Digital Writing Skills– Assignment 4

Subject: Dove’s new beauty campaign “let’s break the rules of beauty” that is launched in India now.

1. Facebook

Imagine a place where everyone feels beautiful. With our new campaign “Let’s break the rules of beauty” we aim to get one step closer to this utopia. At the moment 67% of Indian women wish for more diverse beauty ideals. We are going to be the generation that is going to change that. Join the movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqorn7q3cz4

Goal: raise awareness, reach the masses, spread the word about the campaign, gain new supporters

2. Twitter

Today we are launching our new campaign “Let’s break the rules of beauty” in India. Join the discussion about beauty ideals in India via the livestream and let us know what you think! (Link to livestream)

Goal: involve consumers in the campaign via livestream, comments and discussions

3. Instagram

“67% of Indian women would like to see a more diverse range of beauty represented in the media” according to our research. To change this, we are launching our new campaign “Let’s break the rules of beauty”. Join the movement and upload a selfie with the hashtag #letsbreaktherulesofbeauty

Goal: make more people aware of campaign through interaction (selfie #letsbreaktherulesofbeauty)

4. LinkedIn

“If women and girls don’t believe that they are beautiful they miss opportunities in life, whether it is in careers or socially” (Varkha Chulanti, psychologist). At the moment 67% of Indian women wish for more diverse beauty ideals. Check out the campaign; http://www.dove.com/in/stories/campaigns/lets-break-the-rules-of-beauty.html

Goal: promote campaign to get more supporters

Sources

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/dove-india-break-the-rules-of-beauty_uk_5739993ee4b0b11a329f25e7

http://www.dove.com/in/stories/campaigns/lets-break-the-rules-of-beauty.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqorn7q3cz4

Digital Communication Week 4 Assignment

1. What I want to change/my target group to do

I chose Dove, a brand owned by Unilever, for my Digital Communications Plan. Dove aims to improve women’s confidence about their looks. Therefore I want my target group (international girls and women) to develop a positive mindset about their body and use Dove’s products to help them feel confident about their appearance.

2. Persuasion Techniques

I am going to use the Promised Land persuasion technique and the Implementation Intentions persuasion technique (extracted from “Hidden Persuasion” by Andrews, Van Leeuwen and Van Baaren, 2014).

3. Theoretical Background of Persuasion Techniques

The Promised Land technique seduces consumers into buying a product to help them achieve a desirable, personal goal. Although the claims about the product are often exaggerated they appeal to basic human desires. Thus consumers are prone to be persuaded by this technique because 
- people want to believe the exaggerated claims are true
- the advertisement creates a positive association between our dreams and desires and the
  specific brand that uses the Promised Land technique. 
According to the authors of “Hidden Persuasion” “The Promised Land can be seen as an empowering Promise; it will give you the right tools and powers to succeed” (Andrews, Van Leeuwen, Van Baaren, 2014). Therefore it is perfect for my goal: Dove’s products will be portrayed as ‘tools’ to help young women feel confident about their body.

However, this technique alone is not sufficient to achieve change in the long-term because to change consumers’ mindset you need concrete instructions. Therefore I am going to combine it with the second persuasion technique Implementation Intentions.

It helps people to achieve their goal by following a concrete plan. It creates an implementation intention that increases the chance that they will carry out the action. The aim is to transfer this attitude into a behaviour by the consumers’ conscious commitments.

4. How to implement techniques in real  life

The Promised Land technique can be applied by presenting Dove’s products in an idealized, attractive situation that triggers people to buy the product in order to achieve that ideal situation. For instance, an advertisement poster that shows a happy, young woman going out with her friends and having the best time of her life after having used one of Dove’s personal care products.

The Implementation Intentions technique can be applied by creating advertisements that give specific instructions on how to develop a positive mindset about your body. For instance an advertisement poster that gives tips s.a. “Get rid of everything that makes you feel bad about your body (diet plans, magazines, certain clothes, candy, etc.).” or “Write down 3 things you love about your body. Start doing it weekly.” It is easier to start small and step by step to achieve such a goal.

Sources:

http://www.dove.com/uk/stories/about-dove/our-vision.html

http://www.dove.com/uk/stories/about-dove/our-research.html

http://www.dove.com/uk/home.html

"Hidden Persuasion" by Andrews, Van Leeuwen and Van Baaren (2014)

Digital Communication Assignment Week 3

WHY

Unilever describes its purpose as making sustainable living the worldwide norm. They are directing their work towards a better future. They express this mission through various channels and products. Among other things they provide support for sustainable farming and forest management, empowerment of women and health programs for children.

HOW

Unilever not only promotes sustainability through its products, projects and campaigns but also sets a good example itself by reducing their environmental impact with the aim of halving their “environmental footprint of […] products” by 2020. Another way they stand out from the competition is how they value their employees: their programme Unilever Heroes for instance regularly rewards and promotes employees that have shown outstanding commitment and helped Unilever improve.

WHAT

As Unilever states on their website they sell products that make people “look good, feel good and get more out of life”. So what they are selling through their products is confidence and increased life quality. Their emphasis on this is what differentiates them from other similar brands. They have managed to establish a reputation of a respectable brand that cares for their consumers and does everything necessary to provide them with the best quality products.

BHAG

Unilever is deeply passionate about sustainability and positive social change as can be seen in their vision statement. Their economic engine is driven by the principle of sustainability which in their opinion is the only responsible way to expand a business nowadays with a fast-growing global population. One of their main strengths is the fact that they have a huge number of products, brands and consumers thus they have the power to influence a lot of people for the better.

The fundamentals of my new community building plan

1. Context: two principles of the Network Society that could affect Unilever’s success

One principle that has the potential to improve Unilever’s work is the technology principle. It states that the online community is mediated through new technological developments and especially the internet contributes enormously to creating a network society. As Unilever places value on engaging their consumers the network society will become even more important as a channel to their consumers. The fact that more and more people are active in a global network community on a daily basis offers Unilever the opportunity to reach out easily to a mass of people to inform their consumers, get them involved in a project or promote their products.

Another principle that could help Unilever become more successful is the choice principle. It claims that any member of the network society has the ability to choose whether to participate or leave. Nevertheless, they can still be affected by it. It also relates to the rising number of daily decisions people have to make.
This shows that Unilever could influence their consumers in their daily real life through the communication channels of technology. So even if a consumer stops using Unilever’s social media platforms they could still be subconsciously influenced by them.

2. Consumer: Consumer for new community building plan

I want to focus on international innovative young global citizens that are interested in making the world a better place in terms of sustainability and positive social change. As that is Unilever’s passion I think it would make most sense to pick this target audience for a network society. It is kept very open in terms of demographics and socio-economic background. The most important criteria for the target audience are the desire to improve the world and generating creative ideas and concepts. The target group is primarily young (15-40 years old) to come up with innovative concepts .

3. Community: Online community’s behaviour

4. Connection: new value preposition

The new value proposition I would recommend Unilever to use is gender equality. They have the means to achieve great progress in this field and moreover have the reputation of a credible organisation thus their efforts would probably be appreciated by their consumers. It would improve their image of a modern organisation that does everything possible to improve the livelihoods of their consumers. They could expand their current Dove Real Beauty campaign or start a new employee program with a focus on equal pay for the same work. Furthermore, they could combine their campaigns supporting children with educational programs and opportunities establishing gender equality. The new context (technology and choice principle) would make it easier for Unilever to introduce the new value proposition because the online channels allow them to reach most of their consumers and see how they react to it. The consumer type I chose to focus on will most likely accept gender equality as a new value proposition as the generation is relatively tolerant and open for positive change.

Digital Writing Skills - Assignment 3

1. Blog Entry

Theme: empowerment of women

Storyline: launch of new campaign to empower young girls  

 “I remember when I turned 13, puberty suddenly kicked in. With it all the struggles, doubts and fears that a teenage girl carries around with herself. I felt such a pressure from everywhere: my parents, my high school and my friends. Instead of growing and finding myself I was desperate to adapt, to look and act a certain way. I never felt more lost than during that time.”
Leina Neer, President of Unilever’s Personal Care business told her personal experience about her teenage time during the launch of Unilever’s new campaign “#growingupasagirl” last week. It aims to bring young women all over the world together to share their stories and build a platform to exchange ideas and thoughts. We want to get to the root of girls’ sinking confidence during their transition to adulthood and to find solutions.
We reached out to 10.000 women in 20 different countries to tackle the problem. The result is overwhelming: (link to video and partner website)

2.  Explanation of blog entry

My goal with the blog entry is branding – to create a positive association between Unilever and the empowerment of women (theme I chose) in order to establish brand equity.

I used the AIDA technique:

A: “I remember when I turned 13, puberty suddenly kicked in. With it all the struggles, doubts and fears that a teenage girl carries around with herself. I felt such a pressure from everywhere: my parents, my high school and my friends. Instead of growing and finding myself I was desperate to adapt, to look and act a certain way. I never felt more lost than during that time.”

I: Leina Neer, President of Unilever’s Personal Care business told her personal experience about her teenage time during the launch of Unilever’s new campaign “#growingupasagirl” last week. It aims to bring young women all over the world together to share their stories and build a platform to exchange ideas and thoughts. We wanted to get to the root of girls’ sinking confidence during their transition to adulthood and to find solutions.

D: We reached out to 10.000 women in 20 different countries to tackle the problem. The result was overwhelming:

A: (link to video and partner website)

I also used the You-We-Hero technique:

You: offer people platform to exchange experiences about struggles while growing up, offer furthermore solutions by #growingupasagirl

We: Unilever has the solution in form of a campaign; ensure involvement of consumers during solution process to avoid “we have the magic solution”

The Hero: President of Unilever’s Personal Care business Leina Neer President, organises and leads the campaign, is the public face of the campaign

Reflection

I highly enjoyed creating the blog and post entry. On the one hand it was interesting to apply the AIDA and You-We-Hero techniques. While writing I always asked myself “what motivation am I aiming at? Which words do I have to choose to catch the followers’ attention best?” On the other hand I noticed how passionate I became about the content while writing. I started planning and imagining the campaign #growingupasagirl in my head. While I definitely enjoyed the task I am not sure whether it would be fulfilling enough as a career choice later.

3. post including teaser techniques

A world where everyone has access to water, sanitation and hygiene. Impossible you think? Leyla Kay’s ingenious invention takes us one step closer to that goal: (link to website and video) #universallife #unilever

Sources:

http://img11.deviantart.net/7ff9/i/2010/220/b/4/new_blog_leftover_food_by_devilsbelfry.jpg

https://www.unilever.com/about/who-we-are/our-leadership/

http://cdn1.theodysseyonline.com/files/2016/01/11/635880792457350171625195447_women_empowered.jpg

http://kidsfoodfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/drinking-water.jpg

Digital Communication Assignment Week 2

Link to the powerpoint presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lrkcMQFktQYlTomB_yBYy9DFbb5Msa36KyGdTTnHs-8/edit#slide=id.p5

Digital Writing Skills Assignment 2

Unilever's passion

Unilever’s passion revolves around two main aspects: sustainability and positive social impact.

Sustainability
Sustainability lies at the heart of Unilever’s business. In their view it is the only acceptable model of growth in regard to a growing global population. Furthermore they promote sustainable living and intend to normalise it worldwide.
On Unilever’s Facebook page for example the organisation published a post in December 2015 with recipes for leftover Christmas food to fight food waste. Another Facebook post last December addressed deforestation and asked its consumers to sign a petition to prevent further destruction of nature.
On Unilever’s Twitter page the organisation posted a message in April invoking their followers to sign the Paris agreement, a global framework for collaborative action on climate change.
A video posted on Unilever’s YouTube channel in November 2015 informs consumers about how food banks can help tackle the issue of food waste.
Research shows that the theme of sustainability can be found on all social media platforms used by Unilever.

Unilever’s positive social impact can further be divided into three categories: health, promotion of confidence in women and support for future generations.

Health

Unilever has set itself the aim to contribute to a healthier future through their products. Their Flora/Becel margarine brands for example help reduce cholesterol levels. Furthermore Unilever supports research into skin conditions and helps people affected by them through their brand Vaseline.
Health is a theme that traverses Unilever’s social media platforms. In July 2015 for instance the organisation posted a picture on its Facebook page promoting cycling and keeping your body fit. On twitter Unilever posted a picture of a soap in April 2016 promoting its hand washing campaign. The health theme can also be found on Unilever’s YouTube channel: in March 2016 a video was uploaded showing a campaign where Unilever worked with school children to create innovative ways to remind parents/adults to brush their teeth regularly.

Promotion of Confidence in Women

Empowering women is one of Unilever’s main themes online. A facebook post from March 2016 explains how the unique SMS service NextDrop helps women in India to save time getting water for their families. On twitter on the other hand one of Unilever’s brands Dove has its own twitter page for the campaign “Dove Real Beauty” that aims to boost women’s confidence about their looks. The theme of supporting women can also be found on Unilever’s YouTube. A podcast from March 2016 addresses low body confidence within Dove’s Self-Esteem Project.

Support of future generations

Another theme that reappears in Unilever’s social media online activity is support for children. On facebook for example Unilever posted a picture of two smiling boys with a caption explaining how one of its brands Persil has been working with UNICEF to provide 10 million children with education in 2015. Another campaign by Persil related to children was promoted in April 2016: a caption stating “74% of children in UK play outside for an hour or less each day” accompanied with a picture that shows a prisoner next to a child and the phrase “children now spend less time outdoors than a prison inmate”. This captivating post promotes children playing outside and enjoying nature with the hashtag #dirtisgood. Another approach can be seen on Unilever’s YouTube channel: a video from November 2015 presents an initiative to help abused women and girls supported by Unilever.

Influencers

On the one hand Unilever works with famous celebrities such as musicians Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Beyonce as can be seen on an announcement on Facebook about a Global Citizen Festival in August 2015. The statement “Who wants to see Beyonce, Coldplay and Ed Sheeran live in Central Park” is clearly meant to attract people to join the festival and get in touch with their campaigns 'global citizen' and 'bright future'. Unilever uses the popularity of these celebrities to create positive associations with their campaigns and convince people to join.
On the other hand Unilever works with its employees. In March 2016 for instance Unilever uploaded a video about its top female leaders and their career journeys. They furthermore have a Unilever Heroes program that promotes committed employees and regularly post YouTube videos presenting them and the positive impact they have.

Influencer Social Media Post

Being a water hero does not require a super power. It’s easy and effective: You save 17 litres of water for every minute you cut from your shower. Start building a better world for our children TODAY. #savingwaterperminute #brightfuture

Interactive Social Media Post

It’s finally summer! How are you spending the days at the beach? Join the #dontforgetsunscreen movement and share a picture of you and your friends in sunscreen. #vaseline #skindeep

Digital Writing Skills - Assignment 1

1. I chose the company Unilever.

2. Diagram of content creation

Focus

With my new online activity I want to inspire people

and appeal to their emotions. Therefore I am going
to use the storytelling writing style for the   

assignments. My goal is to improve Unilever's

branding, lead generation which in the long-term will

hopefully increase their sales as well.
As for the target audience I am going to focus on

international families.

Research

I. Target Audience
The target audience I am going to focus on is international families. By

this I mean academic, middle-class families from different cultural

backgrounds with access to the internet and global community.

 II. Organisation's current online activity

 Unilever is active on multiple online platforms. First of all, their website

 unilever.com provides the most important information about the company   

 such as their vision, mission and the brands they own. The layout is

 modern and one can easily get an overview of Unilever's activities.
 
Furthermore it uses the social media platforms facebook, twitter,   
YouTube and LinkedIn. On Facebook for example Unilever has
3.402.905 likes and regularly posts articles, pictures and videos about

multiple topics in an uplifting and friendly manner to involve their
consumers.

III. Competition online

Among Unilever’s greatest competitors are The Procter & Gamble     

Company and Nestlé. The Procter & Gamble Company is also active on
social media platforms and like Unilever provides numerous worldwide
corporate websites for different countries in their national language.
Next to the most used social media platforms Nestlé is also active on
Pinterest and Flickr. Its website has a similar style as Unilever: modern,
informative and adapted to individual countries.

IV. Online news about company and market

Recently Unilever has been in the news because of concerns about the
economic consequences of a possible Brexit (Britain leaving the EU).
Furthermore many news sources such as The Guardian report that
Unilever has pledged to quit using coal energy in the next five years and
to only use renewable energy sources by 2030. About the consumer goods
market in general journalists write that the industry growth has decreased from
11-12% in March 2015 to 5-6% in January 2016 due to a sinking consumer
confidence.

VI. Online Trends

Among the trends that might influence Unilever’s online relations are: content  
will become more interactive for consumers, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
will align further to content marketing and design and speed will be considered
a necessity by consumers. Another

VII. Readers responses

VIII. Favourite Subjects
One of the recent favourite subjects on facebook is a post about the Chinese    
New Year, accompanied by a picture of an Asian toddler with almost half a

million likes. Another popular facebook post. On YouTube a video about

Unilever’s top female leaders who talk about their careers is most liked by

consumers with over 5,000 views.

Improve    
Judging from the number of views and retweets it can be said that Unilever is    

not successful in involving their consumers on YouTube and Twitter. Thus I

would suggest an endorsement or campaign with a well-known public figure.

Moreover increased use of interactive media tools such as might differentiate

them from the competition.

Write  
I. Paid Post
The advertisement by Unilever is in celebration of Walmart’s 50^th anniversary.

Although the slogan has a relevant message the design hinders its

effectiveness: the ad is overloaded with pictures of products which makes it look

unprofessional and unappealing to the eye. Furthermore the colour of the

slogan is hard to read. Instead I would focus on the three most popular and
successful products and their development throughout Unilever’s foundation. 

(Link to ad: https://www.behance.net/gallery/3969953/Three-Page-Unilever-Ad 

for-Walmarts-50th-Anniversary)

II. Owned Post

The Twitter Post by Unilever promotes the increase of comfort in fabric
conditioner. First of all, the picture is unfavourable because it does not show the

whole product but only the caption “comfort intense”. Furthermore, the text is

not engaging and the topic is not framed in an interesting way. An alternative

approach might be to involve the consumers by asking rhetorical questions or

asking them to share their experiences with the product. Besides, the picture

could show the effect of a product without comfort in fabric conditioner and

Unilever’s product to emphasize its superiority.

(Link to ad: https://twitter.com/Unilever/status/720518819173822464)

III. Earned

The blog entry by Ian Cairns is an interview with one of Unilever’s employees.

Although the content is highly qualitative it goes down in the unfavourable

design. A picture of the interviewee would be useful to give a face to the

statements. Furthermore, pictures, videos or links about topics discussed in the

interview could catch and keep consumers’ attention.
(Link to ad: https://blog.twitter.com/2015/how-unilever-became-a-pioneer-in-social-analytics)

Sources
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/19/unilever-prepares-for-tougher-global-market-conditions

http://www.pg.com/en_UK/

http://www.nestle.com/aboutus

https://www.unilever.com/

https://www.facebook.com/unilever/?ref=br_rs

http://www.livemint.com/Money/5u19i0oTdpk4WfnMabV8vI/The-curious-case-of-high-consumption-growth-projections.html

http://www.inc.com/dan-scalco/5-digital-marketing-trends-to-watch-for-in-2016.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_NyGpmsdFM

https://www.youtube.com/user/Unilever/videos

https://twitter.com/unilever

https://blog.twitter.com/2015/how-unilever-became-a-pioneer-in-social-analytics