Product Essay Sample

Part 1: Dove’s Real Beauty Print Ad

The foregoing image is part of Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign for print and online advertising. The image is part of a series following the ‘Real Beauty’ campaign that Dove launched in 2004. Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign, especially this advertisement, has piqued the public’s interest because it presents content that no other skin care brand has used or adopted before. Consequently, the way that Dove differentiated its campaign from that of others generated widespread interest, and is therefore, effective in drawing the public’s attention, particularly Dove’s target market – women of all ages.
Dove’s primary strategy in launching the ‘Real Beauty’ campaign is to differentiate its advertising strategies from the competition. Dove competes with other skin care brands including Nivea, Olay, and Neutrogena among others. Prior to the campaign’s launch, Dove tried to figure out how to compete with other skin care brands following the steady decline of scales in favor of the competition from 2001 to 2003 (Dove). To address this problem, Dove chose to employ differentiation in its marketing strategy. Furthermore, Dove emphasized the brand’s goal of meeting the needs and preferences of women.
Dove’s advertisements targets women of all ages from different cultural backgrounds. Through the advertisement, Dove sought to show that the brand seeks to achieve inclusion by not discriminating women based on their weight or size, and skin color or race. Prior to launching the campaign, Dove conducted market research and discovered that many women were dissatisfied with skin care advertisements because most feature slim, Caucasian women. Dove addressed this by including women of different sizes and ethnicities in the advertisement.
Overall, Dove’s main message is it is a brand that acknowledges, respects, and embraces real beauty. Furthermore, Dove redefined standards of beauty in advertising by featuring women that common women – mostly consumers – would be able to relate to. The ‘Real Beauty’ advertisement above effectively communicates the foregoing message, which is why it was effective and has generated public interest.

Part 2: Creative Brief

The product is the EduCradle brand’s Sleep Slate, a programmable digital table similar to an iPad that helps babies learn while they sleep.

Goal

The primary goal of the creative brief is to introduce EduCradle’s Sleep Slate to the target market - parents. The proposed plan is for a print advertisement.

Strategy

The strategy in creating a print advertisement is to create an advertisement that illustrates the reputation of the brand, as well as establishes the credibility of EduCradle’s product using scientific research. Moreover, the strategy is to establish the need for this product, thereby urging parents to buy the Sleep Slate for their children.

Target

As formerly noted, the target market include parents of infants, as well as adults who may be interested in gifting the Sleep Slate to their parent friends (e.g. baby shower, etc.).

Notes

The print advertisement is simple and minimalist. Hence, the image will be against a white background in line with themes of ‘innocence’ and ‘purity’ (since the advertised product is for babies). In the foreground, there is an image of a sleeping baby in a crib. The baby in prone position, on his/her stomach, while wearing light blue jumpsuit sleepwear with moon and star prints. Behind the crib is a window through which the audience can see that it is nighttime. Beside the crib, there will be a nightstand. The Sleep Slate is on the night stand, held upside by a charging cradle. The Sleep Slate is turned on and is showing images of Albert Einstein, the “E=mc2” sign, and other symbols easily identified to ‘genius’ or ‘intelligence’ themes. Above the baby is a dream cloud. Inside the dream cloud is an image of the smiling baby wearing a graduation cap while sitting down. All the foregoing symbols and themes establish a wholesome and endearing image of EduCradle’s Sleep Slate product line.
On top of the advertisement, the audience will read “Sleep Slate helps babies learn in their sleep (so all you need to do is play with them when they’re awake).” The text communicates directly to parents. The goal of including the text is to show parents that they need Sleep Slate and that the device helps them manage infant care. Parents need not spend time and think about teaching their children because Sleep Slate will do that for them. All they need to do is to play with their children when the latter is awake to balance learning and fun.
At the bottom of the advertisement will be a short note based on a scientific study proving that babies learn quickly while sleeping. The short note would say “Based on scientific research involving 26 sleeping infants, scientists observed overt responses and brain activity among participants. Scientists, therefore concluded that babies actively learn while asleep” (Choi). Including a note citing scientific research is important in encouraging parents to buy Sleep Slate for their children. Furthermore, the mention of scientific research establishes the credibility of the brand.

Works Cited

Choi, Charles Q. “Babies Learn Quickly While Sleeping”. LiveScience. <http://www.livescience.com/6442-babies-learn-quickly-sleeping.html>.
Dove. “The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty”. Dove. <http://www.dove.us/social-mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx>.