Going below the surface

Unilever brand Dove's use of six generously proportioned ‘real women' to promote its skin-firming preparations must qualify as one of the most talked-about marketing decisions taken this summer. It was also one of the most successful: since the campaign broke, sales of the firming lotion have gone up 700% in the UK, 300% in Germany and 220% in the Netherlands. Yet so entrenched is the industry's attachment to the cult of perfection that the idea got off the ground only after Dove's agency, Ogilvy Mather, brought in Susie Orbach, the psychotherapist known for her work on eating disorders, to talk about the benefits of celebrating female forms of all shapes and sizes. Co-opting academics and clinicians into advertising research is fast becoming a trend, although it raises some ethical questions.

Although clinicians use general insights gleaned over the years - rather than confidential individual patient experiences - into groups, some concerns arise about whether such ‘white-coat' findings should be used at all for commercial campaigns. The most immediate query from marketers, however, is likely to be ‘Does it work?' Agencies that have used these techniques include Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy and Abbot Mead Vickers BBDO, which brought in psychologists to work for COI Communications and the Departments of Health and Transport. The Inland Revenue's advertising to promote self-assessment featuring Adam Hart-Davis is an example of a campaign with a psychological foundation.

On the advice of expert respondents, MCBD eschewed the hectoring style of the Revenue's earlier campaign and opted instead for an empathetic approach. Among the successes claimed for the campaign are an eightfold increase in electronic submissions and the highest number of forms completed on time since self-assessment began in 1997. Psychologists and academics from related disciplines such as anthropology are also increasingly in demand with ad agencies looking for deeper explanations of the roles that brands perform in people's lives. ‘There's a recognition that we need to ask other questions to avoid being sucked into our own brand mythologies,' says Anthony Tasgal, founder of brand and communications consultancy POV.

But it is not just the desire to get back to first principles that is driving brand owners. It has become increasingly common for marketers to question whether consumers can be relied on to express what they feel. ‘Often we don't have much self-knowledge; it takes someone else to tell us what's going on,' says Sanjay Nazerali, managing director of brand consultancy The Depot. To illustrate the point, Nazerali cites work he did for Cacharel which aimed to establish how the company's Anaïs Anaïs brand could be made more relevant to young fragrance wearers. Instead of focus groups, Nazerali interviewed eight clinicians specialising in teen psychology.

What the discussions highlighted was that, in a far cry from girl power, teens have a deep-seated, though rarely acknowledged, desire to express their vulnerabilities. Out of this was born the brand idea of having the confidence to admit your feelings - a theme duly adopted by Cacharel in an integrated global campaign featuring a young woman blowing kisses which turned into petals, under the banner: ‘One day, tenderness will move the world.' Nazerali also undertook a project for United Biscuits, which shed light on the emotional devices that women use to reduce their sense of being separated from their children during the working day. But what do others in the industry make of such methods?

Marco Rimini, director of strategy at J Walter Thompson, believes that talking to psychologists has more to offer than the current fashion of conducting mini-ethnographic studies: ‘Half an hour with someone who spends their life talking to teenagers in a profound way will take you further than an evening hanging out with the crowd.' However, Tasgal thinks there is a danger of trusting implicitly in ‘white-coat authority', and Jane Cunningham, planning director at O&M, says that psychologists simply contribute a framework for understanding at a deeper level what consumers have been talking about all along.

‘It can help to verify something you think you've spotted and extend your thinking.' Paying practising psychologists to take part in brand-related research is also not without its critics. While some argue that their input could actually benefit vulnerable groups, others suspect that the whole business is a flagrant attempt to get practitioners from the under-rewarded caring professions to sell what they know about human susceptibilities to brands searching for profits. Says Nazerali: ‘Advertising has always played to people's fears or desires. Talking to psychologists doesn't change the ethical debate. It's just a more intelligent way of working out what's going on in people's minds.' Source: Alicia Clegg (2004) Financial Times, 28 September. Reprinted with permission.

Question
1. How can psychologists and academics from related disciplines such as anthropology assist ad agencies looking for deeper explanations of the roles that brands perform in people's lives?