Introduction
The Revlon beauty campaigns are a great attempt by the company to create a customer association with their products. Revlon has over the years launched one of the most notable beauty product campaigns in Australia
Revlon mascara campaigns were a launched in Australia to front their latest mascara products that were Revlon double twist, Revlon beyond natural, Lash fantasy, Revlon 3d Extreme, Fabulash mascara thickening and Revlon Lashfinder mascara. Each of these products was advertised to have distinct features such as eyelash thickening properties for the Revlon double twist, adding length and definition for the Revlon beyond natural, nourishment and increase of length for the Lash fantasy, bold lashes for the 3d extreme etc.
The Revlon mascara campaign was launched in 2009 with Jessica Bile being the beauty ambassador for Revlon. The main channels of reaching the intended consumer were television, radio, billboards and posters. (Revlon, 2010)
Communications model
In the Revlon scenario the model took the form of a source then a receiver-who is the final user of the product- kind of structure. No intermediaries were involved in the communication between the two. The channels used included television, radio, internet, poster and billboards.
The advantage of this model was that the customer was easily reached by the information in a first hand nature. This model allows the advertisers a direct link to the customers. This model also allowed Revlon to position itself strategically and try to counteract other advertiser’s campaigns.
The major short coming of this model is clutter and confusion that ensues in the consumer’s mind due to the myriad of adverts that are presented to the consumer.
Brand transformation
The main goal of the Revlon team was to create a new line of products and make the needed steps to transform the product from a mere unknown entry into the market to a well known label. This change was to be fueled by a shift in the consumer’s thinking and mental relation to the product. It is due to this reason that the Revlon team launched its Revlon mascara campaigns.
Perception
In this campaign the Revlon team strived to create a brand identity to their products. This was enabled by advertisement campaigns on television, radio, internet and even billboards and posters. Statistics show that many Australian women associate Revlon to beauty.
Understand
The consumers were made to understand the position of the product and its benefits to them. However more could have been done to create more understanding to the Australian consumer and this would have boosted sales greatly.
Feel
The use of beautiful models and actresses was meant to create an elegant brand personality. This was meant to make the women feel young, good, empowered and sexy.
Brand promise
The Revlon mascara brand had no clear promise. If the advertising team would have come up with memorable punch line that guaranteed quality it would have reinforced the principle of producer – consumer promise.
Brand loyalty
The Revlon mascara brand was not able to gather as much loyalty from its users as the previous Revlon brands. This was gathered from consumer statistics and polls.
Cultural influences on consumer decisions
It has been said by many advertisers that the Revlon group failed to tap and take root of the Australian culture. The first error that Revlon made was to use non Australian models to sell products to the Australian people. Basically these models were not engraved into the Australian psyche. An example is Jessica Biel who was the ambassador for Revlon yet she was not Australian. The solution to this would have been to get local actresses and famous models from Australia and known by Australians showcase their products.
Arena and competition
There are many mascara and beauty product manufacturers in Australia. 70% of beauty firms in Australia are locally owned and the remaining 30% international companies like Revlon. (Qeusne, 2005)
Products from the international companies are often more expensive than the local products. Therefore the marketing campaigns for the international firms should be geared towards creating a prestige aura on their products.
In my opinion Revlon did a good job in creating a prestige outlook on their products this enabled buyers to pay a premium price for a perceived standard of quality.
Other players in the market at the time are for example Lily Loves mascara, Blush Amour mascara, Ere Perez naturals being just but a few of the local mascara that were much cheaper.
The only advantage that Revlon mascara had was that it was well advertised and campaigned, a strong point it’s competitors did not have.
Effectiveness of the campaign
In their developmental research the Revlon team estimated a big success with the Revlon mascara campaign. This was being judges from the previous successes of giant brands like Nivea and Vaseline. The Revlon team from the successes of these brands estimated that they also had a potential of capturing some market share. (Cosmetic Australia, 2010)
In their concurrent research, the advertising team of Revlon did adequate track studies of their campaigns but in general failed to associate with majority of the market. Their track studies were not carried out exhaustively and they instead opted to focus on a few cities like Melbourne and Adelaide.
In their post testing research the Revlon team hired an Australian company to carry out research and gather data on the effectiveness and relevance of their marketing campaigns. The results showed an average performance. However for a company with financial and resource might like Revlon this was an underperformance. ( Adbrands, 2010)
The strong points of this campaign are that it used classy poster and images to lure in potential buyers. Exhaustive messages and details were given on the product. This was beneficial as it enabled the consumers to get an insight into the various mascara product ranges by Revlon.
Another strong point of this campaign was the emphasis on the product rather than the models. A first glance at the Revlon mascara posters lets the viewer know that the product being showcased is mascara. This has avoided the common pitfall that many advertisers face whereby they people get more noticed than the product and thus the advert fails to meet its purpose.
“Get the extreme lash makeover with 3D ExtremeT Mascara! It creates dramatic lashes with extreme fullness, curl and length – 25X fuller, 70% curvier and 80% visibly longer lashes. The Exclusive Bold ImpactT Brush is tapered to lift, amplify and separate even the tiniest lashes. The patented lightweight gel formula with intense color pigments delivers bold lash look in one step – no primer needed! No caking or flaking. Available in 3 shades. Also available in Waterproof.” (Revlon mascara 3D description)
Short comings of the campaign
Most adverts for the Revlon mascara had dull colours. My recommendations would have been to use striking colours that catch the eye. Such colours would more effectively capture the attention of the viewer.
Secondly the adverts should also have been geared to capture a broader target audience. Most adverts depicted wealthy middle aged women leaving out a large percentage of potential consumers.
Mascara being a difficult commodity to advertise the Revlon team should have identified a fast moving commodity and designed a complementing advertising campaign. This would have cut on advertising costs and boosted the sales of mascara.
This advertising campaign also lacked when it comes to offers and discounts. Such incentives play a major role in creating a psychological imprint in the consumer’s mind. ]
Another weakness of this campaign is that it objectified the woman. It aided in stereotyping the woman as a sex object rather than having a personality. This was brought about by the sex intoned adverts that contained women exposing their bodies’ curves. The Revlon campaigns would have been better if they attempted to give some dignity and personality to the women in their adverts. This will result in an unconscious shift in the people’s mentality that would make them believe that the woman is the weaker sex.
Target audience
This is the particular group of consumers that an advert aims to reach. There are many factors that affect the type of target audience.
Age: The Revlon team understood that people in different stages of life have different needs. Their advertising messages were geared to meet the target audience’s age group and were delivered through a medium that members of that group use. The age that the Revlon campaign targeted was between 25 to 40 year old women.
The Revlon mascara campaign was specifically targeted to reach a clientele of women and a small proportion of gay men as potential users. In respect to their target group the Revlon team geared their adverts to appeal to a women populace. The use of stylish dresses and beautiful models was meant to appeal to the women rather than the men.
Sexual Orientation: In the last decade gay and lesbian consumers have become serious target markets. Since this groups have been on the increase over the years it has become more and more important to consider them in marketing logistics.
Race and Ethnicity: Ethnicity is becoming a major criterion for segmenting markets. Consumer habits within each ethnic segment will differ based on factors such as age and income and, in the case of immigrants, how long they have lived in their new society. The Revlon team tried to appeal to all races as they were all potential clients.
Occupation: Revlon advertisers understood that most people identify themselves by what they do. The number of service-related jobs continues to increase and thus more of their clients are in services relate industries. This is why they depicted women in clean clothes rather that putting up posters of women working in farms.
Income: The most used demographic indicator for many advertisers is income. You are meaningful to a marketer only if you have the resources to buy the product advertised. The Revlon advertisers tracked trends in income, especially discretionary income, which is the amount of money available to a household after taxes and basic necessities such as food and shelter. Discretionary income was then used as a reliable predictor of spending than income. Women who had high paying jobs or up the social ladder were the main target as they could afford the products and had the ability to make regular purchases of these products. The Revlon team did not target women who had low purchasing power like housewives.
Geography: The area in which a target market lives correlates with several demographic characteristics and was important to the Revlon advertisers. Marketers study the sales patterns of different parts of the country because people residing in different regions need certain products. The Revlon products targeted city residents and dwellers and thus most of their campaigns were around cities and towns. The Revlon team had little or no interest in capturing the country women but their main emphasis was the urban, upscale woman.
Creative strategy
The approach to coming up with an appropriate creative strategy involves a series of steps.
In this scenario the problem that Revlon had was to create consumer identification with their product. Their main goal was to make Revlon Mascaras become synonymous with majority of consumers.
Consumer insight in this case resulted as the audience was motivated by beauty and elegance. This was the main driving force that would stimulate the buyers to buy Revlon mascara products. The Revlon team did a good job in tapping into this desire.
When it comes to media imperatives, the advertisement locations were not properly analysed. Some advertisements were found in areas where there was least chance of the target audience being. This resulted in wastage of advertising resources. Timing of the adverts on local television was well done as most adverts were aired in the evenings when the target audience was out of work and at home.
As per the brand proposition, The Revlon mascara brands had a competitive advantage over their competitors as they were depicted to be superior to their competition. However the campaign was not geared towards capturing the competitor’s market share, it was rather geared at maintaining and fortifying its own market share.
Conclusion
The Revlon team did a relatively commendable job when it comes to the preparations and analyses before the actual advertisement campaign. Australia was also a very good market to launch such a campaign. This is because in Australia many women are empowered and have more purchasing power. This means that all the buying power was there, all that was needed was the will to buy.
The Revlon team conducted their work with professionalism and skill and some strong points were evidently seen in their campaign. However room for improvement was and still is there, what the Revlon advertisement team need to do is to think out of the box for once. They should try and implement methods and techniques that have never been used before by other advertisers. Methods such as free demonstration stands in malls and shopping areas should be implemented.