How Beauty & Fashion Brands Create Marketing Strategies to Promote Body Positivity
By: Halie Smith
When shopping, what is most important to you? For most, we search for a brand that will leave us feeling better about ourselves after using the company’s product/service. In today’s world, social media sets very high expectations of how those in our society should look, dress, and act, especially young women. Brands have caught onto this trend and two in particular have taken positive action to help build up those women’s self esteem, while promoting their products and services.
Launched in spring of 2014 by Aerie, the sister-retailer of American Eagle Outfitters, this marketing campaign was created to remove all photo retouching from the brand’s models. The company didn’t know then the immense, positive impact this marketing decision would hold for the future of American Eagle Outfitters, especially Aerie. The specific #AerieReal campaign showcases models of many different shapes, sizes, skin colors, and imperfections. From a consumer standpoint, this nearly equal representation is not seen in many other clothing brands, thus putting Aerie above its’ competitors when it it comes to relating your products to your targeted audience. The sense of inclusion Aerie has created is evident, especially through the sizing of clothing the lingerie store offers. Online, the brand has created a bra guide with sizes ranging from 30A up to 40DD visually showcasing models with body types meeting similar criteria. To extend this positive brand campaign a step further, #AerieReal includes a ‘Real Girl Talk’ mobile hotline with access to style experts, keeping body positivity at the forefront of their advising conversations. These facets of the campaign ultimately hope to drive and increase sales among various women, but also create a customer-valued experience that most retailers have yet to offer. Those shopping at Aerie have taken the campaign into their own hands through posting pictures and videos using the hashtag #AerieReal to highlight self-love and the importance of embracing one’s natural beauty. This campaign helps make women feel good and look good, which encourages them to return and refer other women wishing to support a brand that promotes body positivity in all women. The #AerieReal campaign is much more than a marketing strategy; it’s a movement empowering women to love themselves and their bodies. When you think of real, think #AerieReal.
Another marketing campaign created by a brand promoting body positivity among women is the ‘Dove Campaign for Real Beauty’. Dove initially started this campaign in 2004 with the assistance of Unilever. The Real Beauty campaign has taken many different shapes over the years, but always keeps an emphasis on positive body image and how women should change the way they view their bodies and themselves. One aspect of this campaign that I’d particularly like to highlight is a project that was done in April of 2013. This project featured middle-aged women and a forensic sketch artist who cannot see the woman, but just listens to how the women describe themselves and the sketch artist draws a portrait based on those descriptions. Throughout the day of the project, the women being drawn were asked to pay close attention to the appearance of other women in the group. Those women would describe the woman they watched throughout the day, from their perspective, and the forensic artist will draw said woman from this new perspective. Once both sketches of the same woman are done, the women are able to compare how they view themselves in contrast with how others view them. This project made these women realize how they are much ‘more beautiful than they think,’ thus becoming the title of the Youtube video seen by 68-million people worldwide. Dove’s body positivity campaign has really brought the brand to life, picking up a tremendous amount of sales following the release of the video. Garnishing shopping aisles across the world is Dove soap, and within that soap is a brand that values the empowerment of their customers and making them feel their best self, especially after using their products.
The way a person views oneself is typically much different from how other people view that person. Companies have began to notice this trend among young women and have responded appropriately by creating customer-value driven strategies to not only increases sales, but create these meaningful relationships and experiences with the consumer.