach and the inductive approach. The inductive

reasoning is based upon the observation of a specific event and then the results are induced to

a general principle. Whereas deductive reasoning starts with some general knowledge and tries

to find results that are relevant to a specific instance (Hyde, 2000).

The deductive approach begins with an idea, or an assumption; it is a problem oriented

methodology which tends to seek the solution by designing some hypothetical situations and

analyzing various effects on variables by putting them under different circumstances. It is

basically a cause and effect model, effects are noted to gain insight of the causes (Overmars, et

al., July 2007). After testing the hypothesis through a number of experiments, it is either

approved or dis-approved based upon the results (Saunders, et al., 2009).

In the inductive method or research, all the relevant data about the research topic is collected

in the beginning. This data is then examined to find specific patterns, once a pattern is

discovered the researcher tries to explain the phenomenon using some kind of theory or

previous knowledge, so that the findings are be generalized on to a larger group. To keep the

scope of the research focused, the researchers use various research questions. This

methodology tends to formulate new discoveries based upon the existing knowledge or

observe an already existing theory from a new perspective (Saunders, et al., 2009).

It is important to understand that each of the methodology has its own advantages and

drawbacks. Therefore, it is important to consider the purpose of the research being conducted

and the results which need to be deduced before choosing any of the two approaches.

For the purpose of study, the deductive approach is used for this research. The study intended

to develop a hypothesis to support the problem statement. It examined e-advertising and

profits through the cause and effect model which would best be studied through the deductive

approach. The study has developed a hypothesis on the basis of research topic and purpose of

research. This hypothesis has then been analyzed for being applicable or not on a specific case

that is the Dove Real Beauty Campaign. As a lot of tools were used by the Real Beauty

Campaign, its effectiveness has been examined for each medium of communication used for

electronic advertisements and compared. The hypothesis is either be accepted or rejected

based upon the campaign effectiveness resulted from e-advertising. In case of approval the

hypothesis will be generalized to all FMCGs for using e-advertising to uplift the profitability. In

case of disapproval or indecisive results the study will be open to be used as a base for further

research and experimentation. Recommendations for further study have been made and an

effort to disclose the factors causing the results to deviate has also been made. The limitations

to the current research will also be highlighted so that the readers who tend to take the

research forward have a trail to start from.

3.3 Research Framework

There are various kinds of investigation methods in the field of research, and their application

and usage depend on the nature of the study. These include exploratory, descriptive and

hypothesis testing investigations of which hypothesis testing is the most relevant to the case at

hand as it tests the cause and effect relationships. In this study, the cause is the e advertising

done by the FMCG companies and the effect being measured the effectiveness in obtaining

profitability for the company. This cause and effect relationship was intended to be proved or

disproved through this study, and the findings were to be provided the final, conclusive remarks

about whether the impact is positive or negative. More over to support the research thesis

further, the collection of data has been through various sources. A questionnaire survey has

been also conducted as the primary source whereas case studies, previous research papers,

books, past surveys were used as secondary tools. The data was analyzed and in the end results

were delivered based on patterns examined in the findings of the survey and the literature

review.

 3.3.1 Variables

The research variables are the values that tend to directly or indirectly affect the study results.

The influencing factors of any study can be indicated based upon their behavior, they can then

be manipulated and their values can be measured through various equations. The behavior of

these variables may be different under different circumstances and hence they can highly

influence the experimental results. There are many different types of variables but the ones

most popular in the field of research and experimentation are classified as Independent

variables and dependent variables (Anon., n.d.).

The independent variables are the main drivers of the experimentation and therefore are

separated and handled by the researcher. The dependent variables on the other hand are

measurable and indicate changes in the outcome of experimentation. The independent

variables are assumed to be the causes and the dependent variables as effects of the cause

(Anon., n.d.).

3.4 Research Approach

There are mainly two types of research, qualitative and quantitative and a study can be either

one of them or combination of the two.

Qualitative research helps understand and analyze the behavior of the target audience. It also

tends to realize the thought process which drives the consumers to such response. This type of

research uses in-depth study of a specific group of people to develop a more relevant

hypothesis. The results from this type of research are descriptive in nature. This type of

research is useful in better interpreting the respondent reaction by observing their verbal and

nonverbal communication. It gives the opportunity to get respondents thoughts apart from

basic and restricted structure of a survey and give them the chance to explain their responses

(Anon., n.d.). Quantitative research is more structured and focused. The researchers generally

intend to find some hard core numbers and statistics for a particular experiment. The method

attempts to collect quantitative data through surveys, questionnaires etc. Variables play vital

role it deriving the effects of particular experiment. This approach is narrow in scope and helps

deduce useful results through limited but meaningful data (Willis, n.d.).

This research study is a combination of both qualitative and quantitative hence the data has

also been collected accordingly. For a more illustrative analysis, the majority part of the data

collected is quantitative. The survey has been conducted online, and that survey is accustomed

build to contain both qualitative and quantitative questions. The quantitative questions had

provided certain options for the participant to select and had also made use of scales such as

the Likert scale to obtain more reliable data for the research. The survey had a total of 15

questions, out of which 13 were quantitative in nature, and the remaining two happened to

serve the qualitative study in nature. The qualitative data had been obtained by asking open-

ended questions, but only a few lines were provided to answer them in order to obtain data as

per the scope of the study. These questions had then been analyzed separately and the findings

were also to be stated as is done in the case of qualitative research.

3.5 Research Sampling Method

Sampling is a way of choosing a small portion from the targeted population, for study and

analysis, which can be generalized to be the fair representation of the whole population.

Sampling Unlike physical and mathematical quantities, sampling of population is relatively

complex, as it involves a lot of uncontrollable variables. There are various sampling techniques

available including probability and non-probability sampling. These two broad categories of

research are then further divided into techniques that are used as per the nature of the study

and the data required (Trochim, 2006).

Non-probability sampling is a sampling technique which does not use random selection of

units, hence the samples collected through this process does not get the same probability of

being selected unlike the probability sampling (Trochim, 2006). Non- Probability sampling

techniques include convenience sampling, consecutive sampling, quota sampling, judgmental

sampling, snowball sampling, purposive sampling and reliance on available subjects (Anon.,

2009). This type of sampling is used when the researcher is short on time, budget and human

resources. It is preferred when the study tends to indicate some kind of common characteristic

that is shared among the whole population and when huge population size is taken and

randomization is a tiresome job. This type of sampling can also be used when researcher

intends to apply the qualitative approach to research. It can also be used when generalizations

of the result are not intended for the whole population and hence representation for everyone

is not required. And finally it can be used as an initial study in which other sampling techniques

will follow for extensive study later.

The other type of technique for sampling is the probability sampling method, which tends to

use some sort of random selection. The thing that differentiates probability sampling from non-

probability sampling is that this method ensures that every unit in the population has equal

chance of getting selected. The equal probability of being chosen is achieved by following some

procedures which assure equal representation (Anon., 2006).

Probability sampling includes the techniques of simple random sampling, systematic random

sampling, stratified sampling, cluster random sampling, and multi stage sampling (Anon., 2009).

This method ensures transparency from both systematic and sampling biasness. The random

selection sampling if done accurately represents the whole population under consideration.

Consequently, this minimizes the difference between the results of sampling and results of

analyzing the entire population (Anon., 2006).

3.5.1 Selected Sample

During this research, the technique of simple random sampling had been used. The survey was

made using Survey Monkey and had been rotated among the people on an online forum and

the first fifty completely filled answers surveys were used as a sample for this research. This

allowed the sample to be a good representative of the target population as well as ensured the

removal of any unwanted biases in the research process. This also ensured that the data values

were not obtained within a certain trend but are randomly sampled. The data used for analysis

can be fairly generalized to the whole population set. This data set also can be used to conduct

further research if required.

3.6 Data Collection Tools

Data collection is a process of accumulating all the information on an issue under consideration

and establishing a method to convert it into meaningful form so that it can be used to analyzed

and measured against different variable to derive required results. It helps to develop

hypothesis for a study and devise tools to test the data and compute results. The integrity of a

research is based upon the accuracy of data collected. Hence choosing the right set of tools for

data collection will help gain integrity and reduce the chance of error occurrence during

manipulation and experimentation (Anon., n.d.). Some of the questions which should be

considered before starting data collection include:

What type of data needs to be collected?

What are most effective tools for data collection relevant to our study field?

Who should be collecting data?

What is the most suitable time to collect data?

Some of the most commonly used tools for the collection of principal data are:

Case Studies- a case study generally consist of detailed explanation of practices,

procedure, experiences of a specific organization. They usually explain problems faced

by organizations, what were the causes and effects of the issues identified? How the

causes were detected, what actions were taken to resolve them? What are preventive

measure and recommendations? This tool is the mixture of quantitative and qualitative

data collection (Rosenblatt, 2012).

Check lists- Checklist are generally used for observations and inspections. They contain a

list of tasks or criteria which could me marked if present or unmarked if not available.

They are simpler and structure form to data collection. Observers use them to provide

consistency of structure among their peers (Rosenblatt, 2012).

Interviews- Interviews are in-depth one to one interactive way of collecting data. Every

interview has an interviewer those tend to ask questions and directs the flow of

information with a few numbers of interviewees. They are helpful to investigate the

respondent’s view on the topic of research (Rosenblatt, 2012).

Observation- Observation is another useful way of data collection. It could be informed

or uninformed where the subjects are not aware of the fact that they are being

observed. In some cases you can interact with the subjects to better understand the

process which is the direct observation approach. Observation can be continuous or

periodic process (Rosenblatt, 2012).

Survey or Questionnaires- These are used for survey research. The data intended to be

collected through surveys in standardized, structured and much focused to the topic

under consideration. Surveys are generally used in collection of information related to

specific areas, location, demographics etc. which is limited to a specific group of

audience. There are a lot of online tools available which help develop customized

research surveys (Rosenblatt, 2012).

Focus Group- a focus group is a small group of targeted people who get together to

express their views about a particular product or topic (Rosenblatt, 2012).

3.6.1 Primary Data

Primary data is focus on collecting tailor and specific research related questions and issues

specially designed by researchers on the basis of data they need. They help the researchers to

better explain the research purpose and derive meaningful results (AtWork, 2008). For the

purpose of this study, the primary data source used was the questionnaire.

3.6.2 Questionnaire

The source of primary data in this research is the survey questionnaire. The questionnaire is

developed after careful study of the literature and understanding of the major variables. The

most important thing to be considered before developing the questionnaire is to concentrate

on the objective you want to achieve through the questionnaire. All the information which

needs to be collected from the survey should be clearly stated. Once the questionnaire is

designed it should be tested against the intended data results. The sequence of questions

should be simple and the difficulty level should be ascending in order. The structure should be

kept intuitive and should provide smooth transition from one question to the other for the

respondent. All these issues were kept in mind while designing the questionnaire. It consists of

fifteen questions, most of the questions are quantitative in nature to serve the purpose of

questionnaire and get meaningful data from the recipients. The questionnaire is attached in

Appendix 1.

3.6.3 Secondary Data

The secondary data sources include census, previous data records, book, periodicals, journals in

libraries etc. in the related field of study. Secondary data is inexpensive to get and is readily

available. It does not constraint the researcher with respect to time, budget and resources.

Both data gathering techniques have their merits and demerits. The technique to be used is

dependent upon the scope and approach of the study (AtWork, 2008).

3.7 Accessibility Issue

It is difficult to physically access the target population as the Dove users may be spread

worldwide and can be both males and females. It would be very difficult to physical collect

them together and approach them in order to conduct the study. For this purpose, the

accessibility issue will be bypassed by conducting the survey online by uploading it on

surveymonkey.com and uploading the link on to online forums for Dove Real Beauty campaign

where the users are actively participating for around the globe. This ensures the accessibility of

an ideal sample from the target population while also removes the physical barriers and allows

the researcher to easily communicate with them on a one-to-one basis if needed. Also, as a

participant has easy access and can answer the survey from the comfort of their homes, they

are more likely to participate and provide relevant answers ensuring the validity and reliability

of the information.

3.8 Ethical Issues

Voluntary participation needs to be ensured in order to carry ethically out the study. Forcing

people to participate against their will would eventually push away the loyal customers from

the brand itself. Captive audience must not be used for this research (David B. Resnik, 2001).

Informed consent must be taken, meaning the participants must be informed regarding the

research process and also of any risks involved in the research, and then give their consent. In

this case scenario, however, since there are no risks, a little briefing can ensure informed

consent. Ethical standards have a prerequisite for informed consent and convey that a

participant in research must not be put in danger to carry out the research procedures (David B.

Resnik, 2001).

Non-disclosure of confidential information is a prerequisite that must be stated to the

participants. Participants who are not able to trust the professionals would not provide

accurate details even if voluntarily participating which would affect the data collection process.

It must be communicated to the participants that their identifying information would not be

accessible to people who are not a part of the research team and the information would be

respected as confidential and would only be used for data analysis purposes (David B. Resnik,

2001).

3.9 Data Analysis

The data analysis was performed once all the relevant information had been gained by the

completion of the survey. The data was first gathered using the sample size of 50 surveys that

ask for the required information, the data had been collected through online survey web

application, once that is done the data was then tabulated, and the results had been illustrated

for easy representation and interpretation. Tools such as Excel were utilized for easy analysis of

the information and to calculate and tabulate results. The results had been depicted using

various charts and graphs where needed to better depict the patterns and changing trends. The

analysis had then been drawn on the basis of incorporating learning's acquired and the

research application and the analysis drawn had been discussed and used to reach definite

conclusions regarding the study. The conclusion had been used to make specific

recommendations pertaining to the Dove real beauty campaign. This helped in answering the

questions about how successful was the dove campaign? How effective were the use of e-

advertising tools towards the success of this campaign? What was in the impact of this

campaign on the sales and profits generated by Unilever? And most importantly how was e-

advertising a factor towards the revenue uplift?

Based on these results the validity of our hypothesis had been accessed. The result had been

supported by discussed deductions and experimental findings. The data analysis had also

reflected the findings on the effectiveness of the e-advertising in achieving profitability of the

FMCGs industry in general. During analysis, all biases must be avoided, and the prior learning

would be implemented to understand the changes and the process designs. Also, while

evaluating the data the credibility of the source would be held accountable as the complete

evaluation would be from the data collected.

Furthermore, when critically analyzing the data, trends had been observed and highlighted for

the Dove real beauty campaign and research had established an identity of the brand and the

effects of its promotional tools of advertising. These results were then being generalized using

the deductive approach over other FMCGs’ profit enhancement strategies.

3.10 Validity, Reliability, and Limitations

Quality, scope, and value of research may be impacted by several forms of research limitation

that inhibit the continuation of the research process beyond a certain point. With respect to the

study, the first and foremost are the time, budget and resource constraints as these are the

most primary limitations to this scope of the study. The research respondents are limited as it

can only be filled by the respondents available online and within the UK. Another limitation is

that of the gap in the literature review as this gap does not help the researcher to learn from

previous researchers in any way. There have been a lot of research in both the advertising and

revenue uplifting domain but none of the studies take the two variables and analyze the cause

and effect of one over the other. This makes it very difficult for this research to develop the

base for the problem in question. Due to this gap, a lapse is created between the methodology

and the tool employed, as the methodology is relatively based on traditional methods but the

tool would employ advanced current techniques which make it difficult for the researcher to

bring the two at the same level and perform accurate measurements. Another limitation may

be incurred in the form of consumer bias, evaluation benchmarking dilemma (gap in the

benchmark of the individual and the company) and the subjective nature of the research,

whereby as both parties are correct in their own rights and in their own ways and so reaching a

decision becomes a difficult task. Also survey is restricted and limited in focus which does not

give the respondent any chance to clarify one’s point of view. However, in effect, this study may

prove to be of help for future researcher, studying this field in particular and will set the base

for future research in this area.

Chapter 4 Results, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

4.1 Introduction

The aim of this research was to explore the impact of electronic advertising done; Dove Real

Beauty Campaign in particular on the companies’ revenues. For this purpose, a questionnaire

was designed using online survey building tools and rotated among the internet users. The

results were then collected, filtered from ambiguity to avoid missing fields and un-attempted

questions and were finally represented in table form for better understanding and analysis of

data. The tables provide us with an overall view of the results obtained and provide an easy

comprehension of the tabulated data values. Along with data, each question is also graphically

depicted. While the graphical illustrations allow for a bird’s eye view of the results obtained.

The reader can understand the results obtained at a single glance and study them in depth

using the tables, and the analysis and interpretations description.

This chapter covers the results obtained from the research. The data tables are included in this

chapter, and so is the interpretation and the analysis of the responses gained from the online

users. The data gained from a large number of users would have been impossible to decipher

for any researcher. For this reason, a sample was selected and each and every question asked

from the respondent was studied individually. The aim of the research was not to gain data;

instead the aim was to gain information. By studying the questions individually, meaningful

information was attained and illustrated through charts and graphs. The diagrammatic

illustrations can give the reader an overview of the findings of the research at a glance. The

analysis and interpretations of the question will be followed by an overall analysis and then the

conclusion. The tabulated responses of the survey questionnaire have been included in

Appendix.

The purpose of this chapter to attain meaningful information from the data collected through

the research. The sequence of the chapter starts with a quick introduction, and then the

findings are presented; showing the structure of questionnaire and type of questions, this

section also provides a summary of responses and the frequency of each response,

presentation of findings is followed by data analysis and interpretation. The analysis section

further breaks down the survey into single questions and provide a graphical representation for

individual question responses and frequency percentage along with the description of each. As

it is not sufficient to provide explanation of the graphic figures, the interpretation section

therefore, compare and contrast the gained details and highlighting the possible reasons

behind those findings. It discusses if the variable under consideration are related or not, how

their relationship is are affecting one another and if the results deduced are consistent with the

hypothesis and the previous studies.

In the end conclusion from the analysis have been discussed which provides the summary of

the above discussion. The results concluded from the analysis and interpretation. The

steadiness of the results with the earlier research is also accessed. This then allows the

researcher to ensure that all the research objectives have been focused on and that the

research question has been answered in lieu of the analysed information. Once the conclusion

is drawn and the research question has been answered, the purpose of this research study will

be achieved.

4.2 Presentation of findings

To meet the research objective and to develop a better understanding of the data collected

through questionnaire survey, the data have been presented in forms of tables, graphs and

charts as needed. This makes is easier both for the researcher and the reader identify all the

covered research objectives through the survey derivations. To categorize various questions

with varying structure and type of information being deducted, separate tables have been

designed and similar data is represented together to analyze trends and patterns. Furthermore,

to enhance understanding the quantitative data is grouped in one section and the qualitative

data is grouped separately.

The following tables represent the responses collected from the survey, divided on the basis of

structure of questions.

Table 1: Responses of Q1, Q7, Q8 and Q9

Options Selected Frequency

Q1 Q7 Q8 Q9

A 20 50 31 28

B 30 0 19 22

Table 2: Responses of Q3 and Q4

Options Selected Frequency

Q3 Q4

A 16 32

B 12 16

C 12 2

D 10 0

Table 3: Responses of Q2, Q5 and Q6

Options Selected Frequency

Q2 Q5 Q6

A 14 0 29

B 16 7 6

C 7 19 14

D 13 18 1

E 0 6 0

Table 4: Responses of Q11, Q12 and Q13

Options Selected Frequency

Q11 Q12 Q13

1 0 7 3

2 3 6 6

3 12 11 8

4 28 11 13

5 7 15 20

The questions were arranged in the following order:

Quantitative Group:

Questions 1, 2, 3: Provide general information about the respondent; gender, profession, and

age of the user, so that we can have a little background of our respondent.

Questions 4, 5, 6, 12 and 13: Ask about the respondent’s usage of internet and exposure and

interaction to online advertising

Questions 7, 8 and 10: Respondent’s awareness of the brand and the Dove Real Beauty

Campaign

Questions: 9, 11 and 12: Analyse the impact of campaign on the respondents

Qualitative Group:

Question 14: This is an open ended question about respondent’s general perception of beauty.

Question 15: This is an open ended question asking respondent about how they felt after

watching the Ad.

4.3 Data Analysis and Interpretation

This section conducts the descriptive and inferential analysis of the collected data using the

deductive approach of data analysis as explained in the methodology chapter. By the end of

this section, it is intended that the reader must be able to understand the relationship between

the given data and identify patterns and trends as they move along.

As mentioned above, the study is using the deductive approach, this section evaluates the

validity of our hypothesis that e-advertising tends to impact the sales and consequently the

revenues of FMCGs effectively uplifting the profits. To test the validity of hypothesis, the

statistics derived from collected data will be used. Alongside, the results from the analysis will

be interpreted by comparing and finding sound explanation to the relationships.

4.3.1 Quantitative Analysis

This section gives an analysis and interpretation of data collected through the survey which is

quantitative in nature. It consists on thirteen questions; each question is presented in tabular

form, along with the frequency of responses, their percentage and the cumulative percentage.

The questions are further represented in form of graphs and charts where needed to help the

reader better understand the data trends.

Table 5: Analysis and Interpretation of Q1

Q1. Gender

Selected Option Frequency Percentage (%) Cumulative percentage (%)

Males (A) 20 40 40

Females(B) 30 60 100

Table 6: Graphical representation of responses for Q1

Gender

MalesFemales

Gender:

This question provides a ratio of responses from each gender so to have a representation of

each. 40% of the respondents were male and 60% were female. This means that out of the

sample size of 50, the number of women who responded to the survey is 30 and the number of

men who followed suit is 20. As the sample was taken your random sampling 40-60 is a very

good ratio for the representation of each group. It also reduces the gender bias, by giving every

group a considerable representation. One of the major misconceptions that exist in peoples

mind when it comes to beauty products is that they are centered towards women. However

giving each gender equal chance to express their views acknowledges the powerful market of

the brand among men.

Table 7: Analysis and Interpretation of Q2

Q2. Profession

Selected Option Frequency Percentage (%) Cumulative percentage (%)

Academic 14 28 28

Professional 16 32 60

House Wife 7 14 74

Self Employed 13 26 100

Others 0 0 100

Table 8: Graphical representation of responses for Q2

Profession

AcademicProfessionalHouse WifeSelf EmployedOthers

Profession:

This question asked people about the professions they work in. The respondents were give four

choices and an option of specify any other profession apart from the aforementioned ones

which included Academic, Professional, Housewife and Self-employed choices. Majority of the

people who responded to the survey were professionals, this covers about 32% of the

respondents whereas a large proportion also belonged to academic background, which was

around 28%, rest of the respondents were self-employed, which covers around 26% of the

responses. Only 14% were housewives. The 32% means 16 respondents belong to various

professional backgrounds, 28% represent around 14 academics, 26% represents 13 self-

employed respondents or Business owners where as 14% represent 7 responses from

housewives. This gives a very definite image of Dove’s target consumers, as we can see the

highest number of respondents are people working as professionals in different capacities;

these people are generally aware of market trends, brand equity and brand value. Another

interesting fact revealed through this division is the lowest ratio of responses came from the

housewives which in general are assumed to be the main target of beauty brands. Here the

turnover on responses provides a depiction of the potential market users which are generally

skipped by the brand while setting the market segmentation and devising branding strategies.

Table 9: Analysis and Interpretation of Q3

Q3. Please select your age

Selected Option Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage

Below 20 years 16 32 32

20-30 years 12 24 56

40-50 years 12 24 80

Older than 50 10 20 100

Table 10: Graphical representation of responses for Q3

Age

Below 20 years20-30 years40-50 yearsOlder than 50

Age group:

The respondents for the case of study have been divided into four age brackets to help easy

data management and analysis, these groups are a. Below 20 years, b. 20-30 years of age, c. 40-

50 years of age, and Older than 50 group. 32% of the respondents that forms the majority were

below 20 whereas 24% of the respondents fall into the age groups of 20-30 years and 40-50

years while the rest of them, that is 20%, fall in the older than 50 above age group. The 32% of

the respondents are form by 16 responses, 24% by 12 each and the 20% by 10 respondents.

The diverse range of ages of the respondents implies a large market of Dove consumers across

all age groups and hence complements the brand loyalty and customer retention towards the

Dove products. This wide range also serves as a proof of strong marketing and consumer base

of the brand which obviously is earned through in-depth understanding of the target market

and building close relationships with the consumers. This also confirms Dove as a successful

FMCG brand over the years of effective presentation and advertising.

Table 11: Analysis and Interpretation of Q4

Q4. How often do you come across e-advertisements?

Selected Option Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage

Daily 32 64 64

Several times a week

16 32 96

Several times in a month

2 4 100

Several times in a year

0 0 100

Table 12: Graphical representation of responses for Q4

Exposure to E-advertising

DailySeveral times a weekSeveral times in a monthSeveral times in a year

Exposure to E-advertisements:

This question asked the respondent about their exposure to e-advertising. The respondents

were given four multiple choice options including; Daily, Several times a week, Several times in

a month and Several times in a year. No one selected the last option due to the high impact of

advertising over our environment. 64% of the respondents reported daily exposure to e-

advertisements whereas the 32% reported very often exposure within a week and the

remaining 4% tend to come across e-advertisements several times a month. Is shows how

connected and technologically updated your audience is. These results also emphasize on how

much companies are focusing on the online tools for marketing and advertising their products.

Hence the electronic market is competitive and companies need to get creative enough to

stand out in the clutter. The above results throws light on two important aspects, one that

companies these days are putting a lot of emphasis on e-advertising and the online media has

revolutionized the way companies strategize their activities and second the e-advertising

environment is as competitive as the offline forms of advertising, what adds on to the online

advertising is the complexity of system and consumer behaviors.

Table 13: Analysis and Interpretation of Q5

Q5. How many hours do you spent on social media every day?

Selected Option Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage

I don’t use Social Media

0 0 0

1-3 hours 7 14 14

4-6 hours 19 38 52

7-9 hours 18 36 88

Others 6 12 100

Table 14: Graphical representation of responses for Q5

Daily Usage of Social Media

I don’t use Social Media1-3 hours4-6 hours7-9 hoursOthers

Daily usage of social media:

This question asked respondents about their daily usage of internet; they were given four

choices and an option to specify range other than the above mentioned choices which included:

I don’t use social media, 1-3 hours of usage, 4-6 hours of usage and7-9 hours of usage. The

results to this question were in line with the trend of high internet usage. Around 38% reported

4-6 hours of internet usage whereas 36% reported 7-9 hours usage; also 14% reported 1-3

hours of usage and the remaining 12% opted for others towards the increasing trend of usage.

Interestingly none of the respondent selected they “I don’t use social media” option. This shows

a high percentage of social media use. In the modern world, social media has become a

necessity than an ease or option. We rarely find people who are not connected to any source of

online media. This high level of social communication flags companies towards a big platform

for marketing and branding their products. If every other person is socially available online it

means the fastest and effective way to reach larger audience is through the online channel,

which is social media in this case.

Table 15: Analysis and Interpretation of Q6

Table 16: Graphical representation of responses for Q6

A B C D0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Social Media InteractionOnline Check-inCouponDiscount on a Brand

Most recent promotion utilized:

This question asked user to choose any three of their most recently used promotions over the

internet. They were given four options to choose from; social media interaction, online check-

ins, coupons and discount on a brand options. The seemingly vary complex diagram above

Q6. What is the most recent promotion you availed online? Please choose any three.

Selected Option Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage

Discount on a brand

29 58 58

Coupon 6 12 70

Online check-ins 14 28 98

Social media interactive competitions

1 2 100

tends to explain the mostly selected combination of three promotions they have recently

availed. The respondents were asked to choose any three of the online promotions they have

availed online from the given four choices. Majority of the respondents have utilized the most

common promotion of discount on brands, on number two is the online check-in; even though

the second one is gaining pace as the most growing preference of companies in recent times.

Online check-in makes users to visit company’s social media pages/blogs and sometimes

require following them. This helps the companies to keep in touch with the customers and keep

them updated about company’s activities. Coupons are the third most availed online

promotion. The advantage of using coupons is that they complement both online and onsite

sales and can help boost either of the two. The social media interactions are generally used by

organizations to keep people informed rather than giving promotions but the trend is changing

with changing consumer base and market requirements.

Table 17: Analysis and Interpretation of Q7

Q7. Have you seen the Dove Real Beauty Campaign Ad?

Selected Option Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage

Yes 50 100 100

No 0 0 100

Table 18: Graphical representation of responses for Q7

Awareness About Dove Real Beauty Campaign

YesNo

Dove Real Beauty Campaign’s Awareness:

The question asked the respondents about their awareness of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign,

and the options provided were either yes or no. This question really analyzes the effectiveness

of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign. In a sample of 50 people all belonging to various disciplines

of life but all being aware about the Dove campaign says a lot about the branding, strategic

success and in-depth consumer knowledge. The entire sample of respondents was aware of the

campaign; this shows Dove took right actions by designing a market strategy that caters to the

need of its consumer base and used the exactly the right medium to communicate to its

customers. Dove introduced exactly the idea that will touch the hearts of its consumers,

motivate them to take action and at the same time induce a sense of attachment with the ads.

Table 19: Analysis and Interpretation of Q8

Q8. Can you relate the Ad to your real life?

Selected Option Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage

Yes 31 62 62

No 19 38 100

Table 20: Graphical representation of responses for Q8

Revelance of Ad to People's life

YesNo

Relevance of Ad to people’s life:

This question asked respondents about the relevance of Dove ads to their lives; in this case only

two options were given either yes or no. According to the Dove’s official site, the root idea was

to develop a sense of positive self-esteem by making people in general and women in particular

believe in their own beauty. The campaign sets around women who are asked to describe their

looks and then their description of themselves is compared with that of others describing them.

Since the way others describe them is more close to how they actually look and but better than

their own description, this generates the sense of beauty and consequently they tend to feel

good about themselves. 62% of the respondents were able to relate themselves to the

campaign whereas; rest of them couldn’t find any link. A high number of people being able to

relate to the campaign show that people in their lives are looking for inspiration and such

campaigns since display and discuss the situations faced by a lot of people, the campaigns make

them feel inspired and confident of who they are. The high number of people answering yes

means that Dove campaign was “effective”.

Table 21: Analysis and Interpretation of Q9

Q9. Have the Ad change your perception about Dove products?

Selected Option Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage

Yes 28 56 56

No 22 44 100

Table 22: Graphical representation of responses for Q9

Change in Brand Perception

YesNo

Change in brand perception:

The question asked the respondents if watching the Dove Ad changed their perception of

brand. They were given two options of either yes or no to select from. The above graph depicts

the results about the change in people’s perception about the brand after watching Dove Real

Beauty Campaign video. 56% of the respondents reported in acceptances to the change in

perception of Dove as brand due to this campaign. The change in perception of 56% of the

audience can result in sales boost. This question has a very direct relation with the hypothesis

statement, when more than half of the sample population indicates an impact on their Brand

Perception through the campaign it indicates two things; one that the campaign was effective

enough to change people perception, two the change was positive. Hence this derives the

conclusion in favor of the build hypothesis.

Table 23: Analysis and Interpretation of Q10

Q10. What word comes to your mind when you heard about Dove? Please select any three options.Selected Option Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage

Inspiration 10 20 20

Celebrating Beauty 10 20 40

Positive Self-esteem 20 40 80

Softness 10 20 100

Table 24: Graphical representation of responses for Q10

A B C D0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

SoftnessPositive Self-EsteemCelebrating BeautyInspiration

Dove’s Keywords

This question asked respondents what word come to their minds when thinking about Dove as

a brand. They were given four options and were asked to choose any combination of three; the

options provided include: Softness, Positive Self-esteem, Celebrating beauty and Inspiration.

The respondents were asked to choose any of the three options from a given list of options

about what words hint their mind when hearing about Dove. The above graph highlights the

mostly selected combination of words. Interestingly with a look deeper and trying to

understand the pattern between the above selections it can be identified that the three most

relevant words that people tend to relate to Dove are “Softness”, “Celebrating Beauty” and

“Inspiration”. If the campaign resulted in inculcating these words into the mind of consumer,

then it has achieved its objectives. If you closely look into the Dove official website on this

Campaign, you will realize that the output the Dove branding team was expecting from this

campaign was to build these words with their brands. This brings in the success on the

campaign as the required goals were achieved.

Table 25: Analysis and Interpretation of Q11

Q11. Are you more likely to buy Dove products after watching the Ad?

Selected Option Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage

Not at all 0 0 0

Not likely 3 6 6

Maybe 12 24 30

Most likely 28 56 86

Always 7 14 100

Table 26: Graphical representation of responses for Q11

Probability of buying the brand

Not at allNot likelyMaybeMost likelyAlways

Probability of buying Dove:

The respondents were asked to tell how likely they are going to buy Dove products in the

market after watching the advertisement. They were given five options on a scale of 1 to 5

where 1 meant not at all and 5 meant always. The above pie chart shows the response to the

question about how likely are respondents going to buy the Dove products after watching the

Ad. 70 percent of the responses turned in had opted in acceptance to the question with 56

percent people selecting most likely to buy Dove and 14 percent of the people opting for

always buying the Dove brands due to its new awareness campaign and the cause it served. 24

percent people selected “may be”, this might be the case of people who are not direct audience

of the Dove brand but may be counted as potential target market. It is suggested that Dove

should reach out this group of people to understand their needs and target them to convert

this “may be” to a positive response. Hence the responses from this question indicate that the

campaign helped build a positive impression of the consumers and have impacted their buying

preferences.

Table 27: Analysis and Interpretation of Q12

Q12. What do you think about online ads?

Selected Option Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage

Useless 7 14 14

Mostly useless 6 12 26

None 11 22 48

Useful 11 22 70

Very useful 15 30 100

Table 28: Graphical representation of responses for Q12

Utility of Online Ads

UselessMostly uselessNoneUsefulVery useful

Utility of online ads:

The question asked respondents about the utility of online advertisements for them. This

question measured they effect of consumers’ utility on profitability. If the utility is higher

consumers are more likely of buy the idea. On a scale of 1 to 5 they were given 5 options

including 1 for useless, 2 for mostly useless, 3 for none, 4 for useful and 5 for very useful. This

question tried to get the user’s idea about the online advertising and how effectively they can

work for various segments in the market. 52% of the market believed in the online advertising

as a useful source of medium, out of which 30% of the respondents found these online ads very

useful and 22% reported it only useful. Again 22% people are neutral about the utility of online

advertising. Since 22% is a big number, here this is to be noted this group of people is either not

targeted with the right strategy or is not the part of main customer base for online advertising,

as same source of medium might not work for everyone. This group might also consist of

people who are slow adopters and hence technology has not been very effective tool of

communication for them. 12% of the respondents found the online advertising mostly useless

and 14% found it useless. Here a discontinued trend could be observed, the number of useless

responses were descending when it started to ascend. This irregular change in the pattern of

consumer behavior is a point to be further explored for possible reasons and defects.

Table 29: Analysis and Interpretation of Q13

Q13. Do you click or respond to the ads online?

Selected Option Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage

Never 3 6 6

Seldom 6 12 18

Sometimes 8 16 34

Frequently 13 26 60

Always 20 40 100

Table 30: Graphical representation of responses for Q13

Responsiveness to Online Ads

NeverSeldomSometimesFrequentlyAlways

Responsiveness to online ads:

This question asked about the tendency of users to respond to online advertisements. This

question helped analyze the relation between online advertising and customer retention. If

more people tend to respond online, there is a high probability of reaching larger market

online. The respondents were give five options on the scale. 1 being never, 2 being seldom, 3

being sometimes, 4 bring frequently and 5 being always. This pie chart depicts the probability

of users responding on online advertisements. It seemed that the online responsiveness has

been uplifting as 82% of the respondents tend to participate in online advertisement activity of

some sort. Out of which 40% reported very high responsiveness to these online ad campaigns

whereas 26% frequently respond to these ads and 16% of the people sometimes respond to

these ads. 12% of the people seldom respond to the Ads or their curiosity dies as they get you

know little details about the ads or promotion that they don’t dig deeper into utilization of

those products being marketed. 6% people said they never respond to online ads which imply

two possibilities, either this group of people prefer on-site or physical shopping or they are

reluctant to trust the online media and hence rarely believe the online content. This opens the

platform for companies to build e-trust among the consumers.

4.3.2 Qualitative Analysis

For the qualitative analysis discussion two descriptive questions were added at the end of the

survey to ask respondents personal view without binding them by providing multiple choices,

the survey questionnaire included two open ended questions, which are given as follows:

How did you define beauty?

What watching Dove ad, how did you feel?

The reason for using the first question about defining the beauty in terms of respondent’s view

was to get better understanding of consumer perception of beauty and how it is different or in-

lined with the cultural or social perception of beauty? It also tends of evaluate the impact of

socio-cultural effect on our self-awareness and self-satisfaction. And hence to inline the idea

presented by Dove campaign with the social issues, the study tends to evaluate the

effectiveness of the campaign. This question had gained diverse responses; some of the

common ones are as under:

Being me

Fairness

Intelligence and Good looks

Being confident

Uniqueness

Standing out

Feeling happy

Feeling loved

Good figure

Quality makeup

Being thin

Using high price beauty products

Looking attractive

And the list goes on. However the general idea that was obtained through the responses

tend to emphasize that the definition of beauty varies across cultures and regions, and that

it is distorted, beauty is an abstract concept and based on the cultural and societal needs, it

kept on changing. There is no one definition of beauty. That’s where the Dove Real beauty

campaign got into the picture with an aim of making beauty independent from societal and

cultural judgments and makes it more personalized to how people feel about themselves

and this needs to be special with no relevance of what society or culture want of them.

The responses to second question about how Dove real beauty campaign ad make them

feel were full of optimistic views. Some of the responses are:

It made me feel special

It made me feel beautiful

I started liking myself

It made me realize it’s not about people it’s about you

It was beautiful

Loved the Ad

Positive message

Made me feel good about myself

I see myself as more beautiful now

Self-esteem boost

I feel more confident about who I am

I like the way I am

It made me appreciate myself

It helped me hover the traditional beauty concepts

It’s not always about the looks

The ad was a reminder to take a minute and think who we really are and what is the

world trying to make of us, Brilliant idea!

Through the responses collected, it can be seen that the Ad has increased the utility of its

consumers. The large amount of optimistic responses suggests that the purpose of the

campaign was achieved. People were made to realize the beauty within them; they developed a

feeling of likeness for themselves which leads to satisfaction. The responses also portray the

campaign has value-added the brand perception and image of the company. People feel more

connected to the brand; they feel a relationship with it. Like a guide who have enlightened their

living styles, made them feel more confident of who they are and more clear about what they

want to be. Hence this may lead to brand loyalty and people who connect themselves to brands

are more likely to buy their products when they end up having multiple options, although a

constant reminder about the product for campaign need to be given to the consumers so they

don’t need recall it, they see the brand they should recognize it. The above responses helped us

analyze the effects of Dove Campaign on people through the online media, how the e-advertising played

a part in the contribution, the bigger reach of online advertising and hence more power over other

media. It also showed that the online advertising directly impacts the consumers buying pattern and

hence it a crucial ingredient in boosting companies’ profits.

4.4 Conclusion of analysis

This section tends to provide the conclusion of the analysis and interpretations discussed in the

previous section. It also provides a summary of findings which have been achieved through the

observation and analysis of collected data. The analysis has given us the information that the

researcher needs, with the interpretation and understanding of what it represents and means.

This information has also been used to draw the conclusions about the research and then make

recommendations in the following chapter. The graphical illustrations represent the data in a

comprehensive, reader friendly form. They can be used to establish relationships between the

various variables in the discussion of the findings.

The analysis has identified the key areas of success and effectiveness In the Dove Real Beauty

Campaign. It has also pointed out areas of improvement and scenarios where more work can

be done. The analysis, although conducted within a limited scope of study, has identified some

key findings which are as follows:

64% of the respondents reported daily exposure to e-advertisements

More than 74% reported to use of internet on daily basis

Majority of the respondents have utilized the most common promotion of discount on

brands.

62% of the respondents were able to relate themselves to the campaign

56% of the respondents reported a change in perception of Dove as brand due to this

campaign.

56% were most likely to buy Dove due to its new awareness campaign.

30% of the respondents found these online ads very useful and 22% reported it only

useful.

40% reported very high responsiveness to these online ad campaigns whereas 26%

frequently respond to these ads.

The above factors examine a very sound and stable picture of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign

and the use of online media for advertising. It is observed that the growing trend on e-

advertising have revolutionized the market settings. It gives companies to personalize their

customers and make them feel part of the company.

Keeping the above factors in mind along with the qualitative analysis, made in the last section,

the next chapter tends to provide conclusions and recommendations based upon the

effectiveness Dove Real Beauty Campaign and the deduced generalization about Fast Moving

Consumer Good companies. However there have been some limitations to the survey

responses, one there were fewer open ended questions two the limited scope of users and

budget.

Chapter Five - Conclusions and Recommendations

5.1 Conclusion

Advertising is a very crucial and advantageous tool of marketing. With the radically changing

business practices, this sector needs high level of attention and consideration. Advertising is

one of the ways businesses communicate with their valued potential customers. It contributes

to brand recognition and hence impacts user buying patterns; this whole circle of caused effect

the sales and revenue of an organization. The area under study for this report is in particular

the Fast Moving Consumer Goods companies in particular. A lot of previous research and case

studies have been discussed and explained throughout the report as reference. As the fast

growing ecommerce industry has introduced new methods of connections with the target

customers, FMCGs are also concerned on how they can utilize the online resources effectively

and generate profits for their businesses. It is for this reason that over the past few years a lot

of research has been done on these subjects. Through these researches, the researchers have

also realized that among the various factors that can help companies to cut the clutter and

produce higher profits, advertising acts as a key performance indicator. Advertising is a

powerful tool that decides how the brand is perceived among the users and what actions are

required to be drawn from the receiver at the end of the day.

For the purpose of the research paper this chapter have been divided into few sections, the

conclusion is discussed from both, the research objectives and research questions perspectives,

the section follows it is the recommendations and then reference for further study.

5.1.1 Conclusion as per Research Objectives

By conducting this study, the following research objectives were hoped to be achieved:

To study the impact of e-advertisement on Unilever’s Dove Real Beauty Campaign.

To analyze the effectiveness of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign.

To determine the relationship between advertising and customer retention

To study the effect of customer retention on profitability

To study the effects of e-advertisement on the profitability of FMCGs

Provide recommendations for the FMCG sector in relation to e-advertising.

To study the impact of e-advertisement on Unilever’s Dove Real Beauty Campaign

The part discusses how the usage of electronic advertisements contributed towards Dove Real

Beauty Campaign’s success. According the survey results discussed in the last chapter it is quite

clear that

1. E-advertising is an effective source of medium for keeping the customers informed and

updated

2. It is the fastest way of communication and spreading of information message to the

world wide audience is just one click away

3. According to the survey results more than 74% of the people connect to the internet

daily and 64% of these come across online advertisements on daily basis.

4. Dove Real Beauty Campaign was a success

5. The Campaign touched 100 percent of the population sample, which means the medium

use was effective, the time and strategy used was thought through and the combination

of three was jelled together perfectly.

Hence from the above indicated research results it is obvious that e-advertising

contributed towards the success of Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign.

To analyze the effectiveness of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign

This part discusses the effectiveness of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign. For this purpose, both

quantitative (Statistical) and qualitative (Open ended) questions were included in to the survey.

From the responses drawn from the survey following conclusions can be made:

1. The survey indicated a high number of Campaign awareness among the respondents.

Awareness is the first step towards effectiveness. This can only result to be exact 100

percent if right means of communication was used to spread the word across, which in

their case was the online platform.

2. The second import indicator was the people’s response to the ad. It was indicated

through the survey that more than 60 percent of the people were able to relate their

selves and experience to the advertisement.

3. The third indicator of campaign’s effectiveness is the change in brand perception.

Through the survey it was identified that the campaign was able to change the

perception of 56 percent of the people. That is, it was effective enough that it gave

people a new image of the Dove products.

4. When asked about words that come to people’s mind when they hear about Dove,

people highlighted the keywords of the Real Beauty Campaign, most of the people tend

to think of building “Positive Self-Esteem”, which was the key idea on which this

campaign was designed.

To determine the relationship between advertising and customer retention

This section is intended to throw light on the relationship between advertising and customer

retention. Studies on cognitive ability have indicated that customers respond more efficiently

through recognition then to the practice of recalling something due to brain’s natural ability to

relate things for memory retention. People are generally able to retain visuals and recognized

them by relating them for longer time periods (Hogan & Kintsch, 1971).

Hence constant reminder and exposure to advertisements is very important to increase the

consumer’s power to retain and recognized the product for longer period of time.

In responding to one of the questions on survey, the respondents have indicated the likelihood

of interest up to 80 percent in buying Dove products after watching the advertisements related

to Dove Real Beauty Campaign.

To study the effect of customer retention on profitability

The relation of profitability and customer retention could be observed through various studies;

it has been indicated that there is a strong relationship between customer satisfaction,

customer retention and the organizations business interests of uplifting profit margins. It has

been suggested that organizations should act proactively to learn from customers before the

flaws are indicated and make them identify the shortcomings. Organizations have been

underestimating the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention

(Bolton, 1998) . Customer retention and customer loyalty then leads to profitability of

organizations as studied and observed by Hallowell, who suggests that customer satisfaction

consequently results in exponential increase in profitability (Hallowell, 1996).

To study the effects of e-advertisement on the profitability of FMCGs

This section highlights the parts of study where e-advertisements have complemented

profitability. First factor is informing the user about the brand. And as mentioned above

advertising plays vital role in brand awareness. Next comes, the content of that ad, which

makes people take certain actions and modify the choices consumer makes while buying

products in the market. Market orientation has a long term affect over the business

performance and success. According to a study, the positioning of a company’s brand closely

relate of its performance and profitability (Canoa, et al., 2004).

Similarly the question in the survey about consumers likelihood to buy the brand products after

watching the ad was increased to 80 percent as mentioned before.

Provide recommendations for the FMCG sector in relation to e-advertising

The recommendations are given in the recommendation section of this chapter. All the above

discussed factors are analyzed and recommendations are given on the basis of how the results

could be made more affective and closer to reality.

5.1.2 Conclusion as per Research Questions

The main question on which the whole research was based upon was given as follows in the

research chapter 2:

“How effective is e advertising in achieving the profitability in the FMCG industry? In particular,

how effective was it in the case of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign?”

This research question was then sub-divided into the following segments for the purpose of

research study:

5. How effective is the tools of e advertising in achieving profitability in the FMCG

industry?

6. How effective was the Dove Real Beauty Campaign?

7. What factors contributed to the effectiveness of a campaign?

8. What are the recommendations, based on the study that can help FMCG’s improve the

effectiveness of their e-advertising campaigns?

However all these questions have been discussed and explained in the above section under the

research objective umbrella.

5.2 Recommendations

The most difficult problem in marketing is to measure the influence of advertising on sales

(Bass, 1969). During the research, analysis and interpretation of this topic, there was a high

level of complexity and difficulty faced in devising a simple platform of comparison between the

two variables. However the research did serve a purpose of developing a better understanding

of the relationships that need to be examined and will serve as a foundation for further

examination of this complex relationship.

Several takeaways were gained from this research study as this study is unique in its nature.

During the secondary research, no other studies were found that directly studies the impact of

advertising to the business profit objectives. Also, this is one of the first studies done on Dove

Real Beauty Campaign from the online advertising perspective. From the analysis and the

results obtained, several recommendations can be made for Dove and e-advertising in general

for various FMCGs. Some of them are as follows:

Dove have a wide consumer range spread across various age groups, therefore it needs

to expand the scope by designing campaigns that impacts larger market

There is a huge base of potential customers for Dove; all it needs is to change the

misconception about Dove being a woman centred brand. This idea have been

intentionally or unintentionally derived from Dove campaigns or Ads which revolve

around women perception about beauty, there is a potential men market out there for

Dove.

Knowing your consumers, their likes, their dislikes, their expectations with your brand,

their buying behaviour all contribute to better advertising and strategy building. Social

media have provided a big opportunity of businesses to develop personalized

relationships with its consumers and get to better understand their needs. This is high

time when businesses can learn from their customers before they get to identify the

flaws in the system once they have experienced the loss. Consumer market has become

very dynamic and complex and the best way to retain your customers is to build

interactive and satisfactory relationships with them.

Recommendations for Further Research

During secondary research, it was discovered that there is a lack of research done on correlated

topic such as the effects of e-trust, brand loyalty, consumer satisfaction, and promotional sales

on the company’s revenues. There are a huge number of obvious and hidden factors influencing

the revenues generated by FMCGs that it is very difficult to isolate the effects of advertising on

sales and profits (Assmus, et al., 1984). Moreover the problem of establishing a relationship and

presents the effect of advertising on sales and the impact of sales over advertising is so complex

and it is very difficult to clearly state a simple relationship between the two. (Bass, 1969) There

is a need of complex models who can help reduced the impact of other factors on revenue and

the direct relation between advertising and sales could be examined.

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Appendix 1- QuestionnaireThis survey has been designed to facilitate a research study and assess the effectiveness of e-

advertising used by Fast Moving Consumer Goods companies in general and the Dove Real

Beauty Campaign in particular. Please fill the survey based upon your experience and

interaction with Ads. Please select only ONE option for each question, unless stated otherwise.

1. Please select your Gender.

a) Male

b) Female

2. Please select your Profession.

a) Academic

b) Professional

c) Housewife

d) Self Employed

e) Others please specify:_________

3. Please select your age.

a) Below 20 years

b) 20-30 years

c) 40-50 years

d) Older than 50

4. How often do you come across e-advertisements?

a) Daily

b) Several times a week

c) Several times in a month

d) Several times in a year

5. How many hours do you spent on social media every day?

a) I don’t use Social Media

b) 1-3 hours

c) 4-6 hours

d) 7-9 hours

e) Others please specify:____________

6. What is the most recent promotion you availed online? Please select any three options.

a) Discount on a brand

b) Coupon

c) Online check-ins

d) Social media interactive competitions

e) Others please specify:________

7. Have you seen the Dove Real Beauty Campaign Ad?

a) Yes

b) No

8. Can you relate the Ad to your real life?

a) Yes

b) No

9. Have the Ad change your perception about Dove products?

a) Yes

b) No

10. What word comes to your mind when you heard the about Dove? Please select any

three options.

Inspiration

Celebrating beauty

Positive self-esteem

Softness

11. Are you more likely to buy Dove products after watching the Ad?

1 2 3 4 5

Not at all Not Likely Maybe Most Likely Always

12. What do you think about online ads?

1 2 3 4 5

Useless Mostly Useless Neither Useful Very Useful

13. Do you click or respond to the ads online?

1 2 3 4 5

Never Seldomly Sometimes Frequently Always

14. How do you define Beauty?

________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

15. After watching the Dove ad, how did you feel?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Appendix 2- Response TableRe

spon

dent

Num

ber

Survey Questions1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

1 a a a a c a a a b 1,2,3 4 3 2

2 b b a a d a a a a 2,3,4 5 4 2

3 b c b a b a a b b 1,2,4 3 5 4

4 a b a a c a a a b 1,3,4 2 3 3

5 b d a b d c a a b 1,2,4 5 2 3

6 b a b a c a a b a 1,2,4 3 4 5

7 a b c a d a a b a 1,2,3 4 1 1

8 b c d a c c a b a 2,3,4 5 5 2

9 b d a b d a a b b 1,2,3 4 2 3

10 a b a b d a a a a 1,2,4 4 3 4

11 b d b a d b a a b 1,3,4 3 5 5

12 b a c b c a a a a 1,3,4 4 4 3

13 a b d a d a a a b 1,2,3 4 5 3

14 b c c b b a a a a 1,2,4 3 2 4

15 b c d a d a a b a 1,2,3 4 5 2

16 a a a a c c a b a 1,2,4 2 4 4

17 b d a b d a a b b 1,2,3 4 5 4

18 b a b a c a a a a 1,2,4 3 4 5

19 a b c a b c a b b 1,3,4 4 4 3

20 b c b a b a a a b 2,3,4 3 3 5

21 b d d a b d a a a 1,2,3 4 5 5

22 a a b b c a a a a 1,2,4 4 4 5

23 b b c a c c a b a 2,3,4 4 2 5

24 b b d b c a a a b 1,2,3 4 5 5

25 a d b b c b a b a 1,2,4 5 4 5

26 a d c b c a a a a 1,2,4 4 3 5

27 a a d a c a a b a 1,3,4 4 1 5

28 b a a a d b a a b 2,3,4 3 5 5

29 a d b b d c a a b 1,2,3 4 3 1

30 a d c a d c a a a 1,2,4 4 3 1

31 b c c b e c a a b 2,3,4 2 5 3

32 a b d a e a a a b 1,3,4 5 4 5

33 a a a b e a a b a 1,2,3 4 2 4

34 b d a c b b a a a 1,2,4 3 5 5

35 b b b a c a a a a 2,3,4 4 5 2

36 b b c b d c a b a 1,3,4 3 1 5

37 b a a c c c a a a 1,2,4 4 5 4

38 b c d a b c a a b 1,2,4 3 3 5

39 a b a a c b a b b 1,3,4 4 1 4

40 a b b a d c a b b 1,2,4 5 4 4

41 a d c a c a a b b 1,2,4 3 3 3

42 b d d a d a a a b 2,3,4 4 4 5

43 b d a a e a a a b 1,2,4 4 5 4

44 a a b a e a a a a 2,3,4 4 1 5

45 b a c a e a a a b 1,3,4 3 3 2

46 b a d a c c a a a 1,3,4 4 2 5

47 a b a a d c a b a 1,2,4 4 5 4

48 b b a a d a a a a 2,3,4 4 1 5

49 a b b b d a a b a 1,2,4 5 3 4

50 b a c b c b a a a 1,2,4 4 1 4